Technology in the classroom.
Technology Isn’t The Enemy
I love my phone. I love my television with streaming services, and I love my computer with high-speed internet and the world at my fingertips. If it weren’t for technology, you wouldn’t be reading this blog right now, and where would that leave us?
Technology isn’t the enemy. It can’t be. We need to learn to live with it, and harness its power for all of the positive things it offers our young people.
It’s time to stop demonizing it.
Using What They Have
We need to stop denying the incredible power of technology in the classroom, and use it to help us bring the world into our classrooms. There are a number of ways using technology in your competition preparation will translate into greater accomplishment and more first place winners in your group. We have learned over the decades that we need to find inspiration and information from as many sources as possible to enable our students to advance as far as possible in competition.
The single biggest pieces of information for being successful in harnessing technology in competition prep lie in the following two items:
- Do it in a controlled manner
- Keep records of what you do
Let’s break it down even further, to help your CTSO reach new heights.
Creating Norms For Watching Online Media Content
Technology is perfect for the classroom as long as it’s safe. Unfortunately for people of all ages, the internet can lead you down rabbit holes of research that can land you in sketchy, uncomfortable spots. The same is true when students are doing research that I have assigned or suggested to them.
Nothing would upset me more than a student finding disturbing content while trying to research something that I requested. It has happened—a misspelling here, a multi-use word there—and it is not only upsetting but frustrating to have students reach inappropriate sites.
That’s why it is important to review with your group digital citizenship, and how to remain safe on the internet. Even my high school seniors sometimes get off on a tangent that leads them to inappropriate content, and you need to make sure you are monitoring everything in your classroom so this doesn’t happen. Hopefully, your school firewalls will stop the worst of the inappropriate sites, but I’ve seen some things sneak through that were very troubling.
Vigilance is your friend when it comes to supervising internet searches.
What Types Of Things Will Help Us In Competition
Technology in the classroom primarily talks about web-use. We use internet searching in our FBLA and DECA chapters for a wide variety of reasons. In addition to looking for fundraising and community service ideas, we use the internet quite extensively to prepare for this year’s competition. While the topics, scenarios, questions and ethical issues change every year, it is very useful for students to look at past entries to guide either preparation.
Previous year’s recordings
There is absolutely nothing more valuable than the winners from previous years. Except for one, tiny detail: They are intimidating as hell! I learned the hard way that showing students the winners from previous national competitions will scare the living crap out of them! When they look at the national winner in their event from a year or so ago, they will immediately compare themselves to that performance, and will always come out a distant, distant second. The winners at the national competitions are nowhere near the competition—or the educational level—that they will face at regional or even state competition.
Don’t scare new or young students away from your CTSO by having them compare themselves to last year’s national champion. While this is extremely helpful for my seniors and returning state winners, showing those types of videos to the younger and inexperienced competitors in your group will be the quickest way to trim your numbers down for competition this year.
Other school websites
Our CTSO website is public. To a degree. One of the best ways for your students to get suggestions for everything ranging from teacher appreciation gifts to community service ideas is to do a deep dive search for organizations around the country similar to yours. When I say similar to your own, I refer to several things: Look for groups with comparable CTSO status to get greater information about the national partners for your group. Try to find groups that are approximately the same size as your group, so they aren’t suggesting ideas that are too large (or too small) for their manpower.
Tips and tricks
Here is where a deep internet search can uncover many gems of information that your students can use. During one of your meetings, have students partner up and search the internet using very targeted phrases. Phrases such as “great public speaking” and “interview tips” will lead them down pages and pages of suggestions that will give them great ideas for the soft skills that are being challenged in competition. When they try to search something too specific, “Business Ethics FBLA topics” for example, they won’t get many hits as opposed to using the phrase “business ethics articles and presentations”.
Start At The Top
Considering, again, that technology in the classroom has a need for safety and security while searching the internet, it is important that you direct the beginning of their research. Here are some excellent jumping off points for your students:
CTSO homepage
My school was the cover story for FBLA’s national magazine last year. Following that article, I had multiple requests for information from other CTSOs around the country. They found me by looking at the publications on the FBLA home page. That’s where I suggest you start. Not only will the home page have a wealth of information and study tips for your students, but it will highlight successful programs across the country. Use those links and stories to build your own network of other programs and share resources with them. Don’t reinvent the wheel.
TED talks
The use of public speakers, podcasts and blogs is a great way for your students to learn many of the soft skills that will carry them forward in competition. Even if the topic isn’t particularly on point, watching a successful public speaker might give them ideas or suggestions for how they approach judges at state conference. When you add the obvious soft skills with the incredible depth and breadth of information available, your students will have the opportunity to observe, learn and duplicate excellent skills as a professional.
Reputable sources
One of the tips that I give to all of our competitors is the ability to speak to the judges on current events. That’s why I encourage all of my students to start their day with a news site, just to keep abreast of what is happening around their area and the world. This important life skill can come in very handy when students move into competition, since many of the prompts for the CTSO competitions are taken directly from the headlines. Being able to speak coherently with adults in a competitive setting will set your students apart and above the competition. Directing their research to reputable sites will benefit them not only in their personal life, but when they are required to do internet research in all of their high school and college classes.
Build Your Own Library
Now let’s talk about what isn’t on our public website.
The format and type of competitive events in DECA and FBLA have changed through the decades I’ve been involved with them. But…then again…not really. In the early 1980’s, I won a DECA event dealing with a customer service issue in a department store. That event, in a very similar format, is now called Retail Merchandising. Maybe it used to be called Extemporaneous Speaking, but FBLA’s Impromptu Speaking event has not changed in years and years.
We need to use today’s technology to harness yesterday’s information in our classroom.
You need to build your own research library
After every competition, we have students do the following things:
- Write down everything you remember from the written test. Every vocabulary word, every topic, everything you didn’t understand. Make a list.
- Following every performance event, we have students make short videos about their events. The topic, the learning objectives, the solution they proposed
- Pictures of presentation events are submitted to us, so we can see how you used the trifold, or what artifacts you brought with you.
- Every written report students do is submitted to us in a digital form, so we can refer to it in future years.
We literally wait for students to come out of competitive events with laptops set up and ready for them to input information. We’ve learned that days or even hours after the event, it has already blurred in their minds, and we get the best information from them immediately after competition. Often, the kids are too excited and keyed up, not wanting to sit down and fill out our forms, but they have learned the value of this exercise.
It’s part of the responsibility of this year’s leadership team to update all of our databases. It is their responsibility for the continued success of our organization. They do it because it was done for them.
They do it because it works.
THANK YOU FOR READING THIS FAR
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