Abstract:

The widespread educational model considers the student as a receptacle of information, being then a passive element. Many students perceive this traditional teaching as ineffective and boring. Moreover, teachers that see how their students are unmotivated suffer stress and demotivation. Therefore, there is a need to find tools to stimulate the active participation of the students in the classes.

There are many descriptive and empirical studies that demonstrate the importance of student participation in learning, showing that their active participation leads to improve their motivation and learning process [1-3]. On the other hand, there are also disadvantages since getting an effective participation by the students is an arduous task in many cases because of the passive position of the students and the well-established spoken class of the teachers as much consolidated dynamics.

Digital educational tools can help in this aim because they increase the student participation and the interaction among them and with the teacher. Among these tools, the most used in our classrooms are Kahoot, Socrative, Genially, Blogger, etc. Kahoot and Socrative are similar to games and get a more relaxed atmosphere turning to an entertaining learning, increasing the motivation and encouraging self-improvement. Genially is a tool to create interactive images that allows a visual communication that obtain a better understanding, engagement and memorability against complex concepts and contents. Blogger is a Google application to create blogs that can be used as a forum with the students and as a place to upload the products developed in class as interactive images, infographics, etc.

Under our experience, these tools help the students and the teachers because the students feel more comfortable in touch with digital environment and teachers feel more motivated to explain and share knowledge.

References:
[1] Mateos-Aparicio I, Sánchez-Paniagua López M, Rodríguez-Rodríguez E, Hervás JP and Martin-Fernández B (2015). Promoting effective participation. In: Educate to transform: Experiential Learning. UEM.
[2] Morell Moll T. (2009). ¿Cómo podemos fomentar la participación en nuestras clases universitarias? Alicante: Universidad de Alicante-Editorial Marfil
[3] Paricio Royo J. (2015). ¿Dónde innovar? Los focos de mayor impacto sobre la calidad del aprendizaje. II Jornadas de buenas prácticas docentes. Innovación en el aula. Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Keywords:

Digital tools, Kahoot, Socrative, Genialy, Blogger, Higher Education.