Information is meant to be more than just taken in; information is meant to be used.

Educators have used projects to help students not only retain the information in a certain lesson, but also as a way for students to actively show their understanding of a topic. Long term projects that require research increase a student’s knowledge of a subject to a much deeper level.

Projects have a lot of appeal as well for actively engaging all types of learners, especially more hands on and visual learners. And with the growth of interactive technology in the classroom, you can turn your ordinary lecture lessons into class-wide interactive projects.

Lectures are useful when you have a lot of material to cover, but we understand that temptation to start dozing off. Today’s students respond better and retain more information when that information is broken down into smaller, more manageable chunks.

By inserting moments for your students to come up and point out or interact directly with the board, it keeps the pace of your lesson moving along nicely. Breaking up the traditional routine will be something that your students remember and it can also keep your lessons from becoming too long for their attention span.

Instead of having worksheets to hand out after a short lesson, try giving your students small projects that they can use their phones, if they have them, or school computers or tablets to complete. Take your normal assignments and find a way to make them digital. Here are a few ideas.

• Turn a simple PowerPoint presentation into a short video about the subject that students must work together to create.
• Have students use social media to reach out to experts and government officials to help them answer questions for a worksheet.
• Pair up with another class in a different school to set up a Skype pen pal or homework help system.
• Use collaborative software, like Google’s Drive and Docs, for students to work together to write a report.
• Research and find apps that focus on a particular course subject that corresponds with your lessons for your kids to play with.