edtechdiscussion

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In this article from EdSurge, written by Dr. Katie Martin of AltSchool, she provides 3 different classrooms each at different levels of comfort with technology. The first represented anti-technology; the teacher was old-school and had her students copying map locations from an atlas, an exclusively paper activity, even though iPads were relatively available and in front of them. The second represented “compliance and standardization” using technology rather than genuinely personalized learning; each student just went to class, logged on, and did the lessons one by one. Though they moved at their own pace, the material wasn’t differentiated for each student. The last was Martin’s best example: the teacher “co-created the learning experiences based on the learning objectives and students’ interests.” The project in this third classroom was basically creating a form of service learning, as the students, in just 4th grade, had to go out into their communities and talk to businesses about solutions to their challenges. Technology played an integral part in their research and presentation.

Martin really broke up 3 possible categories teachers could fall in when it comes to ed tech. They either ignore, overuse, or, the ideal case, empower through technology. She does a great job illustrating the idea that it’s not technology that will make schools better, it’s better teaching. Students can have access to technology, but it depends on how their teachers allow them to use it that determine how successful they will be not only as students but as citizens, and also how they’ll fit into the workforce.

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Principal Dwight Carter offers yet another take on what education technology means in terms of personalized learning: "Technology can free teachers up to do more one-on-one instruction, [...] That's where the personalization happens."

Principal Carter and others like him are on the fence about using and buying technology as they “remain concerned about the negative impact that ed tech, in the guise of personalized learning, can have on a student's ability to think deeply and connect with their peers.” The connection part is key; there’s a fine line between personalized learning being productive and being distracting.

Can learning be too personalized? How effective is student-led learning? What Carter seems to be implying is that the technology being brought into the classroom is allowing the teachers to be more productive and encouraging more connections to be built in real life. It isn’t necessarily about the device’s technical capabilities, but rather how much time ed tech can free up for connection and communication in the classroom.

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This article from EdTech Magazine spoke on 3 main points: “personalized learning aids all students,” “collaboration and blended learning fosters critical skills,” and “personalized education makes students future-ready.” It opens by presenting statistics:

“56 percent of parents of school-aged children are concerned that their child isn’t learning the right skills in school to be successful in college or a future job”

“37 percent of high school seniors in the U.S. will be able to handle college-level reading”

“Only 25 percent will grasp college-level math”

The points they bring up are not new; bringing digital tools into the classroom free up teachers’ time and responsibilities. There are apps and softwares that can deliver assessments, gauge understanding, and track progress, which allows teachers then to be more focused on what is most important: instruction and direct teaching.

While personalized learning and differentiated learning are not new at all, what is new is digital personalized learning, which takes a lot less effort from the teacher, freeing them up more to make more creative, innovative, and effective lesson plans and ways to deliver the most important information.

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In order to really ensure a good return on investment when you buy into education technology, you must get one thing straight:

Too often, focus is placed on technology as a panacea or replacement for human interaction. This, perhaps, explains why higher education has been slower to adopt technology than other professions. However, weighing the benefits of technology against the value of human interaction is not an either/or scenario—the solution to our higher education challenges lies in both: technology in concert with people and process.

Repeated time and time again, ed tech is not meant to replace or make up for the shortcomings of bad teachers. It is meant to enhance and to supplement the learning process. This article places emphasis on technology as an enhancer of productivity, and that should also be how we rank the value of it.

At the end of the day, technology in the classroom should enhance productivity, communication, and instruction; it’s easy for students and even teachers to become distracted with it, therefore, as stated in the previous article, it’s important to research before you buy new devices.

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This article from Edweek, an education policy magazine, describes the shortcomings of those who are in charge of bringing new tech into schools. The most important fact the authors include is that “only 11 percent of those responsible for making education-technology adoption decisions demand peer-reviewed research.” That is shockingly low. These purchases are often-times very expensive and one would assume that schools think about where their money goes to. From that research, it seems that’s not the case.

In order to close the widening achievement gap and use technology for good in classrooms, school decision-makers have to fulfill their “obligation to test educational technology before widespread adoption.” Otherwise, ed tech can just be seen as money down the drain when test scores and performance does not improve.

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Deepak Reddy, Vice Chairman at Aditya Educational Institutions, provides a clear and concise answer in the first few paragraphs:

E-learning tools provide educators and students with access to resources they couldn’t have had otherwise, no matter their status or location. A philosophy student in England can learn from the top professor a continent away, and can do so in their own time while balancing a full-time job and a family at home.

But even though e-learning has become an education equalizer, it’s still not a replacement for the traditional classroom. Sure, the technology is advancing, but it’s not flawless. Just like any new, burgeoning innovation, e-learning faces its own challenges.

This, to me, is where e-learning and the traditional classroom will one day form a union: compensating for one where the other lacks.

Reddy makes a great point. E-learning is giving opportunities to the least of us; e-learning is transforming the world, one person at a time, thanks to how far reaching e-learning sites can be. That is a wonderful thing. However, learning in front of a computer is no where near learning face-to-face in a classroom. Depending on the subject matter and the work behind it, it’s important to have an open, live, face-to-face dialogue with a knowledgable teacher or even other students. That’s not always possible with e-learning, since it’s dependent on having a good internet connection. Even with a good internet connection, your other classmates may be halfway across the world in a completely opposite time zone. People underestimate how powerful communication and collaboration is when it comes to learning.

Again, while e-learning is transformative in that it gives a whole new world of opportunities to people who may have never otherwise pursued higher learning (and that’s just one type of person who would benefit), it is not yet (and may never will be) at the point that it can replace genuine, real-life classroom learning.

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This is actually a podcast episode from The 10-Minute Teacher Show with Vicki Davis. Vicki Davis is an “edupreneur” with 20 years of experience in the classroom and with education technology. This is an interview-type conversation between her and Deb Ramm, an Instructional Technology Coordinator for a school system in Rhode Island, also with around 20 years of experience.

They talk about various challenges and questions that arise when teachers start to delve and explore more into the world of education technology. The biggest take-away from this interview though is the quote Davis references that they both agree with: “The greatest software for innovation in the world is the human brain.” Ramm’s career is dedicated to training teachers on how to use computer programs, iPads, interactive whiteboards, and so many other things, but at the end of the day, Ramm acknowledges that technology is not the end-all, be-all of education. Education technology is supposed to be empowering, but not should not be used as a crutch.

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Here’s the thing about “the cloud:” it’s almost become humorous to refer to things as “in the cloud.” Maybe some people really still don’t understand what that means, but my understanding is that it’s another type of storage that is accessible from any machine thanks to the Internet. So for students and teachers alike, cloud storage using Google Drive is a godsend. Basically, Google Drives saves your documents key-stroke by key-stroke automatically.  Google Drive also allows for live sharing between users, making it ideal for group work or conferencing.

Google Drive is an excellent example of an actually innovative and useful technology doing good in the classroom. There are clear pros to this tech and not too many arguments against using it. It’s a technology that expands capabilities for both teachers and students alike, leading to a more productive classroom overall.

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The five websites mentioned were:

Kahoot.it, a web-based gaming/quiz program (sort of like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?)

Commonlit.org, a reading website 

Practutor.org, tracks students reading achievement by asking reading comprehension questions

IXL.com, which offers a free or paid version (the free version allows each student to do up to 20 practice questions on various topics to choose from)

Nitrotype.com, a free and engaging online typing game

All 5 are not apps, but rather just websites. This is what makes them “free” because, by 2018, most schools will have a computer lab even if they don’t have iPads or other fancy technology. The Internet is a great place to start to find free resources that are still technically technology but don’t come with a hefty price tag.

These websites are really supplements to the teaching process. Kahoot is used often in K-12 and even college classrooms because of how easy and user-friendly it is; it’s a great way to review material. A lot of teachers spend so much time on prepping materials, whether that’s just writing questions or physically printing, cutting, or sorting. Websites like these 5 allow teachers to free up their valuable time so they can focus on other things. Younger students especially also love being able to go on the computer and are easily engaged by the interface and graphics of websites like these.

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Apple took it’s previous iPad (not iPad Pro or mini, just standard iPad) and just barely improved upon it this year by adding Apple Pencil capability. The Apple Pencil is considered, by some, just a glorified stylus, or, by others (mostly die-hard Apple fans), the best tech they’ve debuted in years. Reading this article, I can tell there could be both good and bad consequences to this newest edition of iPad.

This iPad is much, much cheaper than the iPad Pro, which before was the only model that had Apple Pencil capability. This is great for individual students, especially in college. There’s a lot that one student can do for themselves as far as studying and note-taking go, but in K-12 and on a bigger scale, using iPads with the Apple Pencils come with a hefty price tag even with a special K-12 discounted rate. Much of the marketing of this device is also specifically targeted towards K-12 markets, which is reminiscent of Steve Jobs’ “Kids Can’t Wait” program in 1982 (which people criticize as just being a tax break this was referenced in the Inc.com article). Apple wants to make their products more accessible to entire school districts, showing off this shiny new iPad and pencil. Apple wants to sell sell sell and surely there will be some school leaders that will buy buy buy without thinking too much about how useful the products will be.

Always keep in mind that technology is only as powerful and as useful as it’s user makes it. Success with iPads and things like them depend on how the teacher creates lessons and how they’re used as tools to deliver the content.

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This article is about 51Talk is an online professional English language school that was originally created with the goal of providing one-on-one lessons all over China. The problem with English education in China before was the rote memorization in classrooms that involved very little actual speaking. The students studied for English in the same way they would study history; they could spit out all their answers on tests just fine but were unable to use conversational English in everyday life. Per their website: “Our mission is to make quality education accessible and affordable and help students build the ability to talk to the world.”

The internet itself is definitely an example of education technology. Globalization is making the world a smaller place every day and the ability to communicate in multiple languages is an extremely marketable skill. 51Talk, and other companies like it, are the future of foreign language education. Language teachers should distance themselves from classroom instruction and lectures and move more towards building conversational skills, and talking to native speakers builds those skills faster. Overall, it’s a great idea and I’m glad to see this step towards a more connected world.

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The United States is lagging behind China when it comes to embracing and using artificial intelligence. China debuted their AI masterplan in 2017, detailing how they’ll become the world’s frontrunner in AI research and development by 2030. One part of that plan involves using and teaching AI in schools.

The article focuses on the “intelligent classroom behavior management system” which is described as “a new facial recognition system designed to analyze the engagement of students in a class room, in real-time.” This is big news. This could change the way teachers deal with classroom management. Below is a look at the system’s interface.

Classroom behavior and student engagement can predict how well a lesson can be taught and received. This system can take a huge load off of teachers; while this system can’t make the students engaged and interested, it will tell teachers who is not. A huge part of teaching is just interacting with your classroom and making sure students are paying attention; your eyes have to be everywhere at once. Chinese teachers may be the first to use this tech, but surely they won’t be the last.

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While the previous two articles talked about coding, this one deals with another topic that is gaining popularity and interest: artificial intelligence, or AI. Yiannis Papelis, robotics research professor at the Virginia Modeling, Analysis, and Simulation Center (VMASC), makes the surprising yet accurate point that “twenty years ago, having computer skills was special. Now having computer skills is commonplace. Twenty years from now, understanding AI will be commonplace.”

Teachers should want more for their students than just passing standardized tests; teachers should want to prepare their students for their long-term future, and part of that preparation, especially in the 21st center, is learning technological literacy skills. Before, classes like keyboarding and accounting were considered some of the most practical courses you could take as electives (”extra” classes), but now, times are changing and there are skills one can’t necessarily get in one of their core classes. Maybe it’s time to make more robotics and AI courses in high school.

Because there is so much tech in so many career industries, it only makes sense for students to be exposed to as much new tech as they can. Also, AI is communication technology, because AI can be fitted and programmed to be anything that it user needs it to be.

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This article deals with a very controversial stance that tech companies are not interested in the betterment of K-12 education, but rather just interested in the pursuit of more money or tax breaks. The author, Jessica Stillman, admits “it's really hard to argue with the idea that teaching computer literacy in school is a good thing,” but provides several specific examples backing up her claim that kids aren’t always the ones who get the biggest benefit from tech in schools.

The article mentions Larry Cuban’s book Oversold and Underused: Computers in the Classroom (very apt name, if you ask me), where he makes the point that technology alone will not have the power to greatly change education.

The point of all of this is that the merely having access to the newest and shiniest education technology does not equate to being more educated. At the root of this debate is how the teachers implement these new gadgets and how the students benefit from that implementation. Again, it’s about the communication that happens between teacher to student and vice versa about or through the new technology.

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This article comes from the International Society of Technology in Education’s, or ISTE, blog site. Their mission is to help teachers solve problems through use of technology.

When we think of coding, we usually associate that as exclusively computer science and it’s just a part of the STEM umbrella. This article provides five reasons to use coding in lessons of any subjects, not just in science, tech, engineering, or mathematics. The following list is from Heidi Williams, a former Wisconsin elementary school principal:

Coding can...

   1. [Make] student thinking visible.    2. [Sustain] creativity.    3. [Encourage] computational thinking.    4. [Foster] future-ready skills.    5. [Empower] students to take action.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed as an elementary school teacher or secondary English or Social Studies teacher when it comes to coding. However, the type of coding ISTE is referring to is relatively easy and quick to learn. I think there are definitely ways to incorporate coding into every classroom, but teacher have to think creatively. I agree with all of Williams’ points as I was once a student who had to learn how to code as well.

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The National Education Association, or NEA, is the largest professional interest group in the entire country, created to support and lobby for public school educators and personnel. They run an online and print magazine called NEAToday which provides regularly published articles and interviews for and by teachers and other education-minded contributors.

This article is about five apps to use in math classes, across K-12. A particular point that stuck with me is the difficulty math teachers may face when trying to move from having a “sage-on-the-stage mentality (where teachers focus primarily on lecturing and imparting knowledge) to [being] a facilitator of learning.” The issue is primarily with communication between teachers and learners and the different modes of delivery that can be used in order to generate the most effective learning.

The five apps mentioned were (with brief descriptions from Common Sense Education):

EDpuzzle - “Crop, customize, and remix online videos for your classroom”

Recap - “Multimedia reflection app puts a new spin on class discussion”

ActivePrompt - let’s you poll your students and allows interactivity with digital images, could not find review on Common Sense

GeoGebra - “Create, share, and modify math models and simulations”

QuizletLive - “Flexible study aid supports learning at home, school, and on the go”

As with the Bronke article about student-centered learning, this article provides helpful and specific advice on how to successfully integrate technology into the classroom. Not only do these apps transform the teaching process, but they inherently transform the learning the process, and the communication between teachers and students in general. Having different apps and being able to do so much with one device (a tablet) opens new doors to a whole new creative way of lesson planning.

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The author, Daniel Newman, while not an educator, is a research analyst “exploring all things Digital Transformation,” meaning he is well-versed in the world of technology. Here is an infographic from the article itself illustrating his top 6 trends:

What I would most like to focus on is gamification. This is something I’ve observed firsthand, both while in and once out of school. In younger grades especially, teachers may sometimes use games as a way of reviewing or reinforcing material. This is not a new concept. What is new is the medium by which this material is delivered. Before, games in the classroom may have been board games, card games, or exclusively spoken games. Now, ever since computers and tablets first made there way into the classroom, there are more games than ever thanks to the internet and applications.

Students respond well to what is familiar to them. They understand certain game formats (such as rescuing the princess, getting through the obstacle course, etc.) and those formats can be reworked to include the material that they need to learn. Again this is not a new idea, but a lot is changing about the way the material is being integrated into games; now it’s almost seamless. For example, before, maybe a student could solve ten math problems and get to play a quick flash game. Now, those math problems are the game, in some way, shape, or form are the game. Examples of this include ProdigyGame and TenMarks.