Cross-curricular Possibilities with Edtech

4 minute read for Educators and Educational Leaders

The incorporation of the right technology in a cross-curriculum setting can increase engagement and retention exponentially, but with myriad tech possibilities to sort through, how do educators choose? Let student enthusiasm be the fuel and technology be the vehicle with these teacher tested, cross-curricular edtech ideas. 

Edpuzzle

The possibilities for interdisciplinary work is endless with Edpuzzle, a free tool that allows you to take any video and make it interactive by interspersing questions and adding your own narration. You can also monitor progress and get feedback through this tool. 

To put an interdisciplinary spin on things, language arts and social studies teachers can easily collaborate using this tool. Fiction selections can correspond with particular time periods studied in history class. Introduce a new unit on the Civil War for example by having students interact with a video on events leading up to the war. Then, pair their studies with a piece of historical fiction like Across Five Aprils. 

Allow students to demonstrate their understanding of both social studies and language arts standards by interspersing questions throughout the video which relate to character motivation or plot. Questions like, “How might the time period influence the events of the novel or motivate the characters?” would help students build background knowledge they can utilize in both content areas.  

NewsELA

NewsELA is an online database which provides news articles across multiple disciplines, all of which are aligned with national and state standards. The fact that these articles are categorized by subject matter (just to name one method) let’s you know interdisciplinary work is possible, but the options don’t stop there. Adjust reading levels, assign comprehension questions, even accommodate your English Language Learners, all with just a few clicks. When you’re ready to really kick it up a notch, choose one of the pro/con science articles, and then learn debate skills in language arts class. Hold your debate in a collaboration room and watch student engagement soar.

Powtoon

Edtech tools for presentations are countless, but PowToon is one that should be at the top of the list. With this tool, students can blend animation, music, and voice overs to form creative and informative presentations. Put this to use in a cross-curricular setting by having students animate characters explaining the most recent math concept to each other. The dialogue they create will need quotation marks and proper punctuation, so you’ve got a natural opportunity to blend cross-curricular elements.

No matter which edtech tools you choose to incorporate in cross-curricular environments, if the hardware and software used isn’t up to speed, students won’t get the best experience. Here’s where CCS can help. Make teachers’ cross-curriculum, edtech dreams come true by giving us a call and getting started today.