Using EdTech to Optimise Your Teaching Schedule

Teaching has always been demanding, especially in primary and secondary schools. However, recent changes in societal and educational expectations have made the profession even more rigorous.

In the past, teachers were tasked mainly with covering their curricula and ensuring their students understood the material provided. Today’s students, parents, and educational boards have far higher standards. As a teacher, you must provide unique teaching approaches and offer diverse and engaging learning materials. You likely also need to address your students' social, economic, mental, and emotional challenges.

Although the profession is more complex, technology can be an excellent assistant, and one of the most versatile classroom applications available to you is EdTech. This term refers to tools that enhance your lessons and maximise productivity, benefiting you and your students.

Defining EdTech

Education technology, or ‘EdTech’, includes various digital communication, learning, and information tools. These tools can be integrated into classrooms to support teaching and learning and aim to offer more inclusive, individualised, relevant, and engaging educational experiences for learners.

EdTech takes many different forms. Some teachers introduce tech like interactive tablets into their lessons, while others provide students with online courses and gamified learning modules. Many also use AI tools that automatically take notes for students who have missed important lessons.

How EdTech is Changing Teaching and Learning

The rise of education technology is transforming the way students learn in the 21st century. Tools like virtual reality lesson plans, gamified class quizzes and activities, and interactive revision programs are simplifying students’ learning processes and helping them to stay engaged.

For example, Kahoot, Blooket 

Internet-of-Things-connected devices are also being used to create virtual classroom environments. These environments enable students to learn, revise, and discover new information wherever they are. 

Artificial intelligence is making its way into teaching, too. Many platforms are automating the process of marking tests and exams and ensuring students submit their homework on time.

All these tools have created vast potential for highly personalised learning experiences. These experiences, in turn, create more inclusive learning environments, adapting to each student’s unique learning styles and preferred ways of engaging with curriculum content. EdTech has also made it possible for education professionals to develop individualised lessons. This way, they can deliver immersive classes while optimising their own time management and schedules.

How EdTech Can Optimise Your Teaching Schedules and Time Management

Streamlining Classroom Management

It’s no secret that handling a full classroom of young learners can be a challenging undertaking. EdTech can simplify this responsibility for teachers. As it does, it provides them with more time to share information, answer questions, and keep their students engaged.

Classroom management apps can assist you with everything from sending students test, project, and exam reminders to allowing them to monitor the noise levels in the classroom themselves. Features like these develop a more structured and collaborative classroom environment, allowing you to teach freely and minimise the time you spend trying to maintain order.

For example, Class Dojo, Classroom Screen

Reducing Physical Printing and Marking Processes

Printing worksheets, tests, exams, and other learning materials can take hours. The countless sheets of paper and ink cartridges required also pose an environmental burden. 

EdTech eliminates the need for lengthy sessions at the printer and photocopier. Many tools and platforms allow you to host classroom sessions, quizzes, and examinations virtually. This saves you time on printing and marking, as you can mark papers digitally, often with the assistance of AI and machine learning integration.

For example, Trello, OneNote

Automating Time-Consuming Tasks

Taking attendance every morning, sending out project reminders, and marking tests can all take hours out of your workday. EdTech automation can significantly boost your productivity by handling these time-consuming responsibilities automatically.

Establishing automation systems to tackle these tasks will free up your time to personalise your lesson plans, assist students in need, and prepare your classes for success.

Efficiently Evaluating Student Proficiencies

One of your key roles as a teacher is consistently evaluating your students’ abilities and understanding. However, this can take many hours out of your already busy schedule.

Using EdTech tools like learning management systems (LMS) can vastly streamline this process. Many platforms and tools are available that can continually assess each student’s skills, proficiencies, and potential areas of improvement.

You can then access this data on demand to evaluate your class and learners' performance. Then, you may adjust your lessons and revision plans as required. These systems may even identify learners with learning disabilities, allowing you to create proactive plans to assist them.

For examples, read the Forbes article Best Learning Management Systems (LMS) to find a LMS that works for your establishment.

Improve Classroom Communication Strategies

Communicating with your learners and their parents or guardians is essential to effective teaching, but it can also be time-consuming. EdTech communication tools can help you manage your time better by keeping all interactions on a single, unified platform.

Many platforms allow you to send mass messages, start individual chat threads, and host phone or video calls as needed. These features enable you to keep your entire class and their parents informed, without relying on lengthy meetings or one-on-one calls.

By simplifying how others reach you and how you share updates, you can significantly reduce administrative stress, free up time for teaching, and create a more transparent, engaged learning environment.

For example, SuperSaas, Class Dojo

Master Your Time Management with EdTech

EdTech offers a wide range of functional tools that can maximise your productivity, both in the classroom and while creating lesson plans, tests, and marking processes. 

Evidence from a recent NFER study suggests that generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT can save teachers time by helping with lesson planning, with no evidence of negative impacts on the quality of materials or teachers’ sense of autonomy or creativity. 

Investigate the many EdTech tools available to teachers and students to enhance your teaching strategies without impacting your time management.