Technology enhanced learning refers to strengthened learning and teaching with the use of technology. This can mean e-learning or using technology for interactive sessions, aiding any education.
TEL tools can be used to utilise your facilitation and the learning experience of your students. There are many opportunities when these can be used and this page includes some examples of TEL tools and how you can use them.
BU’s TEL toolkit includes the virtual learning environment (VLE) Brightspace as well as other TEL tools.
While PAL sessions are not a social event, this doesn’t mean they should be boring! Engaging your PAL group can be difficult but is the best way to facilitate their learning.
Kahoot is a game-based learning tool which can be used for any subject to make learning that little bit more fun. It can be used as an icebreaker, to test the students’ knowledge on a topic, or to help them learn something new.
You can create the questions on Kahoot before the session and then all the students need to do is have a phone or laptop to join in.
This can also be used for fun to liven up the group or loosen up a little bit before the holidays! Try the website here.
For sessions when your seminar group are being very silent, or for 'round-robin' type activities that involve students taking it in turns to deliver something, you can use a random name generator.
This 'wheel of names' is a fun, colourful, and visual way of doing this, that might work well through the Microsoft teams screenshare function.
To access this TEL tool, see here: Wheel of Names
Miro is an interactive online tool, that acts similarly to a whiteboard. It offers lots of different templates (e.g. mind maps and flow diagrams), pens, shape tools, and arrows, to allow for a diversity of different tasks and purposes.
We've created a demonstration Miro board here: Demo Miro board: KWL, based on the Know, Want, Learn facilitation Technique. If you are unfamiliar with this technique or would like a refresher, you can find out about it here: Facilitation Techniques.
Please note that in order for your seminar group to contribute to your Miro boards, they will need to either create an account, or sign in with a google account. They can do this after you share an 'Invite Link' with their university email addresses, or through your Teams PAL channel chat.
To see an illustrated guide on how to share your guide, and how your seminar group can access it, please see the attached PDF.
When planning a PAL session it is always best to be led by your students on what content or topic they would like to cover. This can be done using a number of TEL tools.
Padlet is a fun online pinboard/mood board that allows contributors to post comments, notes, documents or pictures for your group to see.
It can be really useful for generating anonymous information and feedback (contributors can add their name if they wish).
It can be revisted, so you can build an online collection of ideas and suggestions for what to cover.
Plus you can put funky backgrounds in! Try the website here.
PAL sessions should be fun and interactive – remember you’re not a teacher, you’re simply aiding the learning process for your students.
Mentimeter can be used to make fun and interactive presentations for PAL sessions. Some students may have some experience of lecturers using this for audience responses and seeing how well the students know the content.
As a PAL leader, you can use this at the beginning and end of a session to see if the students feel confident about the topic, how much they know about it, and then see if this improves after the activities you had planned.
With the responses being anonymous, the students can be as honest as they like! Try the website here.
This virtual corkboard is another way to collect information anonymously about data that your seminar group may not feel comfortable saying (such as PAL Leader feedback, or session ideas). It operates in a similar way to Padlet, and is very user-friendly. To view our demo cork board, please see here: PAL demonstration corkboard. Feel free to play around and have a go with the different functions!
Please note that unless you make your board public, your Level 4 students will have to create an account to contribute. You can make your board public by going to the board settings, and permissions.
For more information on NoteApp - the creators of this tool - you can find out here: NoteApp.com. If you would like to use this tool, you can create a free account.