In the summer, most teachers take advantage of the opportunity to rest from the hustle and bustle of the academic year. However, many others spend part of their holidays refreshing their knowledge and adapting to new ways of teaching. But when it comes to innovation, not everything goes.

Educational innovation is not just about using digital tools (playing a video in class, using a digital whiteboard, etc.). There are cases where digital does not equal innovation .

In other cases, it is thought that innovation in class requires a continuous use of active methodologies, with those teachers established in traditional teaching being more reluctant to change .

As with everything in life, virtue lies somewhere in the middle. To innovate, you don’t have to be Bill Gates or constantly playing in class.

Next, we are going to talk about some teaching innovation tools that do not require extensive training for their use . Knowing these resources can help teachers transform their classrooms into true classrooms of the future .

Programming and robotics, not just kids stuff

Nowadays, it is common to find small robotics games in classrooms, especially in primary schools, that can become real programming projects.

One of the best known are Lego kits, where students build different robots that they can program with different functions.

There are also computer programs like Scratch and Arduino . Although at first glance all those cables, components and digital code may scare us, it is not at all complicated for a teacher to train and use these resources.

Especially useful for science projects, Arduino has a wide variety of products and components. Even the codes are available on the internet. Without any programming knowledge, we can create, for example, a robotic arm, a motion detector or go even further with smart homes.

Home automation at the service of education

In some science fiction films, a cybernetic entity can control a house, talk to its owners and provide them with everything they need. For example, JARVIS , the personal assistant of the superhero Iron Man.

Now, the digital age has put in our hands the ability to have our own digital “servant”. Cortana, Siri, Alexa… are well-known names and very present in many homes around the world.

And although we are very clear that these assistants have evolved to make our daily lives easier, their potential in the teaching world has not yet been fully exploited . If we choose Alexa, for example, we can automate a science laboratory or a classroom of the future.

Tasks can range from controlling room lights, programming devices such as magnetic stirrers or thermal baths, and even serving in an important aspect such as security (programming cameras, alarms or contaminant detectors).

In another case, if we have a language laboratory, this virtual assistant becomes a real interactive academy to practice and improve language knowledge, as if we were working directly with a native.

From augmented reality to 3D printing

If having a virtual entity at our service to improve our classes may seem like science fiction, the ability to create a universe tailored to our needs may seem even more unlikely. But that is what can be done with virtual reality and augmented reality .

Thanks to these technological advances, we can hold in our hands things as diverse as an atom, an anatomical model or the solar system. And all this thanks to a small (and perhaps unknown) object: the Merge cube .

Without detailing all the models and resources that this small rubber object offers, the Merge cube can also be combined with 3D printing.

Especially recommended for primary school teachers, future teachers can turn any two-dimensional object into a three-dimensional object. Using a 3D pen and creating a sketch of a future resource, a function of the cube allows it to be brought into the virtual environment.

In this way, we will be able to view it from various points and positions and, in addition, if the center has a 3D printer, it will facilitate the creation of its own teaching resources.

Copilot and Dall-E, the other side of Chat GPT

If we talk about artificial intelligence, the most famous is undoubtedly Chat GPT. However, for image creation, there is no specific application of artificial intelligence that stands out.

Open AI , the company that created the famous chat, continued developing other artificial intelligence models, giving rise to Dall-E and its more intuitive counterpart, Copilot.

Both offer the possibility of creating more attractive notes and diagrams, characters and games for gamification, infographics… a practically unlimited world within reach of anyone willing to get involved in learning and using the appropriate commands .

At the end of the day, all of these tools can be combined with each other to learn in various subjects in a cross-curricular way. This is especially useful in science subjects that share certain concepts, such as Mathematics and Physics, Biology and Chemistry, and we can even introduce languages ​​and contribute to multilingual competence .

With all this, learning situations can be made much more interactive and engaging by involving active methodologies such as project-based learning and gamification. We can create a 3D robot, program it with Arduino and give it functions with Alexa, all supported by a series of medals and prizes created with Copilot.

These are just a few examples of what these tools can offer teachers. Most of them take just a couple of days to learn, and others develop as they are used.

The benefits will undoubtedly not only be for students, but also for teachers, who will see an increase in the quality of their teaching and will be able to follow the new changes in the LOMLOE more easily.

Author Bio: Sergio Fuentes Anton is Professor of Teaching Experimental Sciences at the University of Salamanca