Teaching with digital materials

New possibilities for teaching

Digital learning materials offer a wide range of teaching possibilities.

Using the digital textbook in teacher-led lessons: the teacher shows the pictures, animations and other illustrations in the chapter as part of the lesson. The main points of the subject can be covered using these elements.

The teacher can involve the learners through tasks found within the chapter. When faced with a task, learners are asked to complete it. This allows them to test how well they have internalised the information they have learned so far.

In revision, summaries and review exercises help learners to see if they have learnt all they need to know.

When searching for information, the search tool of the digital platform is a great tool for differentiation. It is also useful for teaching multidisciplinary subjects.

The digital material is useful for visualisation. For example, when studying how the heart works, you can watch an animation about the function of the heart and study the structure of the heart with a 3D model.

There are many ways to take advantage of the read aloud function. For example, part of a chapter can be listened to together in class (as a concentration exercise), or the learners can listen to the text independently while studying or reviewing a new topic. At the same time, learners can follow the text in the book and improve their own reading skills.

There are many different ways to complete the exercises found in the digital material. The exercises can be done on the digital platform, or the students can use their notebooks to work on them. For example, in e-Oppi's middle school mathematics textbooks, the students can solve the problems first in their notebooks and then enter the answers to the digital book to receive automatic feedback.

Exercises come in different levels (see e.g. Bloom's taxonomy).

Some of the exercises monitor the student’s knowledge and understanding of the topic (e.g. multiple-choice quizzes that focus on terminology).
Some of the exercises require the student to apply their knowledge and analyse information.
Some of the exercises teach the student how to evaluate different problems.

The video shows examples of useful features that can be found in e-Oppi's digital learning materials.

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Lesson examples

Lesson structures will of course vary according to the age group, the subject and the aims of the lesson. Below are some examples of possible lesson structures.

Lesson structure 1

Recap of the previous topic. You can show pictures and illustrations from the previous chapter and ask learners to describe the things and phenomena they see in them.
The main points of the chapter. The teacher instructs the students to close their tablets/laptops and follow the lesson closely for 15–20 minutes. The teacher carefully presents the topic to be studied. Students can take notes and complete exercises together.
Individual work. Explore the content of the lesson individually or in groups. Complete a couple of exercises.
Different working methods. Group work, note-taking, experiments, etc.
Giving homework.

Lesson structure 2

Using the flipped learning model

At the end of the previous lesson, the teacher gives the students a homework assignment to study the next chapter in advance and (if they wish) assigns a task related to the new chapter.
The students can also be asked to complete the chapter exercises in preparation for the lesson. The students can be instructed to think about what was unclear about the topic or what they would like to know more about.
The teacher checks the students' answers to the chapter tasks before the lesson and can use them to see what they have already learned and what to focus on during the lesson.
In class, the lesson consists of a discussion of the text, problem areas and illustrations of things that seem difficult. The discussion can be done together or in small groups. Ideally, learners will explain the chapter to each other as they learn to process the information they have learned. The teacher is there to support this process and help with things like difficult concepts.