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Masters Class - Unit 7 Padlet Innovative Reflection

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Digital Tools - Top Tech Tools for Formative Assesment

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Digital Tools - Top Tech Tools for Formative Assesment

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Top Tech Tools for Formative Assessment | Common Sense Education

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Find the right formative assessment tools for your classroom. These digital tools range from discussion (e.g., Piazza, TodaysMeet) to quizzing, polling, and student responses (e.g., Kahoot, Formative) to interactive lessons and videos (e.g., Nearpod, Flipgrid).

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Tips & Tricks - 6 tips to apply the assure model in blended learning.

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Tips & Tricks - 6 tips to apply the assure model in blended learning.

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The ASSURE model is a natural fit for blended learning environments, as it gives corporate trainers the opportunity to integrate technology into their ILT (Instructor-Led Training) classrooms while still personalize the corporate training experience. In this article, I'll explore the basic principles of the ASSURE model, and I'll offer 6 tips that can help you use the ASSURE model in blended learning strategies.

How To Apply The ASSURE Model In Blended Learning: 6 Tips For eLearning Professionals

While many blended learning approaches may strive to incorporate technology into the ILT environment, at PulseLearning we believe the ASSURE model takes it one step further by catering on the specific needs of the every learner. Rather than offering general tech tools or resources, it focuses on giving each learner the specific technology they require to achieve their personal goals and objectives.

What Is The ASSURE Model?

The ASSURE model gets its name from the following six stages involved in the process:

E: Evaluate and revise the blended learning strategy.
All eLearning strategies are a work in progress, due to the fact that technology and learner needs are always evolving. Thus, the final step in the ASSURE model is to evaluate and revise your blended learning strategy to ensure that it is as beneficial as possible.

6 Tips To Use The ASSURE Model In Blended Learning

1. Conduct surveys and online assessments to research audience.
To focus on the specific needs of your learners, you will first have to know what those needs are. Surveys, focus groups, interviews, andeLearning assessments are all valuable tools that can help you analyze your audience's traits and experience levels. They can also give you a good indication of their learning styles, such as which exercises will appeal to them and how they absorb information.

2. Create custom-tailored objectives.
Aside from the organization-wide objectives and goals that you've created, you should also develop goals that are learner-specific. What learning behaviors do they need to display? What knowledge do they need to know by the end of the blended learning course? Is there a particular task they need to master or skills sets they must build? You must also have a way to test their knowledge and determine if they have actually met their goals and objectives.

3. Choose tech tools that align with common goals.
One of the most common blended learning strategy mistakes is using technology just for the sake of technology, rather than finding the tools that are ideal for the particular audience and training goals. Ideally, you should choose tools that your learners are already familiar with or have a minor learning curve, rather than those that may be difficult to master. For example, if you are developing a group collaboration online assignment that utilizes a project management platform, you must be sure that your learners can actually use the online platform when it's time to work with their peers.

4. Get learners involved.
As is the case with all learning strategies, it is important to get your learners onboard and make sure they are all excited about the process. Start your discussions with thought-provoking questions that prompt them to seek out answers online and expand their knowledge. Create an online community forum where they can go to address concerns, get help from their peers, and stay in touch with their online facilitators. Ask for their feedback so that you can figure out what's working effectively and what may need to be modified as you move forward with your ASSURE blended learning strategy. Get them involved, so that they feel as though they are a vital part of the blended learning experience and that their opinion matters.

The ASSURE model can help you not only blend technology with traditional classroom training, but give your learners the customized experience they need to broaden their horizons. Use this article to integrate technology tools and resources into your blended learning strategy while still catering to the specific needs of your corporate audience.

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6 Tips To Apply The ASSURE Model In Blended Learning - eLearning Industry

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The ASSURE model is a natural fit for blended learning environments, as it gives corporate trainers the opportunity to integrate technology into their ILT (Instructor-Led Training) classrooms while still personalize the corporate training experience. In this article, I'll explore the basic principles of the ASSURE model, and I'll offer 6 tips that can help you use the ASSURE model in blended learning strategies.

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Tips & Tricks - Technology Motivation: 5 Simple Ways to Help Students

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Tips & Tricks - Technology Motivation: 5 Simple Ways to Help Students

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Technology Motivation

Technology motivation: The question of how to motivate students isn't new. Recently I attended a departmental meeting to discuss students at risk of failing out of their degree program. Many of these students are bright and talented people, but they stopped showing up to class. They produced shoddy, incomplete work. Around the table, their instructors described them as "disengaged," "careless" and in need of getting their "priorities straight." Sound familiar?

Student motivation, or rather the lack thereof, is a perennial problem for educators. It's become obvious to me that a willingness to participate in their studies is key to students' academic success.

Up to now I've relied on pretty traditional strategies to motivate students, such as offering assignment topics that hook into their prior interests, orchestrating fun activities and formats and serving up a healthy dose of my own enthusiasm for the subject matter. Of course the grading system itself functions at least in part to motivate student performance. How do educational technologies stack up? Do they motivate and engage students to learn?
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivators: Let's break it down.
There are essentially two types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. When we lament that some students aren't motivated to do the coursework, we mean they're not intrinsically motivated to learn. They don't want it on their own, for themselves. Perhaps they could benefit from an extra incentive, or extrinsic motivator?

We can think of Ex trinsic Motivation as a promised pizza party for students if they attended class regularly. Pizza is not inherently associated with being cooperative. Hold open a door for someone and an extra-large deluxe is not going to fall from the sky. Tie performance to a reward, and you're likely to see improved behavior.

Ideally, though, we want students to be I ntrinsically Motivated to study. Why? Because when people are intrinsically motivated to do something, they will begin it on their own, keep on doing it on their own, and furthermore do it better. For a number of reasons-not the least of which is the cost of pizza-it's better for society and for individuals when people participate freely of their own accord, when they take the initiative to hold the doors open for each other.

The idea is that extrinsic motivators stand as temporary but useful scaffolding during periods of training. Internal rewards will at some point replace the external ones. The maturing student will acquire good study habits, professionalism, a work ethic, a love of learning, and what is called "self-efficacy."
Technology Motivation
Practically speaking, the question is not whether to use tech in your classroom, but which tech, and how. It's helpful, perhaps, to think of computer and digital technologies as a part a long history of ed tech-after all, a pen is itself a technology. It's how each tool is used that matters when considering student engagement. As you experiment-ahem-innovate, here are five guidelines to consider in using technology motivation.
1. Wherever possible, offer options.
Despite bandwagon marketing, it's not surprising that different students are motivated by different tech. Or not motivated. For instance, if a student hasn't had the opportunity to play video games at home, she may not be interested or even comfortable with learning via game play. On the other hand, she may be overjoyed to finally get her fingers on the controller. People are complicated; people have different learning styles and habits.

The point is, you can't assume in advance which tech will turn students on to learning. In fact, your students may well not take the same joy as you do in wikis. Digital natives may be familiar with new technologies, but that doesn't necessarily translate to being inspired by them. When a tech is forced on students, especially teens, it can create motivational difficulties. So, wherever possible, offer tech options.
2. Reinforce competency instead of competition.
While some people are highly competitive, everybody loves to achieve goals. Performance-based climates can be alienating, nerve-wracking, and induce conflict and anxieties. Where there are winners, by definition there are losers. I've spoken with too many college students who tell me they are incapable of writing an assignment, for example, before they've even tried. It's as if they think the world is divided into two kinds of people, those who are "good at school" and those who aren't.

Confidence, by contrast, is a vital motivator. Technologies that guide and support students while they are learning can build discipline and a sense of self worth that will benefit everyone. For example, I have used the Test, Surveys and Pools tool in Blackboard to offer Critical Thinking students the opportunity to answer practice a variety questions, even multiple times. Practicing with actual arguments is the best way to learn how to analyze and categorize types of claims.
3. Use fun tech to invigorate your teaching and their learning.
If a teacher isn't enthusiastic about their subject, how can they expect their students to be? Sabbaticals, summer holidays, personal days, and irrelevant field trips to Stratford are all built upon this principle. If you're feeling stale, consider whether technology can add a little joy to your classroom. Conversely, if a teaching tool is getting you down, make changes.

Likewise, if the use of a tech, even something as simple as a video clip, makes an aspect of your course more fun for your students they will be more likely to pay attention, to participate, and to remember the course content associated with positive experiences.
4. Help students help themselves.
If you want students to engage in and take ownership in their education, it only makes sense you'll want to choose tech that nurtures rather than diminishes their agency. If you find that a tech tool is causing students to become over-reliant on you, confused, or alienated from their own efforts, consider rejigging how you use it.

An example. At my college we use a screening software called SafeAssign by Blackboard that helps to help detect whether student essays have plagiarized content. Students are not motivated to care about plagiarism, or even to understand what it is, simply by clicking an icon and uploading a file. However by making students responsible for analyzing their own SafeAssign reports and attaching them to the essays they submit, you not only give students practice discerning what counts as plagiarism and what counts as proper citation, you also put the responsibility for handing in a "clean" essay on the student, not the software.
5. Use social media with student consent.
Are you surprised to hear that some students prefer not to use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media for educational purposes? Research in the U.K. (Wilkinson and Lancaster 2014) and the U.S.A. (Dahlstrom, Walker and Dziuban 2013) reveals that, overwhelmingly, students want to keep their social life separate from their scholarly life. I felt a similar 'ugh' factor if any of my professors showed up at the bar where my friends and I played pool, so it's not so hard to believe.

The majority of students would rather have a class discussion in class, not in a chatroom. When I have given students the option, even the quieter students vote for in-person, live interaction. This is not to say there is no place for online discussions, just that you should think twice about considering them an effective incentive for reluctant learners.
How to Motivate Students with Classroom Technology
The above guidelines suggest ways of using technology motivation that align with learning and with increased self-efficacy. Just like pizza, when it functions as an extrinsic incentive, tech should make itself redundant once the student develops enough intrinsic motivation to know or accomplish the subject matter. After all, the purpose of introducing technologies into the classroom is not to make students' reliant on them, but rather enabled and inspired to achieve on their own.
An article written by Karen Quevillon for Top Hat Blog. May 27, 2015

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Technology Motivation: 5 Simple Ways to Help Students - Hallr

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Technology motivation: The question of how to motivate students isn't new. Recently I attended a departmental meeting to discuss students at risk of failing out of their degree program. Many of these students are bright and talented people, but they stopped showing up to class. They produced shoddy, incomplete work.

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Tips and Tricks - Choosing the Right Tool

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Tips and Tricks - Choosing the Right Tool

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Type "best tech tools for education" into a Google query and you'll be bombarded with Top 10 lists broadcasting the latest must-have tools for the classroom. Browse through education sections of app stores and you'll encounter an eye-opening number of apps promising to enhance teaching and learning. Without a doubt, many of these tools are potentially game-changing, redefining the way teachers and students operate.

The problem for teachers is definitely not a shortage of technology tools to choose from but instead, being able to sort through the noise to find the right tools for their classrooms and their students. What really makes an effective tool for the classroom?
Criteria for Evaluating Tech Tools
One of the most helpful blog posts I've read on the topic is Nik Peachey's post on criteria of effective technology tools. Even though he targets mobile apps for English language teachers, he outlines four distinct categories that are helpful for thinking about technology tools across the subject areas:

Technical: Does the tool meet device specifications, and is it reliable and easy for students and teachers to use?

Financial: How much does the tool cost? If it's free, does it display ads or operate on the "freemium" model?

Motivational: Does the tool engage students and allow for personalization of learning?

Pedagogical: Does the app achieve your desired purpose and represent instructional best practices?

But simply defining the criteria isn't enough. Educators still need to prioritize criteria and develop a system for effectively evaluating tools. A number of app evaluation rubrics and checklists attempt to do just that. But in my experience, while they were effective starting points, none of these were exactly right for me.

When I was a teacher transitioning to a one to one classroom, I spent the better part of a summer exploring and identifying tools that I wanted to use with my students. Gradually, once I determined the qualities of the tools I was looking for, I developed my own process. I chose Explain Everything because it didn't require account creation, it stored work directly on student devices, and it empowered students to share their thinking in flexible ways across content areas. I decided Edmodo was worth sending permission slips home for because it helped create an online community for my fourth graders. Once I understood what I was looking for, picking the right tools for my situation from the vast landscape of education tools became more manageable.
A Personal Process
Recently, I worked with a few other educators to share ideas and see if we could develop a more universal resource for others to use. In the end, the lesson I learned is that, much like teaching itself, choosing the right technology tools is an extremely personal process. Each teacher is unique. They work in districts and schools with their own requirements, teach different age levels and subject matter, and work with students with very individualized needs. There is no cookie cutter solution for choosing tools. Just as no two teachers will teach in exactly the same style, no two teachers will have the same criteria or process for how they choose the tools for their classroom.

According to this New York Times article, venture and equity financing for edtech companies is at record levels, up 55% from last year. In an increasingly crowded technology tool landscape, value lies in giving individual teachers the time and support they need to go through the process of defining how they choose the right tools for their practice. Then, in the end, these teachers may be able to effectively guide their students through a similar process of independently making the correct choices about educational tools that benefit their learning.

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Type "best tech tools for education" into a Google query and you'll be bombarded with Top 10 lists broadcasting the latest must-have tools for the classroom. Browse through education sections of app stores and you'll encounter an eye-opening number of apps promising to enhance teaching and learning.

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Article - 7 Steps for Choosing the Best Technology Tools for Your Teaching

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Article - 7 Steps for Choosing the Best Technology Tools for Your Teaching

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In the decade now that I have spent supporting educators in the endeavors to teach using technology, I have lost count of the number of times I've been asked by faculty for advice on how to choose the best technology tools for their teaching. With the seemingly endless selection of technology tools available, how do educators choose the right technology tools to incorporate into their teaching? If you are in the situation of considering a new technology tool in your teaching, here are 7 steps to take as you choose which tool may be best for you:

Step 1: Start with your objectives

It's important to always start any conversation about technology selection with objectives. What is it that you and/or your students should be able to do? There are some great models available, such as Digital Bloom's Taxonomy and SAMR, that can offer guidance as your craft and/or revise objectives that will form the basis for any decisions regarding technology decisions. Are you seeking to substitute, augment, modify, or redefine an existing teaching or learning activity? Make sure that it is clear from reviewing your objectives what your intended goals are.

Step 2: Survey your "tech landscape"

Once you have your goals and objectives clearly in mind, the next step is to take an inventory of your current technology use as well as look at your environment for incorporating the new technology. What tools are you and/or your students already using? What are you comfortable with? What is working? Keep in mind the adaage, "If it's not broke, don't fix it" and don't discard an existing technology if it is the meeting your needs. What tools are already at your fingertips and/or perhaps provided/supported by your institution? What tools are frowned upon and/or blocked at your institution?

Step 3: Set your budget

How much are you and/or your students willing to spend on a tool? Do you need to stick with a free solution? Or, are you able to spend some money? Many tools take a "freemium" approach, meaning that they are available for use on a limited basis for free with additional features available for a fee.

Step 4: Sample available tools

Pick a few (5 or less) available options and try the tools yourself to see which you and/or your students like best, are easiest to use, and meet your needs. What are the pros & cons of each? What support is available? How does each integrate into the existing workflow and/or lesson?

Step 5: Select your tool

Eventually, you finally need to take the plunge and pick a tool to use. Don't worry..you aren't stuck using the tool forever 🙂 If you eventually change your mind down the road, you can always change the tool.

Step 6: Set parameters for use

Clarify for yourself and/or your students how the tool will and won't be used. It's at this point you may want to revisit your objectives to ensure that your plan for use meets your stated learning objectives. Are you using the right tool for the right problem?

Step 7: Scrutinize your choice

After you've thoroughly used the tool for a specified period of time (term, semester, etc.) reflect on your use of the tool? Did it meet your needs? What unexpected issues did you and/or your students encounter? Is it working well enough that you want to stick with it, or is it time to try something else? You're not locked-in to continuing to use the tool if it isn't meeting your needs.

There you have it...a seven-step approach to selecting a technology tool for your teaching. Leave a comment if you found these steps helpful or if you perhaps have additional suggestions to share with educators as they choose technology tools.

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7 Steps for Choosing the Best Technology Tools for Your Teaching

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With the seemingly endless selection of technology tools available, how do you choose the right technology tools to incorporate into their teaching? If you are in the situation of considering a new technology tool in your teaching, here are 7 steps to take as you choose which tool may be best for you.

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Resource - Which Technology Tool Do I Choose?

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Resource - Which Technology Tool Do I Choose?

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As my first post discussed, it is important when taking the leap of bringing digital tools into your classroom to think about your learning goals first. However, how can you know where to put a tech tool in if you don't know what's out there?

There's no need for me to reinvent the wheel listing my favorite sites to use here, though I plan on sharing my experiences with specific tools as this series progresses. The resources below offer tools for every subject and grade level.
Terry Freedman's The Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book can be downloaded here.

Is it free?

Do I need an account?

Do my students need an account? If yes, what kind of information does the service ask for?

Does it offer teacher accounts?

What are the Terms of Service? Can my students legally use the site?

Can my students' finished products be easily archived or shared?

Terry's free book (a downloadable pdf) includes projects collected by classroom teachers using technology in their classrooms and centered is around common classroom books and age appropriate activities.

How long will it take my students to set up an account or log in?

What are the most vital workings of the tool that I will need to show my students to get them started?

How long will it take to produce a finished product?

How will my students hand in their work?

To get started, I often peruse resources such as these to get ideas. I can then better choose a tool that meets my needs. These are some basic considerations I make when choosing a tool:

Once I have considered these questions and find the tool to fit my criteria, I begin playing around with the tool to see what it does. This is the final test of a tool. Can I envision my students using the tool? Do I think it will meet the requirements of the learning goal? If yes, then I move forward with the next step?thinking through the management of the tool and what it will look like in the hands of my students. Some of the considerations I have while playing around with the tool are:

"Create, Play and Share." Students create their own animal and world. They can feed, bathe, clothe their animal, feed their animals, play games and create books. Has a social networking aspect that allows them to send their creations to their friends in a closed environment. Teachers create a free account here.
One of the struggles of integrating technology in the elementary classroom is finding tools that are simple enough for students to use and that do not require students to have an email address.

Here are some examples of sites that allow for teacher accounts or do not require students to have an email address to use them.

Social bookmarking tools that has free teacher accounts. Students can bookmark, highlight and take notes on sites they find. These sites can also be shared with groups.

Create a collaboration space. If you upgrade your free wiki to an educator wiki it allows for the site administrator to create users without needing an email address.

Over the next few weeks, I challenge you to look through the resources listed above and find one tool or website to play around with. Once you are comfortable with what it does, figure out how it might transform a lesson or learning goal in your curriculum. It could be a website to reinforce skills or a tool your students could use to create a finished product. Go on, take the leap!

I'd love to hear about your experiences and about your favorite tool you explored in the comment area!

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Which Technology Tool Do I Choose? | Edutopia

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As my first post discussed, it is important when taking the leap of bringing digital tools into your classroom to think about your learning goals first. However, how can you know where to put a tech tool in if you don't know what's out there?

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Article - 5 Factors to Consider When Selecting Classroom Technology

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Article - 5 Factors to Consider When Selecting Classroom Technology

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Technology Solutions That Drive Education

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Congratulations: Your school has established a common vision for educational technology, and all stakeholders agree that the use of information and communication technology is critical to the mission. Now it's time to identify the technology that will help your organization realize its vision.

Consider these five factors when selecting classroom technology:

Factor #1: Student Achievement Goals

Your school improvement plan is fundamental to the selection of classroom technology. There are some great solutions for improving performance and achieving outcomes. For example, graphing calculators and probeware can visually enrich lessons and provide immediate feedback in math and science courses, and teachers of reading can use document cameras, interactive whiteboards, software and websites for improving literacy skills.

Factor #2: Budget Considerations

Consider your funding sources and their availability. A one-time allocation of funds requires the selection of technology with a long lifespan. But technology can be replaced more often if funds are available on a recurring basis. Don't forget to budget for professional development, technology support, infrastructure, retrofitting classrooms and installations.

Factor #3: Equitable Access

All students, staff and leaders must have "robust and reliable access to current and emerging technologies and digital resources." Universal access can be achieved with an infrastructure that brings connectivity to all learning spaces, or by equipping all learning spaces with document cameras and projectors.

Factor #4: Classroom Conditions

Consider the technology capacity of your classrooms. For a 1-to-4 computer-student ratio or a notebook initiative, make sure there is enough real estate and electrical capacity in the classroom. Also, check the location of electrical outlets; if computers are crowded along a single wall, students won't have room to work in small groups.

If you are considering projectors and document cameras or interactive whiteboards, how will you arrange the cables so students don't trip? Is there room on the front wall for an interactive whiteboard? These issues require that thought be given to the impact on instructional classroom best practices, varied teaching styles, traffic patterns and safety - in addition to budgetary considerations.

Factor #5: Sustainability

Without a large grant or technology levy, sustainability may be the prevailing factor when selecting classroom technologies. The following is a list of indicators for sustainability:

Broad in scope: Sustainable technology can be used for student learning, professional development, board presentations, and PTA and community meetings.

Applicable to most subject areas: Technology that can be used for instruction across the curriculum reduces the need for specialized training and support.

Easy to use: Teachers will embrace technology that is easy to connect, turn on and use right out of the box.

Easy to integrate: Teachers don't have a lot of time to create high-end, professional-quality lessons. The best technologies are those that teachers can use to trans- form old lessons into visually rich activities that yield high-end results.

Minimal training and support: Setup, training and an- nual support should require less than an hour, and the technology should be easy for teachers to troubleshoot.

Stands the test of time: Sustainable solutions are still used to meet their original purposes five or more years after their purchase. They can be kept up to date with new (usually free) software and drivers found on the Internet.

IT Investments on The Rise

IT spending estimates peg U.S. educational institutions at $56 billion by 2012, according to Compass Intelligence, an IT consultancy and market research firm. This year, education spending will likely exceed $47 billion, a 2.5 percent increase from 2008.

Most of the money is expected to go toward telecommunications, collaborative technologies and outsourced IT services. Another top expenditure is wireless technology: About 35 percent of all K-12 schools were using wireless by the end of 2008. The market for Internet and electronic learning tools is projected to grow to $12.9 billion by 2012, Compass Intelligence reports.

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5 Factors to Consider When Selecting Classroom Technology

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Congratulations: Your school has established a common vision for educational technology, and all stakeholders agree that the use of information and communication technology is critical to the mission. Now it's time to identify the technology that will help your organization realize its vision.

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Video - Integrating Technology & Media Into Instruction: The ASSURE Model

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Video - Integrating Technology & Media Into Instruction: The ASSURE Model

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integrating technology & media into instruction: the assure model

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Integrating Technology & Media Into Instruction: The ASSURE Model - ppt video online download

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Introduction The ASSURE model uses a step-by-step process to create lessons that integrate technology & improve student learning. These lessons align with the National Education Technology Standards for teachers and students as well as curriculum standards.

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Resources + Digital Tools - 6 Emerging Technologies Supporting Personalized Learning

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Resources + Digital Tools - 6 Emerging Technologies Supporting Personalized Learning

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This a follow up to 4 Iowa Schools Getting Personalized Learning Right.
Dee Lanier, an amazing and inspiring educator, has recently challenged my thinking about how important it is to "vet" the technology I am using. Educators, administrators and technology directors/coordinators should be fastidious about what programs they are purchasing and supporting for use in their institutions. What does this mean? There needs to be serious reflection and many conversations before clicking "purchase." A superb resource for technology evaluation and reflection is TRUDACOT, a discussion protocol intended to help facilitate educator conversations about deeper learning, student agency, authentic work, and technology integration (credit to the creators, who-full disclosure-are dear friends and previous colleagues Scott McLeod & Julie Graber). When vetting school or classroom technology, there are many key factors (see this great podcast series on designing pilot programs for EdTech and personalized learning). As a starting point, here are three questions you must consider:

1. Does the technology overshadow, mask, or otherwise draw the focus away from important learning?

2. Does the technology add value so that students can do their work in better or different ways?

3. Are digital technologies utilized by students in both appropriate and empowering ways?

If your answers are "no," "yes," and "yes," you're off to a great start. Below are a few technology platforms that I support wholeheartedly, which tick each box above. My considerations are usually focused around a few questions. I like to ask: How does this tool lower the floor for young, emerging learners? Can the roof be raised easily for our high-flyers? What is the potential for personalization?

6 Tech Tools to Support Personalized Learning

Seesaw: A student-driven digital portfolio that documents student learning with built-in creative tools and provides an authentic audience for student work.

Soundtrap: A cloud-based recording studio that harnesses critical thinking and communication skills through collaborative, creative audio recording projects and bridges the necessary skills for preparing our 21st century learners for a global, connected world.

WeVideo: A cloud-based video editing and digital storytelling platform.

ExplainEverything: A cloud collaboration platform built on the learning technology of tomorrow that helps students and teachers tell their unique story.

Code.org: Their vision is that every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer science. They provide open-ended programs, tutorials, and full curriculum to support this cause.

Minecraft: Empowers unique and creative learning experiences for educators and students by providing an open-world game which promotes creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving in an immersive environment where the only limit is your imagination.

How do we get there?

In my previous post, I discussed four rural Iowa schools doing personalized learning right. How do schools who may be dozens or even hundreds of miles away from the nearest music store or science center implement technology with such expertise? For one, rural schools and communities are usually strong and tight-knit. There are close relationships that can be tapped into for support. These relationships can help reinforce personalized learning models in their schools. According to A Guidebook for Success: Strategies for Implementing Personalized Learning in Rural Schools, personalized learning is essential for rural schools because it "provides opportunities for students that often are not available in many rural districts. With its focus on individual learning and the use of emerging technologies, personalized learning helps to transcend many of the limitations confronting rural students, such as geography and limited course opportunity and access."

Yes! Bingo.

Ok, now that we know what successful personalized learning looks like in schools and we understand the urgency of providing these opportunities to our learners, we need to start the engine. Future Ready Schools has a great guidebook designed just for this process which has a 5 step planning process and focuses on these categories (keep in mind this is geared for district-wide adoption):

1. Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment: Teachers customize instruction, content, and assessment on a student-to-student basis to ensure mastery.

2. Personalized Professional Learning: Through technology and digital learning, educators access professional resources and learning opportunities that can lead to improvements in their students' academic success.

3. Budget and Resources: Districts align their budgets with personalized learning priorities including ongoing support for quality technology and infrastructure.

4. Community Partnerships: Schools and districts partner with local businesses and industries to advance the school's learning goals.

5. Data and Privacy: Districts and schools establish policies and procedures for collecting, analyzing, storing, and reporting student data that ensure student privacy and data security.

6. Robust Infrastructure: Teachers embrace technology and online platforms to access tools, resources, data, and systems necessary to tailor student learning.

7. Use of Space and Time: Through technology and a new approach to classroom structure, teachers and schools leverage in-school and out-of-school time to meet the needs of individual learners.

These steps are intense but imperative to shift teaching and learning for our students' global success. Let's roll up our sleeves and start this important work!

For more, see:

Meredith Allen is an education consultant and Educational Ambassador for Soundtrap.
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6 Emerging Technologies Supporting Personalized Learning

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This a follow up to 4 Iowa Schools Getting Personalized Learning Right. Dee Lanier, an amazing and inspiring educator, has recently challenged my thinking about how important it is to "vet" the technology I am using. Educators, administrators and technology directors/coordinators should be fastidious about what programs they are purchasing and supporting for use in their institutions.

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Article + Tips and Tricks - How to Use Technology to Personalize Learning

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Article + Tips and Tricks - How to Use Technology to Personalize Learning

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Exploring Personalization in the Context of the Classroom

Teachers have been personalizing student learning experiences for a long time, through creativity, hard work, and meaningful relationships- but with the introduction of technology to the classroom, we have the opportunity to take that personalization to new heights. Using technology to personalize learning is largely intuitive for many educators, but there are certain factors of the interaction between teacher, student, and tech that can make or break the effectiveness of the instruction, and the ultimate impact for the student.

Here are some of the most foundational strategies for using technology to efficiently and meaningfully personalize learning in your classroom:

Keep Instruction Student-Centered

If you're using technology with the intention of personalizing learning but your instruction is overwhelmingly driven by the technology - or even by the teacher - then your instruction isn't as personalized as it could be. The hallmark of personalized learning is that it involves collaboration between student and teacher to determine the needs, plan, and design for learning. Technology should facilitate and actualize that collaboration, not dictate or determine its outcome.

For more on keeping personalized learning student-centered, see:

Use Technology with Purpose

We can understand technology to be purposeful when it informs instruction, gives the teacher insights into student learning gaps or pathways, and adapts to individual learning needs. Any technology you bring into your classroom should be inherently purposeful - and technology that's integrated into your design for teaching and learning should also be done so purposefully. This means that it's important to be mindful of both the quality of the technology you select, and its role in your larger strategy to collaborate with students to personalize learning.

Personalized learning gurus Tom Vander Ark, Tiffany Wycoff, and Janet Pittock offer up more details on the complexities between student, teacher, and technology:

Take it to Scale

As technology becomes a core component of the personalized learning strategy across classrooms, grade levels, and buildings in your district, it's important to consider how students can experience a cohesive, carefully designed strategy for learning throughout their educational career, all the way from kindergarten to graduation. Strategic planning and tech implementation at such a large scale is complex. The Future Ready Schools five-step process for creating a personalized learning action plan can provide both a framework and community for you to begin personalizing learning for every student in your district, no matter your challenges.

Future Ready Schools has multiple avenues and tools to help you use technology to personalize learning. See below for more information:

Design for Every Learner

Effectively using technology to personalize learning also calls for equitable instruction - which means not only that every student has access to robust resources and tools, but that they have access to what they need in a specific moment in their learning experience, despite race, gender, ethnicity, language, disability, family background, or family income (The Council of Chief State School Officers). Through the lens of equity, it's important to consider multiple facets of a student's experience with their surroundings when using any technology or instructional methods to personalize learning. Students may need to be explicitly taught how to use technology for the purpose of learning, and learning can't be truly personalized without culturally responsive teaching practices and teacher awareness of student well-being.

To further explore the challenges of digital equity, read:

For more on using technology to personalize learning, explore our blog, Inspired Ideas:

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How to Use Technology to Personalize Learning - Inspired Ideas - Medium

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Teachers have been personalizing student learning experiences for a long time, through creativity, hard work, and meaningful relationships- but with the introduction of technology to the classroom, we have the opportunity to take that personalization to new heights.

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Article - Using Technology to Motivate Students to Learn Social Studies

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Article - Using Technology to Motivate Students to Learn Social Studies

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Recently, during fieldwork, the author was observing in a high school government class. The social studies concepts discussed in the lesson were political parties, the role of campaigning, and the impact of media on citizens' decisions. The teacher integrated a variety of traditional and constructivist instructional methods. She incorporated a brief lecture, questioning strategies to discuss readings, graphic organizers, and video clips of recent election campaign commercials. Despite her efforts to engage students, the class was chaotic. What follows is an excerpt from the author's field notes describing the complexities of the classroom environment.

Twenty-five students are seated in pods of four. One girl in the back is putting on eyeliner and eye shadow. She frequently chats with two boys seated at her table. She proceeds to mash zits. Two girls and one boy socialize in the back of the class. They are more concerned about the social complexities of the school rather than listening. However, periodically one will shout out a correct answer without interrupting the flow of the social conversation. One girl, sitting in the back of the class, totally isolates herself and has no verbal or nonverbal communication with her peers or the teacher. A quiet boy and two girls sit at a table located in the front of the class. They do not share comments and appear to be intimidated by their peers.

A girl on the other side of the class begins to sing and continues to do so periodically throughout the class time. Another girl gets up and walks around the room. She is told to sit down, which she does, and in five minutes gets up and walks around again. She is struggling to stay in her seat and is clearly unconcerned with the class discussion. A boy in the center of the class covers his head with his hood, lays his head down, and goes to sleep. Two other girls at his table are engaged in a conversation about who will be homecoming queen.

What is a teacher to do with a class like this? This is a perplexing situation, yet a common dilemma teachers encounter. Many teachers struggle with the lack of student interest in the content which translates into a lack of motivation to learn. This is especially prevalent in social studies classrooms. Research indicates that students often are uninterested in social studies because they perceive it as a boring subject (Schug, Todd, & Berry, 1984; Shaughnessy & Haladyana, 1985). Students tend to equate uninteresting with unimportant; thus, students are not motivated to learn social studies content due to the lack of value of the content. Educators suggest that lack of student interest in social studies is related to the instructional methods utilized in disseminating information (Martorella, 1997).

This paper describes my investigation of technology integration in social studies instruction to build an understanding of why technology is being used to teach social studies content. Given the nature of social studies instruction and the need to engage students in the learning process, I selected motivational theory as a theoretical frame for this research.

Motivational Theory

Figure 1. Expectancy-Value Model

To clarify a general misconception, motivation and ability are not equivalent. Motivation refers to what a person will attempt, yet ability is defined as what a person can do (Pintrich & Schunk, 1996). Thus, the purpose of motivation theory is to explain student behavior and influence future behavior. Recent theories of motivation can be categorized as variations of expectancy-value model of motivation (Pintrich & Schunk, 1996). This model focuses on three areas: value (students' beliefs about the importance or value of a task), expectancy (students' beliefs about their ability or skill to perform the task), and affective (emotional reactions to the task and self-worth evaluation). Figure 1 represents the relationship between the three areas of expectancy-value motivational theory (Pintrich & Schunk, 1996).

First, task-value motivational theory addresses the question of why an individual completes a task. The value component of motivation focuses on the reasons why students become involved (or not involved) in an instructional activity (Pintrich & DeGroot, 1990; Wigfield & Eccles, 1992). It defines students' beliefs about the importance or value of a task and why students approach or avoid a task. Engagement in the task varies with the value that students place on the academic task and students' self-confidence in their ability to accomplish the task successfully if appropriate effort was made (Brophy, 1983).

Whether or not a student attempts a task is dependent upon students' perceived success in completing the task (Atkinson, 1957; Stipek, 1997). Perceptions of success are shaped by the nature of the task. The nature of the task, defined as the procedures, social organization and products that each task requires, regulates what students learn and how students learn (Doyle, 1983). If students perceive the task as boring or too difficult, they will avoid the task. Students will approach tasks they believe are fun, require a moderate amount of effort, and are reasonably challenging. Thus, the nature of the task and student perception of the importance of the task become key factors influencing student motivation for approaching or avoiding the task (Blumenfeld, Mergendoller, & Swarthout, 1987; Eccles et al., 1983).

Second, the concept of expectancy represents the key idea that students will not choose to do a task or continue to engage in a task that they believe exceeds their capabilities, but students will take on tasks and activities that they believe they can handle (Schunk, 1991). If students expect failure, they will avoid the task; conversely, if students anticipate success, they will approach the task.

Expectancy relates to students' self-efficacy, students' confidence in their cognitive skills (Bandura & Schunk, 1981). Student self-efficacy is influenced by past experiences and familiarity with the task (Bandura, 1993; Schunk, 2000). Students' perceptions of competence about personal skills and abilities are influenced by the learning environment. Positive learning environments provide nurturing experiences for students to build their self-confidence in their skills. Students are able to develop their skills comfortably without the fear of failure. Students develop a familiarity with the skills necessary to complete the tasks. It is this familiarity with the tasks that builds students self-efficacy (Eccles & Wigfield, 1993). Expectancy motivational theory addresses the question of "Can I do what is being asked?" or "Am I capable of accomplishing this task?"

The final area of motivational theory relates to the affective domain and identifies students' emotional reactions to the task and self-worth evaluation. A central part of all classroom achievement is the need for students to protect their sense of worth or personal value (Covington, 1984). Self-worth theory focuses attention on the pervasive need implied within the conflicting interests of desire to approach success that invokes social recognition and a feeling of competence and to avoid failure that causes a sense of worthlessness and social disapproval (Covington, 1984; Pintrich & Schunk, 1996). Students' perceptions of the causes of their successes and failures influence the quality of their future achievement. According to self-worth theory, high ability signifies worthiness. Because ability is tied to worthiness and it is related to accomplishments, then self-perceptions of ability are significant to the way students interpret their personal success (Midgley, Arunkumar, & Urban, 1996). Self-worth theory rests upon the perception that students are motivated to establish, maintain, and promote a positive self-image (Covington, 2000).

Methodology

A descriptive and exploratory case study (as described by Yin, 2002) was utilized to examine the integration of technology for social studies instruction. This case study sought to unveil the tacit knowledge, deconstructing student attitudes about technology and motivations for using technology (Patton, 1990), to build an understanding of why technology is being used to teach social studies content. Qualitative methods were employed to provide an in-depth description of technology use in a natural setting. The purpose of this study was to interpret the phenomena and the meanings that students brought to this setting and to describe them (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000; Glesne & Peshkin, 1999; Marshall & Rossman, 1999).

The participant for this study was an in-service teacher. The secondary social studies teacher taught 9th- and 10th-grade social studies classes. She taught World History, Economic, Legal, and Political Systems, and a tenth grade seminar that integrated the curriculum for English and social studies. Her undergraduate degree was in early childhood education. She later returned to school for her second undergraduate degree of history with a minor in secondary education. After teaching for 7 years, she obtained her master's degree in social studies education. In addition she has achieved recognition as the only nationally board certified social studies teacher in her high school.

This case study is atypical because this teacher has excellent professional credentials and has had much experience at integrating technology in social studies content. The uniqueness of this case study provides valuable insight into research on technology integration in the social studies curriculum. This research addresses a recognized need for examples of content specific technology use in the social studies (Martorella, 1997; Mason, 2000-2001; Mason et al, 2000; Vanfossen, 2001; White, 1999) and supports existing qualitative research that emphasizes the benefit of looking at best practices in teaching (Grossman, 1990).

Data sources for this study included interviews, observations, field notes, and artifacts, such as technology work samples produced by the students, teacher curricula, and teacher lesson plans. Interviews, field notes, and classroom observations followed procedures outlined by the work of Spradley (1980) and Schensul, Schensul, and Lecompte (1999). Field notes were condensed accounts of events observed in the classroom. Missing gaps in these data were filled with data collected from teacher and student interviews.

Before data collection and analysis began, study propositions were formulated. In keeping with Yin's (2002) case study methodology, two propositions formed the core of the research framework: (a) Technology improves students' motivation to learn content and (b) technology augments the development of student work through providing students with organizational frameworks, connecting students to resources, and supporting students' creativity. The integration of technology within the social studies provides crucial links in building content and technological literacies.

Collected data was linked to the propositions through comparison of common patterns (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000; Yin, 2002), analyzing emergent themes (Spradley, 1980), and triangulation (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000; Yin, 2002). After the data was collected, analysis of the data formed links between the theoretical framework and the results of the case. A crosswalk of issues showed the links between the study questions, data sources, data analysis, and theoretical framework and also helped establish reliability for the study.

A Closer Look

To redress the initial question of what a teacher is to do with these uninterested and unmotivated students, a closer look at the case described is necessary. Once the teacher in the scenario described earlier finished with the classroom instruction, she assigned the students a project of creating a PowerPoint slide as a political campaign advertisement for their state's senatorial race. Students were expected to research their candidate of choice and develop an advertisement utilizing one of the various media strategies for which the teacher had provided information. The teacher distributed a handout clearly identifying the types of campaign advertisements and the expectations for the task. Then the class was off to the computer lab.

The hallway trip was no different than the classroom scenario provided, but something happened when they entered the computer lab. Students immediately sat down at their computers and promptly began their work. Students exuded self-confidence in their abilities, not only to work with the technology but to master the content and successfully complete the task. Students had no difficulty locating the websites for the candidates and finding the facts they needed to construct their campaign advertisements. Students captured the key political stances of each candidate. They also demonstrated an understanding of the various campaign strategies. In addition to understanding the content, students designed graphically appealing and interactive campaign ads using PowerPoint. Several students knew about the intricacies of the software program and tutored others on how to complete the desired special effects. Students were collaborated and exchanged ideas. Students eagerly shared their work and ideas with their peers.

Students were excited about learning and displayed pride in the PowerPoint slides they created. The slides included sound bytes, video clips, pictures, text, and animation. The product outcomes were impressive, but what was even more impressive was the level of engagement. All students actively created their products, learning about the candidates and the types of campaign advertisements that are utilized in politics. It was an amazing transformation. The same students who were described earlier were now focused and on task. Not only were they actively involved in their project, they were learning social studies.

Students enjoyed working on the project with technology because they viewed technology as more engaging and entertaining. All students reported enjoyment in the task because technology made their work easier and more fun to do. One student commented, "I like using computers, the Internet, and PowerPoint because it is fun, fresh, and invigorating." Many students identified that technology made it possible for them to complete their work more quickly and efficiently. One of the most common reasons for enjoyment in the task was that computer use made students' work neater, enabled them to add nice graphics, and made the overall presentations look professional. These feelings were captured in this student's statement: "I like using technology to do my work because you can do more with technology. You can make a really cool presentation that wouldn't be possible without the technology."

Additionally, students reported that using technology enabled them to find more information and helped them understand what they were talking about in class. A student commented, "I like using computers to do school work, because it helps me get my thoughts out better." Another student replied, "I like using computers because it's easy to find lots of information about the stuff we are discussing in class."

One final point made by students was that working with computers gave them the opportunity to refine their technology skills. Students identified that they felt confident in their ability to use technology and liked having the opportunity to complete tasks that allowed them to work with skills they already possessed. At the same time, students felt that the task was challenging and required them to take their skills to the next level.

Observations

Technology offers many benefits to enhance education. Most importantly, technology integration has the potential to increase student motivation (Anderson, 2000). The case described presents three elements of how technology positively impacts student motivation. These factors are based upon expectancy-value model of motivation (Pintrich & Schunk, 1996). Using technology changes the nature of the task, increases student self-efficacy, and improves student self-worth.

First, task-value motivational theory addresses the question, "Why do I approach the task?" In the case presented, students were actively involved in the project because they were working with technology. Students felt confident in their ability to accomplish the task due to their familiarity with the technology. The focus of the task shifted from social studies content to technology use. Since students were self-confident in their technology skills, they eagerly approached the task. Students were excited about the opportunity to test their skills and viewed the task as challenging and engaging. This was in contrast to the traditional classroom environment, where students avoided the task either because it was boring or because they believed that they lacked the skills necessary to be success in this environment.

Technology empowers students by engaging students in the learning process. The nature of the task shifts from teacher centered to student centered. Given the flexibility of technology to diversify tasks, the activity was designed to build upon students' prior knowledge and to address student interests. Research indicates that challenging and engaging academic tasks that build upon students' prior knowledge and enable students to construct their own understanding of the content are more apt to enhance student motivation and increase student self-confidence in their cognitive abilities (Brophy, 1983; Meece, 1991; Miller & Meece, 1999).

Additionally, the use of technology improves student interest due to students' familiarity with the technology. Increased enjoyment in learning is related to students' natural affinity for computer-based instruction; consequently, social studies can become a more attractive subject when computers and the Internet are included as teaching tools (Cassutto, 2000, pp. 100-101). Research touts technology use in social studies as a purposeful method of instruction to best meet the needs of students and to promote student interest in the task (Berson, 1996; Martorella, 1997; White, 1999).

Second, expectancy motivational theory addresses the question "Can I use this technology or am I capable of accomplishing this task?" As identified in the case, students displayed more self-confidence in the computer than in the traditional classroom setting. Students possessed the skills necessary to successfully accomplish the assignment. They felt comfortable in the secure environment that the computer lab offered. This nurturing learning environment enabled students to accomplish more with technology than they could without it. Students were able to generate attractive, creative, and content rich PowerPoint slides. Students took pride in their creations and eagerly shared their work with their peers.

According to Ames (1990) technology has the potential to increase student motivation by increasing student self-efficacy. This was evidenced in a research study of the impact of technology use on high school student learning conducted by Rochowicz (1996). Data identified that using computers increases students' self-efficacy; consequently, students develop a more positive attitude toward learning. Rochowicz concluded that computers make learning more relevant, meaningful, and enjoyable; consequently, academic frustration declines. Students experience a greater enjoyment from learning content because they are confident in their ability to accomplish the task when using technology.

Additionally, technology enables students to accomplish more than they could without the use of technology. Technology affords students opportunities to access information and resources to create products far beyond their perceived capabilities. Research identifies the benefits of technology integration as the technical aspects to enhance the quality of work, promote access to resources, positively impact student learning, and promote student metacognitive skills (Heafner & McCoy, 2001; Scheidet, 2003). With the improved output, students take pride in the products they create, which increases their self-efficacy. This self-efficacy can have a positive impact on overall student motivation. As Brophy (1983) contended, student motivation improves with students' increased self-confidence in their abilities to complete the academic task.

Third, self-worth and affective motivational theory addresses the question, "How do my feelings about myself affect whether or not I will attempt or avoid this task?" Using technology enabled these students to feel more self-confident in completing the assignment due to their familiarity with technology. Initially, the focus of learning shifted from social studies content to technology. Technology integration camouflaged the learning process by drawing students into a fun activity that relied on familiar technical skills. Once students engaged in the task their attention shifted to the content. With the integration of a familiar learning tool, students approached social studies content that they had avoided in the traditional classroom setting. Students eagerly approached the task when they were able to use an instructional tool with which they had the knowledge, skill, and confidence in using. Familiarity with the technology also increases students' belief in their ability to accomplish the task; consequently, students are more willing to take risks and approach challenging tasks. This supports self-worth theory that students' perceptions of worthiness are equated with ability (Covington, 2000; Midgley et al., 1996).

Typical instructional approaches utilized in social studies classes emphasize ability-related activities such as memorization and rote learning (Martorella, 1997). In contrast, technology facilitates the development of decision-making and problem-solving, data-processing, and communication skills (National Council for the Social Studies, 1994). Instruction that builds upon these higher order tasks generates a collaborative learning environment that promotes self-worth and enables students to overcome task-avoidance (Covington, 1984). Using technology to complete assignments changes the learning environment to focus on mastery learning while promoting cooperative learning. Class is less structured and diminishes traditional views of competition as a means to motivate.

Within this nurturing environment, students are able to rely comfortably on their peers to assist with technical difficulties without fear of social embarrassment. Students avoid feelings of worthlessness and social disapproval that accompany competitive learning environments (Pintrich & Schunk, 1996). As presented in the case, increased peer communication and collaboration were positive outcomes of technology integration. Students felt secure in sharing their knowledge and skills with their peers in the noncompetitive computer lab environment. This behavior contrasted with behaviors exuded in the traditional classroom, where students avoided tasks and engagement with their peers.

Cautions

Despite the recognized positive benefits of technology integration on improving student learning as identified in this case study, caution is advised. Much research exists that challenges the use of technology as positively affecting student learning. The hesitancy of many schools and teachers to openly embrace technology is, in part, related to their concern about the negative effects of technology on students and the educational process. Research recognizes various negative outcomes of technology use as social isolation, all information is "good" misperception, information overload, and the time consuming nature of technology (Clark, 1994; Cornelius & Boss, 2003; Heafner & McCoy, 2001; Scott & O'Sullivan, 2000; Salomon, 1997). These tradeoffs of technology can be a detriment to student learning.

This article does not contend that technology is the only method for instruction nor it is the only means of motivating students to learn social studies. Technology alone is insufficient to ensure effective social studies education (Staley, 2000). However, effective technology integration offers opportunities to enhance social studies instruction and to increase student motivation while preparing students with the knowledge, skills, and values necessary to become good citizens, which are the fundamental goals of the social studies.

Recommendations

When planning for instruction, social studies teachers need to strongly consider what motivates students to learn. Too often teachers sacrifice student interest for content coverage. In a high stakes testing environment, social studies teachers are entrenched in methods that rely heavily on lecture and discussion. This teacher-centered classroom structure does not offer much opportunity for motivating students to take an interest in social studies content. Students have no motivation to learn social studies beyond the common justification of "it will be on the test." This lack of student interest inhibits student development of metacognitive skills, which greatly impacts student achievement.

To develop a more nurturing and engaging learning environment that promotes cognitive growth, social studies teachers need to incorporate instructional practices that are student centered. By focusing on students, teachers are able to encourage student interest, which translates into increased student motivation to learn. This article advocates the use of technology as a means to motivate students by engaging students in the learning process with the use of a familiar instructional tool that improves students' self-efficacy and self-worth. If teachers build students' self-confidence, then students will more likely enjoy learning, which can greatly impact student achievement.

Additionally, teachers should take into consideration that students are individuals and may accomplish the same task for many reasons. Consequently, social studies teachers should incorporate various instructional methods that provide students with diverse, engaging, and challenging tasks to meet the needs of all students. This is what technology affords educators and why technology has the potential to impact student motivation positively and, subsequently, student learning. The potential that technology offers to positively affect student achievement is sufficient reason to integrate technology as a means to motivate students to learn social studies.

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Author Note:
Tina Heafner
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
email: theafner@email.uncc.edu

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Using Technology to Motivate Students to Learn Social Studies

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Recently, during fieldwork, the author was observing in a high school government class. The social studies concepts discussed in the lesson were political parties, the role of campaigning, and the impact of media on citizens' decisions. The teacher integrated a variety of traditional and constructivist instructional methods.

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Article + Resource - If Technology Motivates Students, Lets use it! 

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Article + Resource - If Technology Motivates Students, Lets use it! 

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Article - Motivating students to use learning technology

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Article - Motivating students to use learning technology

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Article - The effect of technology on a Student's Motivation and Knowledge Retention

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Article - The effect of technology on a Student's Motivation and Knowledge Retention

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Video - EdTech Trends for 2018 with Martin McKay

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Video - EdTech Trends for 2018 with Martin McKay

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EdTech Trends for 2018 with Martin McKay

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Article + Resource - Technology Integration Matrix

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Article + Resource - Technology Integration Matrix

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Technology Integration Matrix * Talk Tech With Me

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What To Do at This Station? Start by Exploring the Arizona's Technology Integration Matrix Once you've familiarized yourself with the TIM, check out USF's Technology Integration Matrix with Videos (bookmark it and come back later when ...

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Article - What is Tech Pedagogical Content Knowledge?

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Article - What is Tech Pedagogical Content Knowledge?

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Editors' Note: For the benefit of readers who are unfamiliar with the notion of technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge (TPACK), we offer the following condensed and updated depiction by Mishra and Koehler (2007), which was presented originally at the annual conference of the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education in 2007.

Judi Harris & Matt Koehler
Special Issue Guest Editors

As educators know, teaching is a complicated practice that requires an interweaving of many kinds of specialized knowledge. In this way, teaching is an example of an ill-structured discipline, requiring teachers to apply complex knowledge structures across different cases and contexts (Mishra, Spiro, & Feltovich, 1996; Spiro & Jehng, 1990). Teachers practice their craft in highly complex, dynamic classroom contexts (Leinhardt & Greeno, 1986) that require them constantly to shift and evolve their understanding. Thus, effective teaching depends on flexible access to rich, well-organized and integrated knowledge from different domains (Glaser, 1984; Putnam & Borko, 2000; Shulman, 1986, 1987), including knowledge of student thinking and learning, knowledge of subject matter, and increasingly, knowledge of technology.

The Challenges of Teaching With Technology

Teaching with technology is complicated further considering the challenges newer technologies present to teachers. In our work, the word technology applies equally to analog and digital, as well as new and old, technologies. As a matter of practical significance, however, most of the technologies under consideration in current literature are newer and digital and have some inherent properties that make applying them in straightforward ways difficult.

Most traditional pedagogical technologies are characterized by specificity (a pencil is for writing, while a microscope is for viewing small objects); stability (pencils, pendulums, and chalkboards have not changed a great deal over time); and transparency of function (the inner workings of the pencil or the pendulum are simple and directly related to their function) (Simon, 1969). Over time, these technologies achieve a transparency of perception (Bruce & Hogan, 1998); they become commonplace and, in most cases, are not even considered to be technologies. Digital technologies-such as computers, handheld devices, and software applications-by contrast, are protean (usable in many different ways; Papert, 1980); unstable (rapidly changing); and opaque (the inner workings are hidden from users; Turkle, 1995).On an academic level, it is easy to argue that a pencil and a software simulation are both technologies. The latter, however, is qualitatively different in that its functioning is more opaque to teachers and offers fundamentally less stability than more traditional technologies. By their very nature, newer digital technologies, which are protean, unstable, and opaque, present new challenges to teachers who are struggling to use more technology in their teaching.

Also complicating teaching with technology is an understanding that technologies are neither neutral nor unbiased. Rather, particular technologies have their own propensities, potentials, affordances, and constraints that make them more suitable for certain tasks than others (Bromley, 1998; Bruce, 1993; Koehler & Mishra, 2008). Using email to communicate, for example, affords (makes possible and supports) asynchronous communication and easy storage of exchanges. Email does not afford synchronous communication in the way that a phone call, a face-to-face conversation, or instant messaging does. Nor does email afford the conveyance of subtleties of tone, intent, or mood possible with face-to-face communication. Understanding how these affordances and constraints of specific technologies influence what teachers do in their classrooms is not straightforward and may require rethinking teacher education and teacher professional development.

Social and contextual factors also complicate the relationships between teaching and technology. Social and institutional contexts are often unsupportive of teachers' efforts to integrate technology use into their work. Teachers often have inadequate (or inappropriate) experience with using digital technologies for teaching and learning. Many teachers earned degrees at a time when educational technology was at a very different stage of development than it is today. It is, thus, not surprising that they do not consider themselves sufficiently prepared to use technology in the classroom and often do not appreciate its value or relevance to teaching and learning. Acquiring a new knowledge base and skill set can be challenging, particularly if it is a time-intensive activity that must fit into a busy schedule. Moreover, this knowledge is unlikely to be used unless teachers can conceive of technology uses that are consistent with their existing pedagogical beliefs (Ertmer, 2005). Furthermore, teachers have often been provided with inadequate training for this task. Many approaches to teachers' professional development offer a one-size-fits-all approach to technology integration when, in fact, teachers operate in diverse contexts of teaching and learning.

An Approach to Thinking About Technology Integration

Faced with these challenges, how can teachers integrate technology into their teaching? An approach is needed that treats teaching as an interaction between what teachers know and how they apply what they know in the unique circumstances or contexts within their classrooms. There is no "one best way" to integrate technology into curriculum. Rather, integration efforts should be creatively designed or structured for particular subject matter ideas in specific classroom contexts. Honoring the idea that teaching with technology is a complex, ill-structured task, we propose that understanding approaches to successful technology integration requires educators to develop new ways of comprehending and accommodating this complexity.

At the heart of good teaching with technology are three core components: content, pedagogy, and technology, plus the relationships among and between them. The interactions between and among the three components, playing out differently across diverse contexts, account for the wide variations seen in the extent and quality of educational technology integration. These three knowledge bases (content, pedagogy, and technology) form the core of the technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge (TPACK) framework. An overview of the framework is provided in the following section, though more detailed descriptions may be found elsewhere (e.g., Koehler & 2008; Mishra & Koehler, 2006). This perspective is consistent with that of other researchers and approaches that have attempted to extend Shulman's idea of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) to include educational technology. (A comprehensive list of such approaches can be found at http://www.tpck.org/.)

The TPACK Framework

The TPACK framework builds on Shulman's (1987, 1986) descriptions of PCK to describe how teachers' understanding of educational technologies and PCK interact with one another to produce effective teaching with technology. Other authors have discussed similar ideas, though often using different labeling schemes. The conception of TPACK described here has developed over time and through a series of publications, with the most complete descriptions of the framework found in Mishra and Koehler (2006) and Koehler and Mishra (2008).

In this model (see Figure 1), there are three main components of teachers' knowledge: content, pedagogy, and technology. Equally important to the model are the interactions between and among these bodies of knowledge, represented as PCK, TCK (technological content knowledge), TPK (technological pedagogicalknowledge), and TPACK.

Figure 1. The TPACK framework and its knowledge components.

Content Knowledge

Content knowledge (CK) is teachers' knowledge about the subject matter to be learned or taught. The content to be covered in middle school science or history is different from the content to be covered in an undergraduate course on art appreciation or a graduate seminar on astrophysics. Knowledge of content is of critical importance for teachers. As Shulman (1986) noted, this knowledge would include knowledge of concepts, theories, ideas, organizational frameworks, knowledge of evidence and proof, as well as established practices and approaches toward developing such knowledge. Knowledge and the nature of inquiry differ greatly between fields, and teachers should understand the deeper knowledge fundamentals of the disciplines in which they teach. In the case of science, for example, this would include knowledge of scientific facts and theories, the scientific method, and evidence-based reasoning. In the case of art appreciation, such knowledge would include knowledge of art history, famous paintings, sculptures, artists and their historical contexts, as well as knowledge of aesthetic and psychological theories for evaluating art.

The cost of not having a comprehensive base of content knowledge can be prohibitive; for example, students can receive incorrect information and develop misconceptions about the content area (National Research Council, 2000; Pfundt, & Duit, 2000). Yet content knowledge, in and of itself, is an ill-structured domain, and as the culture wars (Zimmerman, 2002), the Great Books controversies (Bloom, 1987; Casement, 1997; Levine, 1996), and court battles over the teaching of evolution (Pennock, 2001) demonstrate, issues relating to curriculum content can be areas of significant contention and disagreement.

Pedagogical Knowledge

Pedagogical knowledge (PK) is teachers' deep knowledge about the processes and practices or methods of teaching and learning. They encompass, among other things, overall educational purposes, values, and aims. This generic form of knowledge applies to understanding how students learn, general classroom management skills, lesson planning, and student assessment. It includes knowledge about techniques or methods used in the classroom; the nature of the target audience; and strategies for evaluating student understanding. A teacher with deep pedagogical knowledge understands how students construct knowledge and acquire skills and how they develop habits of mind and positive dispositions toward learning. As such, pedagogical knowledge requires an understanding of cognitive, social, and developmental theories of learning and how they apply to students in the classroom.

Pedagogical Content Knowledge

PCK is consistent with and similar to Shulman's idea of knowledge of pedagogy that is applicable to the teaching of specific content. Central to Shulman's conceptualization of PCK is the notion of the transformation of the subject matter for teaching. Specifically, according to Shulman (1986), this transformation occurs as the teacher interprets the subject matter, finds multiple ways to represent it, and adapts and tailors the instructional materials to alternative conceptions and students' prior knowledge. PCK covers the core business of teaching, learning, curriculum, assessment and reporting, such as the conditions that promote learning and the links among curriculum, assessment, and pedagogy. An awareness of common misconceptions and ways of looking at them, the importance of forging connections among different content-based ideas, students' prior knowledge, alternative teaching strategies, and the flexibility that comes from exploring alternative ways of looking at the same idea or problem are all essential for effective teaching.

Technology Knowledge

Technology knowledge (TK) is always in a state of flux-more so than the other two core knowledge domains in the TPACK framework (pedagogy and content). Thus, defining it is notoriously difficult. Any definition of technology knowledge is in danger of becoming outdated by the time this text has been published. That said, certain ways of thinking about and working with technology can apply to all technology tools and resources.

The definition of TK used in the TPACK framework is close to that of Fluency of Information Technology (FITness), as proposed by the Committee of Information Technology Literacy of the National Research Council (NRC, 1999). They argue that FITness goes beyond traditional notions of computer literacy to require that persons understand information technology broadly enough to apply it productively at work and in their everyday lives, to recognize when information technology can assist or impede the achievement of a goal, and to continually adapt to changes in information technology. FITness, therefore, requires a deeper, more essential understanding and mastery of information technology for information processing, communication, and problem solving than does the traditional definition of computer literacy. Acquiring TK in this manner enables a person to accomplish a variety of different tasks using information technology and to develop different ways of accomplishing a given task. This conceptualization of TK does not posit an "end state," but rather sees it developmentally, as evolving over a lifetime of generative, open-ended interaction with technology.

Technological Content Knowledge

Technology and content knowledge have a deep historical relationship. Progress in fields as diverse as medicine, history, archeology, and physics have coincided with the development of new technologies that afford the representation and manipulation of data in new and fruitful ways. Consider Roentgen's discovery of X-rays or the technique of carbon-14 dating and the influence of these technologies in the fields of medicine and archeology. Consider also how the advent of the digital computer changed the nature of physics and mathematics and placed a greater emphasis on the role of simulation in understanding phenomena. Technological changes have also offered new metaphors for understanding the world. Viewing the heart as a pump, or the brain as an information-processing machine are just some of the ways in which technologies have provided new perspectives for understanding phenomena. These representational and metaphorical connections are not superficial. They often have led to fundamental changes in the natures of the disciplines.

Understanding the impact of technology on the practices and knowledge of a given discipline is critical to developing appropriate technological tools for educational purposes. The choice of technologies affords and constrains the types of content ideas that can be taught. Likewise, certain content decisions can limit the types of technologies that can be used. Technology can constrain the types of possible representations, but also can afford the construction of newer and more varied representations. Furthermore, technological tools can provide a greater degree of flexibility in navigating across these representations.

TCK, then, is an understanding of the manner in which technology and content influence and constrain one another. Teachers need to master more than the subject matter they teach; they must also have a deep understanding of the manner in which the subject matter (or the kinds of representations that can be constructed) can be changed by the application of particular technologies. Teachers need to understand which specific technologies are best suited for addressing subject-matter learning in their domains and how the content dictates or perhaps even changes the technology-or vice versa.

Technological Pedagogical Knowledge

TPK is an understanding of how teaching and learning can change when particular technologies are used in particular ways. This includes knowing the pedagogical affordances and constraints of a range of technological tools as they relate to disciplinarily and developmentally appropriate pedagogical designs and strategies. To build TPK, a deeper understanding of the constraints and affordances of technologies and the disciplinary contexts within which they function is needed.

For example, consider how whiteboards may be used in classrooms. Because a whiteboard is typically immobile, visible to many, and easily editable, its uses in classrooms are presupposed. Thus, the whiteboard is usually placed at the front of the classroom and is controlled by the teacher. This location imposes a particular physical order in the classroom by determining the placement of tables and chairs and framing the nature of student-teacher interaction, since students often can use it only when called upon by the teacher. However, it would be incorrect to say that there is only one way in which whiteboards can be used. One has only to compare the use of a whiteboard in a brainstorming meeting in an advertising agency setting to see a rather different use of this technology. In such a setting, the whiteboard is not under the purview of a single individual. It can be used by anybody in the group, and it becomes the focal point around which discussion and the negotiation/construction of meaning occurs. An understanding of the affordances of technology and how they can be leveraged differently according to changes in context and purposes is an important part of understanding TPK.

TPK becomes particularly important because most popular software programs are not designed for educational purposes. Software programs such as the Microsoft Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Entourage, and MSN Messenger) are usually designed for business environments. Web-based technologies such as blogs or podcasts are designed for purposes of entertainment, communication, and social networking. Teachers need to reject functional fixedness (Duncker, 1945) and develop skills to look beyond most common uses for technologies, reconfiguring them for customized pedagogical purposes. Thus, TPK requires a forward-looking, creative, and open-minded seeking of technology use, not for its own sake but for the sake of advancing student learning and understanding.

Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge

TPACK is an emergent form of knowledge that goes beyond all three "core" components (content, pedagogy, and technology). Technological pedagogical content knowledge is an understanding that emerges from interactions among content, pedagogy, and technology knowledge. Underlying truly meaningful and deeply skilled teaching with technology, TPACK is different from knowledge of all three concepts individually. Instead, TPACK is the basis of effective teaching with technology, requiring an understanding of the representation of concepts using technologies; pedagogical techniques that use technologies in constructive ways to teach content; knowledge of what makes concepts difficult or easy to learn and how technology can help redress some of the problems that students face; knowledge of students' prior knowledge and theories of epistemology; and knowledge of how technologies can be used to build on existing knowledge to develop new epistemologies or strengthen old ones.

By simultaneously integrating knowledge of technology, pedagogy and content, expert teachers bring TPACK into play any time they teach. Each situation presented to teachers is a unique combination of these three factors, and accordingly, there is no single technological solution that applies for every teacher, every course, or every view of teaching. Rather, solutions lie in the ability of a teacher to flexibly navigate the spaces defined by the three elements of content, pedagogy, and technology and the complex interactions among these elements in specific contexts. Ignoring the complexity inherent in each knowledge component or the complexities of the relationships among the components can lead to oversimplified solutions or failure. Thus, teachers need to develop fluency and cognitive flexibility not just in each of the key domains (T, P, and C), but also in the manner in which these domains and contextual parameters interrelate, so that they can construct effective solutions. This is the kind of deep, flexible, pragmatic, and nuanced understanding of teaching with technology we involved in considering TPACK as a professional knowledge construct.

The act of seeing technology, pedagogy, and content as three interrelated knowledge bases is not straightforward. As said before,

... separating the three components (content, pedagogy, and technology) ... is an analytic act and one that is difficult to tease out in practice. In actuality, these components exist in a state of dynamic equilibrium or, as the philosopher Kuhn (1977) said in a different context, in a state of ''essential tension''.... Viewing any of these components in isolation from the others represents a real disservice to good teaching. Teaching and learning with technology exist in a dynamic transactional relationship (Bruce, 1997; Dewey & Bentley, 1949; Rosenblatt, 1978) between the three components in our framework; a change in any one of the factors has to be ''compensated'' by changes in the other two. (Mishra & Koehler, 2006, p. 1029)

This compensation is most evident whenever using a new educational technology suddenly forces teachers to confront basic educational issues and reconstruct the dynamic equilibrium among all three elements. This view inverts the conventional perspective that pedagogical goals and technologies are derived from content area curricula. Things are rarely that simple, particularly when newer technologies are employed. The introduction of the Internet, for example - particularly the rise of online learning - is an example of the arrival of a technology that forced educators to think about core pedagogical issues, such as how to represent content on the Web and how to connect students with subject matter and with one another (Peruski & Mishra, 2004).

Teaching with technology is a difficult thing to do well. The TPACK framework suggests that content, pedagogy, technology, and teaching/learning contexts have roles to play individually and together. Teaching successfully with technology requires continually creating, maintaining, and re-establishing a dynamic equilibrium among all components. It is worth noting that a range of factors influences how this equilibrium is reached.

Implications of the TPACK Framework

We have argued that teaching is a complex, ill-structured domain. Underlying this complexity, however, are three key components of teacher knowledge: understanding of content, understanding of teaching, and understanding of technology. The complexity of technology integration comes from an appreciation of the rich connections of knowledge among these three components and the complex ways in which these are applied in multifaceted and dynamic classroom contexts.

Since the late 1960's a strand of educational research has aimed at understanding and explaining "how and why the observable activities of teachers' professional lives take on the forms and functions they do" (Clark & Petersen, 1986, p. 255; Jackson, 1968). A primary goal of this research is to understand the relationships between two key domains: (a) teacher thought processes and knowledge and (b) teachers' actions and their observable effects. The current work on the TPACK framework seeks to extend this tradition of research and scholarship by bringing technology integration into the kinds of knowledge that teachers need to consider when teaching. The TPACK framework seeks to assist the development of better techniques for discovering and describing how technology-related professional knowledge is implemented and instantiated in practice. By better describing the types of knowledge teachers need (in the form of content, pedagogy, technology, contexts and their interactions), educators are in a better position to understand the variance in levels of technology integration occurring.

In addition, the TPACK framework offers several possibilities for promoting research in teacher education, teacher professional development, and teachers' use of technology. It offers options for looking at a complex phenomenon like technology integration in ways that are now amenable to analysis and development. Moreover, it allows teachers, researchers, and teacher educators to move beyond oversimplified approaches that treat technology as an "add-on" instead to focus again, and in a more ecological way, upon the connections among technology, content, and pedagogy as they play out in classroom contexts.

References

Bloom, A. (1987). The closing of the American mind: How higher education has failed democracy and impoverished the souls of today's students. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Bromley, H. (1998). Introduction: Data-driven democracy? Social assessment of educational computing. In H. Bromley & M. Apple (Eds.), Education, technology, power (pp. 1-28). Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

Bruce, B. C. (1993). Innovation and social change. In B. C. Bruce, J. K. Peyton, & T. Batson (Eds.), Network-based classrooms (pp. 9-32). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Bruce, B. C. (1997). Literacy technologies: What stance should we take? Journal of Literacy Research, 29(2), 289-309.

Bruce, B. C., & Hogan, M. C. (1998). The disappearance of technology: Toward an ecological model of literacy. In D. Reinking, M. McKenna, L. Labbo, & R. Kieffer (Eds.), Handbook of literacy and technology: Transformations in a post-typographic world (pp. 269-281). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Casement, W. (1997). The great canon controversy: The battle of the books in higher education. Somerset, NJ: Transaction Publishers.

Clark, C. M., & Peterson, P. (1986). Teachers' thought processes. In M. C. Wittrock (Ed.), Handbook of research on teaching (3rd ed.; pp. 255-296). New York: Macmillan.

Dewey, J., & Bentley, A.F. (1949). Knowing and the known. Boston: Beacon.

Duncker, K. (1945). On problem solving. Psychological Monographs, 58(5), 1-110.

Ertmer, P. A. (2005). Teacher pedagogical beliefs: The final frontier in our quest for technology integration. Educational Technology, Research and Development, 53(4), 25-39.

Glaser. R. (1984). Education and thinking: The role of knowledge. American Psychology, 39(2), 93-104.

Jackson, P. W. (1968). Life in the classroom. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Koehler, M.J., & Mishra, P. (2008). Introducing TPCK. AACTE Committee on Innovation and Technology (Ed.), The handbook of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) for educators (pp. 3-29). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Kuhn, T. (1977). The essential tension. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.

Leinhardt, G., & Greeno, J.G. (1986). The cognitive skill of teaching. Journal of Educational Psychology, 78(2), 75-95.

Levine, L. W. (1996). The opening of the American mind. Canons, culture, and history. Boston: Beacon Press.

Mishra, P., Spiro, R.J., & Feltovich, P.J. (1996). Technology, representation, and cognition: The prefiguring of knowledge in cognitive flexibility hypertexts. In H. van Oostendorp & A. de Mul (Eds.), Cognitive aspects of electronic text processing (pp. 287-305). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. (2007). Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK): Confronting the wicked problems of teaching with technology. In C. Crawford et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education International Conference 2007 (pp. 2214-2226). Chesapeake, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education.

Mishra, P., & Koehler, M.J. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for integrating technology in teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017-1054.

National Research Council. (1999). Being fluent with information technology literacy. Computer science and telecommunications board commission on physical sciences, mathematics, and applications. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

National Research Council. (2000) How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Papert, S. (1980): Mindstorms: Children, computers and powerful ideas. New York: Basic Books.

Pennock, R. (2001). Intelligent design creationism and its critics: Philosophical, theological & scientific perspectives. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Peruski, L., & Mishra, P. (2004). Webs of activity in online course design and teaching. ALT-J: Research in Learning Technology, 12(1), 37-49.

Pfundt, H., & Duit, R. (2000). Bibliography: Student's alternative frameworks and science education (5th ed.). Kiel, Germany: University of Kiel.

Putnam, R.T., & Borko, H. (2000). What do new views of knowledge and thinking have to say about research on teacher learning? Educational Researcher, 29(1), 4-15.

Rosenblatt, L.M. (1978). The reader, the text, the poem: The transactional theory of literary work. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.

Shulman, L. (1986). Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher, 15(2), 4-14.

Shulman, L. S. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57(1), 1-22.

Simon, H. (1969). Sciences of the artificial. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Spiro, R.J., & Jehng, J.-Ch. (1990), Cognitive flexibility and hypertext: Theory and technology for the nonlinear and mutlidimensional traversal of complex subject matter. In D. Nix & R. Spiro (Eds.), Cognition, education, and multimedia: Exploring ideas in high technology (pp. 163-204). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Zimmerman, J. (2002). Whose America? Culture wars in the public schools. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Author Note:

The authors contributed equally to this work. We rotate order of authorship in our writing.

Matthew J. Koehler
Michigan State University
mkoehler@msu.edu

Punya Mishra
Michigan State University
punya@msu.edu

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What Is Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge?

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Editors' Note: For the benefit of readers who are unfamiliar with the notion of technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge (TPACK), we offer the following condensed and updated depiction by Mishra and Koehler (2007), which was presented originally at the annual conference of the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education in 2007.

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Video + Article - Understanding SAMR, TPACK, and Other Tech Integration Frameworks

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Video + Article - Understanding SAMR, TPACK, and Other Tech Integration Frameworks

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Does your institution have a framework for integrating technology into the classroom? Those of you nodding your head-do you know what SAMR, TPACK, or whatever framework you use actually means?

Kellie Ady, our Director of Instructional Strategy, and I decided to dispel any confusion around these terms in one of our LEAP Webinars. We discuss the frameworks in detail, including how they might look in a Schoology implementation. We also share creative ideas and applications that can be immediately used in your own classroom.

This is not your "pie in the sky" discussion, folks. You'll see that when Kellie and I address the SAMR model, for example, we will show you what Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition looks like in a discussion.

The Substitution discussion is the same as a discussion you'd have in person, just digital. An augmented discussion may enable them to contribute links to resources, videos, or images.

Augmentation of a discussion provides more avenues for students to contribute and more ways for student understanding to be assessed.

Is the learning enhanced? It may or may not be. This is just the second level or layer to your technology integration.

Let's look at Modification for our discussion example. This is where we start to think more about how students are responding.

While we tend to think of discussion responses as text-based, online discussions enable students to record a video response in the style of a newscast, post their own audio reading of a poem, or share images of a model they've built.

You'll notice that the S and the A in SAMR are more instructor centered. As we move into the M and R, this framework becomes more student centered.

Finally, we have Redefinition (the R in SAMR). Redefinition is when technology opens up avenues for learning that were previously inconceivable. Imagine hosting a shared discussion between your students and students in Switzerland. This can add numerous cultural layers to your students' understanding.

These are just a few examples of the specifics we dive into in our LEAP webinar. So grab some popcorn, a comfy seat, and join our discussion of these different technology implementation models.
Questions? Thoughts? Firsthand experiences? Let us know below in the comments section or tweet me @brdkmp #NerdChills.
About Schoology's LEAP Webinars

Schoology's LEAP Webinar is a global forum of Schoology Enterprise leaders hosted by Senior Instructional Designer Bradley Kemp. On the third Thursday of each month Bradley (and often Director of Instructional Strategy Kellie Ady) take an in-depth look at best practices, features, and hidden gems of Schoology. This webinar is for anyone supporting technology integration, instruction, and Schoology Enterprise adoption among teachers and faculty. Be on the look out for our monthly LEAP registration emails.

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Understanding SAMR, TPACK, and Other Tech Integration Frameworks

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Does your institution have a framework for integrating technology into the classroom? Those of you nodding your head-do you know what SAMR, TPACK, or whatever framework you use actually means? Kellie Ady, our Director of Instructional Strategy, and I decided to dispel any confusion around these terms in one of our LEAP Webinars.

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Video - Technology Integration Frameworks Video

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Video - Technology Integration Frameworks Video

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Article: A back-to-school guide for teachers and parents about social shifts, technological developments and their relationship to each other

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Article: A back-to-school guide for teachers and parents about social shifts, technological developments and their relationship to each other

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1. TREND #1: Cyber Security for kids

2. TREND #2: Era of Relative Truth

3. TREND #3: Data and Cloud

4. TREND #4: Technology and BYOD

5. TREND#5: Gamification of Learning

6. TREND #6: Augmented Reality and Emerging Tech

7. TREND#7: Creative Makerspaces

1.Anxiety, cyber-bullying and other challenges for today's youth

To start, I want to recap on a range of topics that are among the key challenges for today's students and young adults. Firstly, there is cyber-bullying. Not a new phenomenon itself, it has recently been shown that 42% of US students have been threatened online at least once, and that half of all victims fail to communicate their problems to teachers or parents[1]. As schools slowly adopt 1:1 device spread or Bring-Your-Own-Device-programs (BYOD), more of these incidents occur within school hours and -facilities.

Secondly, there is student anxiety. Partially due to the era of high-stakes standardized testing (compare Jeremy S. Adams on The Educators Room [2]) that treats students as an anonymous mass in a one-fits-all-approach, and the extreme stress often connected to that, students become increasingly prone to anxiety, fear of failing tests, fainting in class and seemingly insuperable mental blockades. Individual strengths are not often enough recognized and fostered by the prevalent systems, and students are falsely categorized as less capable than others upon generic criteria and assessment methods.

Especially students that have difficulties to make friends quickly and blend in with their class, have trouble to keep up with the curriculum or feel unappreciated as human beings in their school find solace and retreat in virtual online spaces that are largely out of the reach of adults' control. Further increasing isolation and often encouraging feelings of being an outsider, this can then lead to dangerous or even life-threatening situations in the form of self-harm and suicidal tendencies. Paraphrasing Jeremy Adams, one can say that after all, the opportunities for new ways of learning that emerge from progress are endless, but so are the opportunities for reckless and dangerous behaviour.

There are countless other issues connected to this, many of which revolve around mental health, but at this point we want to direct the reader towards the solutions that are out there for the problems that are a side-effect of the great benefits that technology has for education: As a first example, activity on school devices can be monitored with the respective software, which can detect when students bully others online, are being bullied or when dangerous situations emerge, such as when searching for ways of suicide online. After all, being proactive in detecting and deterring students' problems has become a key responsibility of the modern educator on the individual, school and district level

2.Politicized schools and the era of relative truth

Moving slowly from more social issues to technology, the next big topic that has to appear on this list is the issue of schools becoming hotspots for political discussions and the source of political movements such as the Parkland survivors' #neveragain-movement . Schools nowadays are "at the intersection of division and discord", to quote Jeremy Adams again. From transgender bathrooms to gun-law discussions, equal rights issues and environmental protection, the topics that have found their way into the classroom, not at last because of parents' and teachers' individual efforts to spread their beliefs, are countless.

It, therefore, seems like some educators need to be reminded that, in school, what should be taught is not what to think, but how to think. Being aware and considerate of the big range of possible opinions on complex topics should be a core goal of every teacher, along with abolishing narrow-mindedness and age-old beliefs.

The same is true for what is often called 'helicopter parents'. Nowadays, we are drifting towards a system in which the student can never be wrong, and towards a parent community that incites major conflicts because of a students' feeling of being treated unfair, or the teacher being "disrespectful" to them.

We are not saying that this is never true, as we just pointed out that not enough students speak up about their problems in school. What we are saying is that, in this time and age, where fake news dominate the (social) media landscape and reason and facts are no longer viewed as the objective truth, there is a certain need to remind students that, although everyone is entitled to his or her own feelings, these feelings do not justify groundless accusations or disruptive behaviour and can not be allowed to be used as a tool for making teachers' lives unnecessarily tough[2].

3.Data Analytics and Cloud Computing

At this point, I doubt that there are educators out there that have never heard about at least one of these words, as they have been around for some time. Anyway, they act as the first of the bridges that we want to span to connect the problems listed so far, with the solutions offered by technology.

The point where it becomes incredibly hard for the average, human educator to identify individual student's strengths, weaknesses and problem areas, is the point where data analytics and algorithms come in. Tracking, monitoring and analysing large pools of data allows conclusions regarding the holistic performance (and performance growth or decline) of single students, classes or schools in various fields, compare them and, for example, identify best practices.

Understanding your students better should be a constant aim of yours, simply because you as a teacher or parent care about them and their academic success. In the end, your success as a teacher will always be measured upon the basis of your students' success. And like with every good research that aims to understand something better, the most consistent findings can be made through observable, empirical data, viewed and evaluated by an attentive researcher.

Cloud computing then on the other hand makes it possible to share this data online, view it from multiple devices at the same time and even open it up to parents or other relevant bodies, decreasing the risk of the accusations based on relative truth occurring. Software like Google Classroom allows you to share tasks and answers, homework and other data with your student so it is accessible from home, ending the times of homework "getting eaten by dogs" and allowing direct access to and sharing of online resource in classroom discussions.

4.Technology to create, 1:1 networks and BYOD trends

As mentioned before, 1:1 device spread is becoming increasingly popular, and so are BYOD programs as a way to ensure this spread without schools having to pay a fortune for new devices. Here, educators should also be aware that an alternative to trying to raise funds for new devices is buying refurbished ones, which, once a reliable supplier is found, usually perform equally good as new ones and can often even reduce the probability of failures occurring, as they have already been refurbished completely and potential weak points have been 'reinforced'.

What do we now mean with technology to create? Well, there are two sides from which every online platform or network can be used: You can consume content, and/or you can create content . However, there seems to be a general trend among children and teenagers in recent years to consume more than to create, with big YouTube channels consolidating millions of subscribers and popular social media influencers being one of the top choices for promotion channels among businesses today. This imbalance results in many adults perceiving devices solely as a distraction from life and education, as something very unhealthy that leads to social media addictions.

Not regarding whether you belong to this group or not, is has to be pointed out that technology is being developed to facilitate, accelerate and enhance aspects of our life, and this holds true for content creation. The possibilities that mobile devices offer for creating educational resources on the teachers', and for doing homework and preparing creative presentation or videos on the students' side are endless, and it has already been shown that students, who are usually reluctant to speak to the teacher in class, often excel in preparing video recordings as answers to questions, where they feel safe and can start over again as many times as they want. This then acts as a first step to integrate them better into the classroom society and make them realize their own strengths, strongly cutting the probability of developing depression and anxiety.

The range of tools available is endless, and you definitely should start looking for the ones that suit you best. To start, have a look at Jennifer Gonzales' list of the six best EdTech tools of 2018 . All of them are so simple, yet so amazingly promising, and all of them have an incredible potential to empower children to express their own individuality and personality, discover their own strengths and learn with fun.

5.Games and gamification in Teaching

Yes, games and gaming has been around a long time, and so have learning games, and there generally are very mixed feeling towards all of these topics. But long gone are the days of games being a pure recreational tool; today, gaming has found its way into the business world in what is called 'Gamification' and is being used to increase productivity and motivation by e.g. designing incentive programs for employees that feature rewards, leader boards and badges and not uncommonly are mobile-enabled.

Being defined as the "integration of gaming elements, mechanics and frameworks into non-game situations and scenarios"[3], Gamification has been shown to stimulate very fast learning and enhance productivity and creativity as competition is paired with fun, and gamification elements are quickly gaining support by educators. The potential benefits that have already been linked to gamification make for a long list and include e.g. increased participation, engagement and loyalty.

There are several ways to bring gamification into your classroom, from establishing an Experience Point (EXP) System that features different levels of skill mastery to awarding students with badges. No matter how involved you yourself are with gaming and how much you know about common game elements, there is always a way to make your grading system or homework collection more interesting by integrating colourful or creative elements and spicing up the vocabulary used for the procedures and systems used in your classroom with terms that are closer and more familiar to your students. For example, make the homework a treasure hunt or 'quest' or let your students work towards the completion of a progress bar (like e.g. the progress bar used by LinkedIn to incentivize you to complete your profile) over the academic year. There really are no limits to your own creativity once you start brainstorming.

6.Augmented Reality & Immersive learning environments. Technology Trend

Then, within a stone's throw of Gamification, there lies the area of Mixed Reality technologies, a word that acts as an umbrella term for all the immersive technologies like Virtual Reality (see for example Oculus VR or the PlayStation VR System) and Augmented Reality (Snapchat Animal Filters, the new iPhone X animated emojis or even Pokémon Go).

While Virtual Reality, where the user completely "enters" a virtual scenario by isolating him/herself from their environment with a headset, is usually rather unsuitable for in-classroom use, the potential of Augmented Reality (AR) is massive. Augmented Reality, as the word says, augments or enhances your real-life environment by analysing it through the camera of a device and then adding digital elements to it, which are usually triggered once a particular real-life element has been detected (also called a 'marker').

These technologies can then be used to mimic realistic situations as an innovative approach to training and teaching learners in all types of setting and industry and apply their skills to real, yet risk-free situations. The field of Immersive Learning Environments (ILEs) is composed of various learning techniques, including 3D visualization technologies and simulations, many of which have been shown to strongly foster student engagement and accelerate knowledge and skill acquisition (based on a study conducted by the United States National Library of Medicine). Looking at the emerging consensus that ILEs are among the best ways to become familiar with topics that are difficult to explain and visualize on a 2D-medium, such as anatomy, architecture and industrial production systems, understanding that the same holds true for children who are e.g. trying to understand geometrical shapes seems like a no-brainer.

At this point we would like to direct you at our own business, CleverBooks, a Dublin-based provider of cost-effective Augmented Reality solutions for primary education, focusing on bringing subjects to life through 3D visualization. We have just released our Geography World Map with AR that can be viewed through our free mobile apps and which, besides its' normal function as a paper world map, includes a digital, AR layer that can be explored by students and with which they can learn about the plants, animals, countries and cultural landmarks that can be found in the different regions of our planet. All our products are curriculum-based and function as a comprehensive supplementary teaching aids to your normal teaching resources, and can lead to tremendous learning in 5 key skills that kids will need for the jobs of the 21 st century . Getting familiar with our products takes less than an hour, and teachers can start implementing them the next day.

7.Creative Makerspaces as Back to School

With this last topic, we want to complete the small journey which we started looking at the problems of today's education system, ending with one of the most innovative ways to cope with them and adapt education to our modern age.

Creative Makerspaces, also called FabLabs, Hackerspaces or similar, are workshop-like areas that allow students to explore their own capabilities and fantasy with the help of most innovative technological equipment. Often used as creative business environments for start-up founders and innovators to gather around and generate the ideas of tomorrow, the same kind of collaborative, tangible experience revolving around creating and inventing can be achieved in schools. 64% of middle school students believe that technology makes their learning more interesting, and an environment that acts like a library equipped with a 3D-printer, a range of creative computer software and hardware and other equipment for creative arts like drawing or sculpting therefore can be of incredible value.

With the adoption of STEM-policies in many countries in recent years, makerspace should be given additional attention, especially when they can be combined with ILEs and Mixed Reality Tech. An accessible learning environment that motivates intentional play and "safe risk", one that is inclusive and flexible and based on most innovative technology holds the potential to draw huge numbers of kids towards science and technology, topics which can be so hard to make interesting for teachers otherwise, and can be so much fun to explore when the right visualization techniques are used.

The downside to this, obviously, is the cost of this kind of high-tech equipment. Although 3D printers and many comparable devices have become much more affordable in recent years, teachers and schools on a tight budget should especially be looking at virtual, online makerspaces that usually provide an excellent selection of creative software and can, just like physical makerspaces, contribute strongly to children finding their own individual approach towards knowledge retention, discovering their strengths and interests and to experience truly valuable, collaborative learning.
To close this off
All of these 7 topics entail enormous potential for further research and discussion, and the best we can do in this article is to give you an overview of what issues to investigate further. In the end, it comes down to the effort that the individual teacher or parent makes to keep up, and we believe that it is among the duties of the modern educator to never stop learning, themselves.

What are the biggest problems in your class, school, district or country? What are the challenges that you are facing as an educator, or see your students or children face in this digital, rapidly-paced time and age? What value do you see in the technologies listed here, and what other solutions are you wishing for?
Please note that none of the research cited in this article has been conducted by the author himself or CleverBooks Ltd. and that the full copyright remains with the authors of the sources listed below. Should you encounter problems with the way your article or findings are displayed in this article, please do not hesitate to contact me at sales@cleverbooks.eu and we will solve your query together.
Sources, References and proposed further reading

[1] Ascione, L. at https://www.eschoolnews.com/2018/01/05/industry-experts-10-education-trends-2018/

Gilbert, G. (2016) at http://www.precioustatus.com/new-technology-trends-in-education/

[3] Huotari, K., & Hamari, J (2012), "Defining Gamification - A Service Marketing Perspective"

Holloway, S. (2017) at https://tophat.com/blog/gamification-education-class/

Kominiak, T. (2016) at https://www.k12insight.com/trusted/whats-next-for-education-emerging-tech-trends-for-2017/

New Media Centres Website at https://www.nmc.org/pdf/2013-technology-outlook-for-STEM-education.pdf

[2] Strauss, V. (2018) at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2018/04/18/ten-problems-teachers-did-not-have-to-deal-with-a-decade-ago/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.42ff08a2a0ee

Nelson, P. (2016) at https://www.networkworld.com/article/3092446/smartphones/we-touch-our-phones-2617-times-a-day-says-study.html

Raupp, A. (2017) at https://www.siliconrepublic.com/careers/stem-education-emerging-trends

Please feel free to like, share, and especially comment; we would love to hear your case or your point of view.

From A for "Augmented Reality" to Z for "Zero-training technologies": The 7 big topics you must know about to not fall behind as an educator in 2018/2019

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Back to School Technology Trends for Teaching and Learning. FAQ

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TREND #1: Cyber Security for kids TREND #2: Era of Relative Truth TREND #3: Data and Cloud TREND #4: Technology and BYOD TREND#5: Gamification of Learning TREND #6: Augmented Reality and Emerging Tech TREND#7: Creative Makerspaces To start, I want to recap on a range of topics that are among the key challenges for today's students and young adults.

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Article + Videos + Resources - 10 Edtech Tools to Try in 2018

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Article + Videos + Resources - 10 Edtech Tools to Try in 2018

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The EdTech industry continues to grow with new products. These edtech products are available to educators and school administrators. Each one can make a big difference in your teaching and your students learning.

Do you want to introduce a new product in the classroom? Here's a complete list of must-try Edtech Resources and Technology Tools for Teachers:

Any student can create, publish, and share online books using Book Creator. Students can combine text, images, audio, and video to create:

Interactive stories

Digital portfolios

Research journals

Poetry books

Science reports

Instruction manuals

'About me' books

Comic adventures

They can choose a layout and insert Google images straight from the app into locked panels. They also have the option to create a book from scratch. They can customize the font, add shapes and stickers, hyperlink the text to other online resources, and import audio and video files.

Once the book is ready to publish, the pages turn like a real book with audio and video options inside the app.

It's also an app perfect for teachers. They can create books and put them in a private library or a shared library for you and your students.

Introducing this new tool to your students can open up great opportunities for learning.

Turn any page on the internet into a lesson with the Insert Learning tool. Teachers can add some questions and add a few commentaries while inserting a related video. You can do all that with Insert Learning.

It's basically an extension you can add to your Chrome browser. Once done, you can turn a web page into a lesson in just minutes.

Highlighting text, adding notes, and embedding your own questions can all be done using Insert Learning. Other content like YouTube videos, ThingLink images, flashcards from Quizlet, mind maps from Coggle, even videos you record straight from your webcam can also be included in your lesson.

It doesn't stop there! You can also grade your students right inside the app with a special code through Google Classroom. Your students' responses will be sent to a teacher dashboard.

This tool is great for engaging your students with dynamic lessons. Don't be afraid to experiment with tools to see what works and what doesn't.

Flipgrid is an app where teachers or students can pose a question and prompt others to answer it using short videos. Once the video is finished, they can also leave a response to other videos.

If you are doing a book review or a film review in class, this would be the perfect tool.

Flipgrid is the leading video discussion platform used by millions of PreK to Ph.D. educators, students, families, and organizations in more than 150 countries! Create a Grid (that's your classroom or group), add Topics to spark the discussion, and your community builds a dialogue as they share short video responses.

This app is perfect for social studies and history teachers. It is an online collection of primary sources, news artifacts, and lessons that help teachers teach media literacy, civics, and all aspects of the First Amendment. This gives your students a closer look at history.

You can search for content several ways. You can try it by state, century, theme, topic or type of resource. There are various forms of content as well: map, a newspaper, a quiz. You can share it using a URL which can last for weeks.

This app must be on every history teacher's list.

This tool guesses what you're trying to draw. It's a cool app to begin some sketching. It gives you a strip of illustrated images to choose from, based on the object you're trying to draw.

You can choose that object, add color, resize it, or basically manipulate it however you want. You can also turn OFF the automatic feature and just sketch without any assistance.

Once complete, you can download it as a PNG file, share it on your social media.

Autodraw is perfect for dual coding, visualization, and non-linguistic representation when teaching. Teachers can use this app to add icons or illustrations to your classroom materials.

Some teachers also use this for early finishers in their class. You can also recommend it to students to assist them when they're trying to create projects.

Quizalize aims to make quizzes a form of friendly online competition. Teachers can create quizzes that test subject knowledge or can pick from a selection of 20,000 premade quizzes. Then, students can be grouped into teams, play as individuals at home, or sit down to a formal test offered through this tool.

Make Newsletters, Presentations, and other forms of Communications with Sway. Powered by Microsoft, you start by selecting a template, a topic, or a document you already have on your computer.

You can insert images and videos inserted, forms added, and content embedded. Then you can add content without toggling between tabs. Easily drop in photos, videos, and other multimedia. Note that Sway is integrated with your device and the web.

It's a good alternative to Powerpoint when making presentations in class.

Edmodo is a platform where parents, students, and teachers, where they can all be involved in education.

With intuitive features and unlimited storage, quickly create groups, assign homework, schedule quizzes, manage progress, and more. With everything on one platform, Edmodo is designed to give you complete control over your digital classroom.

Edmodo is a great way to connect all the stakeholders in a child's education.#

Designed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), Illumination provides teachers with a platform where they can find hundreds of lesson plans, activities and ways to improve their teaching practices. Educators can pick grade specific games and content, ensuring that their students are on par with standards set by the NCTM.

This EdTech tool is so easy to use. It gives both students and teachers a space to create interactive presentations. Teachers can use this to upload unique content. Students can produce mind maps, comic book strips, and presentation with audio, and visual qualities.
About the Author Farid Gasim is Founder of Edarabia.com and has extensive experience in serving the Middle East education industry. As an integral part of media agency, Grafdom, Farid has developed marketing strategies for institutions and government agencies. He is a notable speaker with over 12 years of marketing expertise and numerous public engagements at New York University, Zayed University, Higher Colleges of Technology and other industry events & forums.

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The EdTech industry continues to grow with new products. These edtech products are available to educators and school administrators. Each one can make a big difference in your teaching and your students learning. Do you want to introduce a new product in the classroom? Here's a complete list of must-try Edtech Resources and Technology...

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Article: 9 Major Trends That Will Dominate Ed Tech

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Article: 9 Major Trends That Will Dominate Ed Tech

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What's Hot

9 Major Trends That Will Dominate Ed Tech

Delivering authentic experiences in the classroom and learning how to juggle district data are two wide themes that will monopolize education discussion in the next 12 months.

On a recent day in late October the mayor of Johnsonville was setting up a 125-gallon aquarium, which would eventually host a pair of bala sharks, a catfish, three oscars and live coral for real-life science lessons on saltwater habitats. Anthony Johnson's fourth and fifth graders at Isenberg Elementary School in Salisbury, NC refer to the tank as "Lake Johnsonville."

Bringing the real world into the classroom is something a lot of teachers are trying to do. It's something Johnson specializes in. His students are issued funds when they become residents, then they're expected to pay bills, find work and learn by doing projects. And the mayor is a stickler for keeping schedules, so his students learn how to work with Google calendars to maintain their obligations and appointments. Earlier in the day, a student was waiting at home with his district-issued iPad, ready to connect Johnson to his mom for an online parent-teacher conference. "That kid set a reminder. He knew at 11:10 we needed to be on that [video] call," said Johnson. "When I turned it on, he was there waiting for me."

Project-, problem-, big-picture, or competency-based learning all describe movements afoot to immerse students in authentic experiences, which proponents of PBL have long heralded as the route to deeper learning. The challenge for teachers, of course, is coming up with those engaging lessons.

At Isenberg, Johnson relies on a school subscription to DefinedSTEM, a repository of resources that lays out the basics through videos, then provides experiments and projects - "performance tasks" in DefinedSTEM lingo - for students to follow as they learn new concepts. "Everything is there for the kids," Johnson said. "It's great because I'm not the teacher doing that problem-based learning. I become the facilitator."

Tapping into young people's interests in how the world works is just one ed tech practice we see on the rise. But it's not the only one. This article explores how a handful of trends - adoption of virtual reality, growth of making, a bigger emphasis on computational thinking and continuing concerns about the protection of school data - are evolving in new ways that we believe will dominate education conversations for the rest of the year.
Virtual Reality
Sure, there's plenty of talk in schools about how virtual reality (and its lesser-used partner, augmented reality) can deliver experiences to students that they might not otherwise have. What's beginning to bubble up more frequently, however, according to Chelsea Waite, program director for global learning at Digital Promise Global, isn't so much the consumption as how students are making use of new technologies "to be creators."

Waite is one of the leads behind the 360 Filmmakers Challenge, a program that works with Oculus to outfit schools with VR technology, including headsets and cameras (as well as basic training), and then encourages students to make videos on topics that matter to them. As a result of the filmmaking projects, the organization explained in a report issued earlier this year based on surveys and interviews with teachers and students, participating teens gained technical and creative production skills, got exposure to new career possibilities, increased their abilities to take in the perspective of others and improved their abilities to communicate and work on teams. Just as important, the survey found, the projects had "personal importance' for the students; and those who made the videos found the projects "more interesting" than other school work.

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9 Major Trends That Will Dominate Ed Tech -- THE Journal

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What's Hot Delivering authentic experiences in the classroom and learning how to juggle district data are two wide themes that will monopolize education discussion in the next 12 months. On a recent day in late October the mayor of Johnsonville was setting up a 125-gallon aquarium, which would eventually host a pair of bala sharks, a catfish, three oscars and live coral for real-life science lessons on saltwater habitats.

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Article + Resources: 90 hottest EdTech Tools

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Article + Resources: 90 hottest EdTech Tools

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If you work in education, you'll know there's a HUGE array of applications, services, products and tools created to serve a multitude of functions in education.

Tools for teaching and learning, parent-teacher communication apps, lesson planning software, home-tutoring websites, revision blogs, SEN education information, professional development qualifications and more.

There are so many companies creating new products for education, though, that it can be difficult to keep up - especially with the massive volumes of planning and marking teachers have to do, never mind finding the time to actually teach!

So how do you know which ones are the best?

Well, as a team of people passionate about education and learning, we decided to do a bit of research to help you out.

We've asked some of the best and brightest in education for their opinions on the hottest EdTech of 2020. These guys are the real deal - experts in education, teaching and new tech from all over the world from England to India, to New York and San Francisco. If it's just mobile applications you're looking for, check out our 60 best educational apps.

They've given us a list of 101 amazing, tried and tested tools that they absolutely could not live without as education professionals.

Looking for a new learning management system that fits your needs? Technology Advice have put together an excellent detailed breakdown of the market leaders and what features they offer. Read their trusted LMS reccomendations here.

Their recommendations include a host of free, paid and free-trial options. Ready to take a look?

1. Twinkl - Saving Teachers Valuable Time

Twinkl are the educational publishing company that is revolutionising the way teachers work worldwide, with content creators in the UK, US and Australia.

Experienced, passionate teachers have created over half a million lesson plans, classroom activities and teaching tools tailored specifically to you as a teacher to download as and when you need them. Twinkl takes the stress out of lesson planning, giving teachers more free time and significantly fewer headaches!

Twinkl are pioneering EdTech in the classroom. The Twinkl Go! hub provides interactive educational games and activities for computers, tablets and smartphones. Twinkl are also making exciting strides into the world of augmented reality with their collection of AR education materials.

With an average subscription price of £6 / $8.99 a month, we think it's complete no brainer to sign up to their full subscription package. Alternatively, you can try some free teaching resources by creating a free account.

Their motto is to help those who teach, and with their impressive forays into EdTech, we're sure that they will.

As recommended by Ben Collins

"Wisey is a really clever app that uses AI to generate curriculum aligned questions. You simply type in a topic, and it generates a range of questions, from multiple choice to open-ended, at whatever level your students are at. You can even upload your own resources and the AI will extract questions from it."

I think we're going to see more and more of these sorts of AI tools in future.

As recommended by Jon Corippo - CUE Chief Learning Officer

"GIMKIT- actually designed by a high school student and super popular with older students. Earn money for in-game prizes and even have "boss battles" where one player can take on the entire class."

Gimkit is a super innovative live quiz learning platform in which students answer questions on their own device at their own pace. Gimkit can be used in any classroom to introduce or review concepts; it's like a mashup of Kahoot! and Quizlet. The live gameplay is fast-paced and engaging like a game show, but when it's assigned for independent practice, Gimkit allows students to review on their own with many of the same game mechanics.

As recommended by Jennifer Gonzalez of Cult of Pedagogy

Floop is a cloud-based website where students can receive annotated feedback from teachers and peers. Students upload images of an assignment to the platform, and teachers put markers in places where they want to provide written feedback. Students are able to see and respond to comments, creating a feedback loop that allows teachers to see patterns of student learning.

Students get the feedback they need when they need it. Give feedback 4x faster than traditional methods with a digital dropbox and comment banks.

"What makes this tool unique is the mechanism that allows students to point directly to places on their work that they need help with, then get assistance that can also target specific spots on the assignment. We've been able to do that with writing assignments through tools like the commenting feature in Google Docs, but it hasn't been quite as available in other subject areas." Jennifer Gonzalez

As recommended by Yasir Shamim of purevpn.com

"I came across SplashLearn, a great application for teachers and kids. It has lots of useful content and great reporting features. It's great because as you get things correct it increases in complexity - so it continues to challenge even those learners that are ready to move on.
StudyPad's flagship product SplashLearn is transforming the way elementary school children in grades K-5 learn and study math through a highly engaging, and personalized program. SplashLearn is available across all digital platforms (iOS, Desktops, Android) and has been used by more than 30 million students worldwide."

6. Nearpod - Create, Engage and Assess Through Mobile Devices

As nominated by Beth Holland, Katrina Keene of the Teach-In Tech Gal blog, Debbie Sachs from Cult of Pedagogy, Michael Cohen of The Tech Rabbi, Jon Corippo and Courtney Kofeldt.

As a teacher, it can be difficult to create engaging lessons that fully capture the attention of all of your students. Harder still is creating lessons that encourage learning through interactivity and action.

Nearpod is an amazing tool that solves these problems.

First, Nearpod provides a host of pre-made, fully-interactive lessons developed by subject matter experts for all school levels and subjects. Furthermore, Nearpod allows teachers to import lessons from any file type and begin adding interactive elements, web-links or video snippets to them.

Educators can then synchronise their prepared lessons to all students devices, casting the lesson simultaneously to each student and able to monitor their progress throughout the lesson.

What really set's Nearpod out from the crowd is their innovative ideas for further enhancing interactive lessons. Nearpod users have access to Nearpod 3D, providing fully rotatable 3D images to use for teaching, and Nearpod VR, allowing integration with Smartphone VR headsets like Google Cardboard to create virtual field trips for students.

No wonder they were voted into the top spot!

7. Kahoot! - Making Learning Awesome!

As nominated by Michael Cohen of The Tech Rabbi, Bethany Petty ofTeaching With Technology, and Neil Jarrett of EdTech for Beginners.
Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform and one of the world's fastest-growing learning brands with more than 40 million monthly active users in 180 countries. Kahoot! makes it easy to create, discover, play and share fun learning games in minutes-for any subject, in any language, on any device, for all ages.

Launched in 2013, with the mission to make learning awesome, Kahoot!'s free game-based platform engages the heart, hand and mind, creating a wildly more social, meaningful and powerful pedagogical experience. Kahoot!'s platform and easy-to-use features not only attract educators and students but reach beyond the classroom to corporate powerhouses, sporting and cultural events, and any social and learning context.

Kahoot! allows teachers to quickly create fun learning games for students based around multiple choice questions. After creating the game, students can use any device to sign-in to the game 'room' using a unique code to complete lessons and compete against their peers.

Displaying the questions and game on a primary display encourages students to use their personal devices only for choosing their answer. This means group engagement and discussion is promoted throughout the session, creating what the Kahoot! team call 'campfire moments'.

Kahoot! then promotes students to proactively pursue their learning goals by creating their own Kahoots, attempting to beat previous scores and inciting class discussions around the learning topic.

Whether used as an attention grabber at the start of a lesson or a re-energising tactic part way through an intense revision class, Kahoot! Is surely a great tool for any teacher.

8. Buncee - Create, Present and Share Engaging Multimedia Lessons

As nominated by Nikolaos Chatzopoulos of Tech Trends for Teachers, Nicholas Clayton, and Shelly Terrell of 30 Goals Challenge for Teachers.

Buncee is a creation and presentation tool which supports educators as they foster the 4 Cs of learning in students: critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. Some of Buncee's many features include over 10k student-friendly graphics designed by their team to help make learning fun, the ability to record audio and video directly into a Buncee, integration with YouTube and Pixabay images and much more.

Students are able to engage and immerse themselves in what they are learning, be more engaged with the material, and therefore improve their comprehension. Buncee can be used to develop future-ready skills in students of all abilities. Students from as young as six and seven years old are using Buncee to create multimedia presentations which demonstrate learning acquisition, critical thinking and creativity, while also communicating stories.

Teachers integrate Buncee as a tool for individualized, differentiated instruction, language learning and special education, as well as lessons and projects for any subject. It is used as a classroom presentation tool for reviewing and introducing content aligned with curriculum standards. Additionally, Buncee is integrated into modes of expressed student learning including alternative book reports, research projects, digital storytelling, project-based learning, passion projects, and genius hour. With Buncee's easy to use creation canvas making learning fun is just a drag and drop away.

Our experts recommended using Buncee for outside-the-box lessons, such as creating digital posters, micro-movies or simple games as a class activity.

"A powerful, yet easy-to-use creative platform that empowers students" - Nikolaos Chatzopoulos

"Buncee hits all 4 C's by allowing students the opportunity to take a blank canvas and create something amazing. The company has awesome customer support, a content rich blog, and a gallery of ideas. As one of my student's said 'it's the best app we have used all year!' " - Laurie Guyon

As recommended by Quincy Smith of eslauthority.com & Daniel Christian

"One of the biggest adjustments we've seen teachers have to make is figuring out how to grade/mark assignments in an online environment.
As a solution for this, we've been recommending the Canvas LMS for their Speed Grader functionality. Canvas is a platform with a ton of features but we recommend teachers just start with what they need (in this case a solution to online grading) and get everyone familiar with it.
Even better is that Canvas has a free plan for teachers that has a ton of functionality so the only real hurdle is getting students to submit assignments via the platform. Once they do that, teachers have an array of markup tools that allow them to give feedback and suggestions much easier than simply using Preview or Google Sheets.
It's important to note that Canvas is really an enterprise platform for schools and school systems, but we were happy to find they had the perfect solution for one of our biggest pain points." - Daniel Christian

As nominated by Nikolaos Chatzopoulos of Tech Trends 4 Teachers, Jasmin Saab & Vanina Sandel

Founded in 2012, Wonder Workshop is the market-leading platform for children to learn computer science and robotics beginning at elementary school age. The company's first-generation robots, Dash and Dot, are widely recognized in education and have won many major industry awards.

"Dash's Neighborhood is a fun and engaging way for students to continue coding their favourite robot virtually! I have loved utilizing Wonder Workshop robots in my classroom, and Dash's Neighborhood takes everything to the next level! Coding dash virtually, came at the perfect time because I was able to continue working with my student's coding abilities during distance learning without missing a beat! I loved how students were able to complete coding challenges at their own pace, and they were able to get more one-on-one instruction. Students love Dash's Neighborhood because they are able to experiment with their codes and there aren't time restrictions like there normally would be in the classroom. I recommend the integrated virtual puzzles that are included for anyone who would like to learn the basics of computer programming!" - Jasmin Saab, 4th grade teacher from South Carolina

"As a STEAM Coordinator who teaches students from K-8th grade, I look for products that show certain requisites such as;
-Products can "grow with" the students and students can "grow with" the products
-Products are aligned with certain required standards
-Products are reasonable priced
Wonder Workshop products help students from Kindergarten all the way to 8th grade to understand the basic concepts of Computer Science better in a dynamic and fun way. Different disciplines like engineering and math are integrated with simple and complex coding in order to solve different puzzles and problems. Moreover, students are challenged to think outside the box in order to conquer different missions.. From Dot and Dash for the younger students to Cue for middle school students, the robots share with the students their educational journey. To conclude, the addition of Dash Neighborhood elevates Wonder Workshop to a higher level by providing a platform where more students under different circumstances can have access to Robotics" - Vanina Sandel - K-8 Steam Coordinator at the Yavneh Day School

As recommended by Lauren Keys of Math Nation

GoBoard is a free online tool that combines video chatting and a interactive canvas. Students can simply create a GoBoard on the site, share the link with a friend and start learning. GoBoard was designed to help students collaborate one-on-one, on virtually any topic. All in browser with nothing to download

"With no software to download, anyone can start and launch a session in less than 60 seconds. The pro version offers additional features such as unlimited session length and additional participants as well as recording and other compliance needs" - Lauren Keys
12. Classtools.net
As recommended by Leon Hady, Leon is a former Headteacher and now trains thousands of teachers online at Guideteachertraining.com

"As silly as it sounds, one of my favourite pieces for in class Edtech is Classtools.net. It is surely one of the oldest and most primitive tools out there, but it's like a Swiss Army knife for engagement.
It is hugely popular in other countries but didn't catch on as much in the UK. This is a shame as it has wonderful 'use-in-class-tools, like a crossword generator, musical countdown timer, random name picker -, so many little gadgets that can make the mundane in-class activity that much faster and more interesting.
I know it'd be far more fun to mention the new-fangled, fancy bits of tech - but classtools.net is as easy to use as it is hideous to look at. However as a gentle engagement or starter and plenary tool, there is nothing that beats it for simplicity and range." Leon Hady

13. AdmitHub - Free, Expert College Admissions Advice

University Ventures, and Daniel Christian.

Focussing on a different area of EdTech, AdmitHub provides an easily accessible source of expert advice about US college applications - in the form of a friendly online chatbot!

AdmitHub's mission is to provide all students with free, expert guidance along the path from high school, to and through college. Through SMS text and integration with Facebook Messenger, AdmitHub's chatbot Oli mixes artificial intelligence with human guidance coaches from individual schools.

Once a student's goals are assessed, they have 24/7 access to a personal 'virtual campus guide' to help them through application and enrolment processes and embodying each school's' 'unique spirit' and personality.

AdmitHub are currently ahead of the game and applicable to US students only, but the rise of chatbot tech means we should soon start seeing many more innovative bots within the education sector.

14. Remind - School Communication Shouldn't Be So Hard

Alex Corbitt and Andoni Sanz.

Remind is a classroom messaging app that helps teachers, students, and parents communicate quickly and efficiently. By connecting school communities, Remind makes it easy for everyone to succeed together. Based in San Francisco, Remind is used by more than 20 million people in 90% of school districts in the United States.

Whilst many organisations are starting to embrace technology to communicate with school stakeholders, messages typically end up being split across an array of channels. Facebook messages, WhatsApp groups, individual text messages or emails - the list goes on.

Remind removes the tedious process of remembering which message came from which person on which platform. Contacts can reach each other directly, schedule reminders, include attachments and see read-receipts - all with translation in 70 languages!

Remind is a great example of an alternative application of technology to support the wider community involved with schooling and education.

"My coworkers and I use remind to keep students and families updated about upcoming projects, events, and assessments. Our parent outreach is better than ever before and our students have demonstrated significant academic gains as a result." - Alex Corbitt

15. Go Noodle - Get Kids Moving

North Tyneside Learning Trust, and Nicholas Clayton.

Go Noodle gamifies movement and exercise, getting kids out of their seats and allowing them to be energetic, playful and and active - with a touch of silliness mixed in just for good measure.

The platform features hundreds of pre-recorded, custom-created videos designed to get kids moving. There's also a handful of videos specifically made to start introducing children to concepts of mindfulness, including breathing and meditation.

The awesome thing about Go Noodle is how it can be used everywhere. Teachers can use it as an intro exercise to a lesson, a break in the middle of a long class or even as a piece of homework for children to do alongside their siblings or parents at home.

"GoNoodle has inspired many of our schools to promote physical activity in schools using their brilliant videos. We actually had a Mass GoNoodle in July last year where 800 children came together to get active as one big group." - Laura Dickinson

16. Matific - Maths Games and Worksheets For Kids

Cool Cat Teacher, and Danielle Bartram of Miss B's Resources.

Matific is an award-winning primary maths resource which uses common objects in ordinary settings that children can connect to for a deep understanding of maths. Matific episodes were designed to support each other to allow children to master core maths concepts. Encouraging children to experiment and play to foster understanding, Matific provides engagement across all year groups. With long term use, children can reconnect with core maths concepts that increase in difficulty and reinforce previously learned skills.

Matific is aligned to the UK Primary Maths curriculum and popular textbooks such as Maths-No Problem. It promotes inclusive learning through its platform with the ability to choose the language student's view the activities in - fantastic for EAL students and the visual presence in the activities cater well to special needs students."

Matific provides a library of amazing resources for teaching maths to children age 4 - 11. Resources are split across bite-sized, immersive and interactive applications designed for mobiles and tablets.

Their resources are based entirely on the UK mathematics curriculum, making the apps a perfect companion to standard maths textbooks and activities, or to be used as a standalone pillar around which to plan a lesson. A recent research paper by Dr. Catherine Attard "Research Evaluation of Matific Mathematics Learning Resources" found Matific positively impacted on primary students learning.

"Matific is awesome. One particularly amazing thing to me is the ability for Matific to deliver instruction and parent information in a child's native language. That way you can focus purely on the math." - Vicki Davis

17. ThingLink - Annotate Images and Videos

Seymour Educate, and Nikolaos Chatzopoulos of Tech Trends for Teachers.

Amongst the various interactive annotation applications available, ThingLink stands apart. Not only can ThingLink be used to edit, annotate and teach with images and videos in real-time, it also supports 360 degree video and VR/AR content.

Thinglink allows over 70 different tags to be used within content, such as links, videos, maps, images, social media and more. It's intuitive interface allows users to create interactive content in just three steps and using an embeddable sharing link, it's easy to distribute the content to your students wherever they are and whatever device they're using. It even integrates natively with Facebook!

With it becoming increasingly more easy to create 360 and VR content using everyday tools like our smartphones, there are very few barriers to entry to begin trialling tools like Thinglink in your lessons.

"Through our goal of creating more digital projects, we discovered ThingLink. ThingLink has allow our students to take the traditional "create a poster" project to a whole new level." - Brian Seymour

FlashAcademy® is a language-learning platform teaching English curriculum content from 45 home languages to support pupils with English as an Additional Language. Accessible on smartphones, tablet, and PC, the platform delivers learning via lessons, games, and enables teachers to remotely assign work and track progress. FlashAcademy® is a core part of the curriculum at Anderton Park Primary School, and hundreds of more schools, to accelerate learning and help close the gap. Thanks to its accessibility and independent learning style, pupils can continue to advance their English language skills at home during these challenging times. Claire Evans, Deputy Head, commented:

"Attainment for pupils with EAL has doubled since using the FlashAcademy® which is remarkable. Pupils love it and having their own app makes them feel really special."

"We sent all of our 500 children home with their logins for FlashAcademy® and can see from our dashboard that they are logging on regularly which is great; completing lessons, playing the games and using the resources just like they would in school. Based on our data of how much progress children who use the platform make, we know this can only help them - knowing they are having fun but rapidly improving their English language skills at the same time."

FlashAcademy® are currently offering free trials to help schools explore how it can support them to deliver a targeted 'catch-up' intervention for pupils with EAL."

Follow them on twitter at @FlashAcademyHQ

19. Book Creator - The Simple Way To Create Beautiful eBooks

Beth Holland, and Michael Cohen of The Tech Rabbi.

Book Creator is a simple app for making ebooks on the iPad (and soon to be cross-platform). Red Jumper is the team behind Book Creator. Established in 2011, their mission is to empower the next generation of content creators and improve their educational outcomes.

Teachers and educators have the opportunity with Book Creator to develop interactive and evolving teaching resources that can easily be shared with or collaborated on by students. As an e-resource, it's really easy to keep resources up to date for each year group and make edits on the fly during lessons.

Book Creator is also a great tool for students to explore their creative side and produce a tangible piece of content through their learning. Potential applications might include creating a portfolio of learning after each lesson, or a homework assignment to create an interactive story or comic book.

After creation, resources can then be shared online with anyone worldwide. Your students could support the learning of students on the other side of the world, or maybe even collaborate with them on a new project!

"Book Creator gives teachers and students a flexible multimedia creation platform with unlimited potential." - Beth Holland

"BookCreator's ease of use is perfect for young children to apply their speaking, listening, reading & writing skills." - Amy Kingsley

20. Wakelet - The Best Way To Share And Collect Content

Wakelet is a free to use content curation platform that allows you to save and organise all kinds of online content into visual, engaging collections. For example, you can simply copy and paste the address of a Youtube video into a Wakelet collection, and it will embed - allowing viewers to watch it without leaving the site. The same applies to social media posts, podcasts, music, and much more. You can also add articles, online documents, and upload your own content like text, PDFs, images, and even Flipgrid videos. Wakelet has a long list of integrations, layouts and options that allow you to share content and tell stories exactly how you want.

You can also use Wakelet's collaboration feature to create memorable and meaningful learning experiences for your classes. Students can both access and contribute to collections across devices without even needing to sign up!

Educators across the world are using Wakelet to create and share resources, lesson plans, presentations, newsletters, digital storytelling assignments, online portfolios, journals and much more.

Head to learn. wakelet.com to discover how you can get the most out of online content, and enhance learning experiences across the board!"

"I find Wakelet has multipurpose use for education: organizing course materials in one place, recapping Twitter chats, ePortfolios and more. The ease of use is key; you'll be up and running with a new Wakelet account in no time. Finally, the Wakelet support team has been super accessible and supportive. I appreciate and value that." - Kim Fox, Professor at American University of Cairo

21. Times Table Rockstars - Sequenced Programmes to Help Kids Learn Times Tables

Bruno Reddy, and Danielle Bartram of Miss B's Resources.

"Times Table Rock stars is an online learning platform, engaging primary and secondary school students in daily times tables practice. Its adaptive question generator is cleverly sequenced to provide measurable improvements in times tables recall speeds, increasing confidence and enjoyment in maths.

The animated theme and motivational reward system have captivated pupils, teachers and families alike, resulting in widespread success across the UK. Children can practice by themselves, compete against other students and complete homework assignments tailored to their ability, online or using the mobile application.

"Times Table Rockstars is an amazing site for to practise their times table recall skills in both a fun and engaging way. TTRockstars has motivated our students to become proactive in improving their times table recall skills whilst in the pursuit of the 'rock hero' status." - Danielle Bartram.

22. Explain Everything - Collaborative, Interactive Whiteboard App

Beth Holland, and Michael Cohen of The Tech Rabbi.

For a number of years, Bartosz Gonczarek (CEO) and Piotr Sliwinski (CTO) had a hobby of making funny podcasts. They thought about filming them but the budget to make real movies with their ideas (space aliens, large explosions, monsters destroying whole city quarters) would have been too costly. The only plausible way to capture their ideas was to make simple cartoons.

The concept for an app to create these cartoons appeared in Piotr's head in 2008 when a colleague showed him an animation that he had made. After a week, Piotr had a working proof of concept. It was a simple app for the Mac that displayed a funny face that could be moved around a checkered window, while its movement was recorded. Fast forward and on August 19, 2011, Explain Everything made its debut on the iPad App Store.

Explain Everything is an easy-to-use design, screencasting, and interactive whiteboard app with real-time collaboration that lets you animate, record, annotate, collaborate, and explore ideas, knowledge and understanding. Explain Everything provides teachers and students an opportunity to share thinking, reflect upon knowledge building, and assess both products and processes of learning.

23. Quizizz - Fun Multiplayer Classroom Quizzes

CUE, and Bethany Petty of Teaching With Technology.

Quizizz allows you to find amazing quizzes made by other teachers, or create your own quizzes and share them with the world. Start a "Live" game in class, or assign Quizizz as a fun "Homework" task. Teachers can control the competition by toggling the leaderboard, timer and other settings. Thanks to Quizizz being available on all devices, students play together, but each at their own pace. Gamification elements like avatars, leaderboard and funny memes add to the fun! Review your work in the end and use Quizizz' detailed class and student-level reports to understand where your students need help.

"Quizizz is a game changer in formative assessment because it's easy for teachers to adopt. It has just the right visual layout for entertaining kids and getting teachers the actionable data they crave. As a plus, there's no "app" to download - Quizizz works on great on any device!" - Jon Corippo

The Best of the Rest

Each of the following EdTech companies received a single nomination from our education experts, but all of them deserve a mention for being fantastic tools to support teaching, learning and education!

24. Education City - Kids Educational Games and Teacher Resources

Sophie's Nursery.

EducationCity is one of the leading online teaching, learning and assessment resources. It was established in 1999 and now has subscribers in over 70 countries worldwide.

Ideal for children aged between 3-12 years old and children with SEN of all ages, EducationCity's engaging and interactive educational resources cover English, Mathematics, Science, Computing, French, Spanish and English as an additional language. Offering a variety of content types, it lends itself to group and whole-class instruction as well as personalised learning.

It can be used anytime and anywhere on various devices, including interactive whiteboards, laptops and mobile devices, and also includes many time-saving features for the teacher. As a curriculum-based resource, EducationCity is mapped to UK and worldwide curricula.

25. Flipgrid - Video for Student Engagement and Formative Assessment

Alec Couros.

Flipgrid is video platform used in over 50,000 classrooms to empower student voice and ignite discussion. In Flipgrid, teachers post discussion topics to which students respond via video, creating a social learning environment that provides every student an equal voice and increases engagement.

With the advent and increasing popularity of short video based communication a la Snapchat, Instagram Stories and more, allowing students to communicate and learn through a medium they are familiar with can improve engagement and knowledge retention.

Created 'grids' can also be embedded or connected with a variety of other platforms such as Blackboard, Wordpress, Moodle and more.

26. Padlet - The Easiest Way to Create and Collaborate

Teaching With Technology.

Padlet is like paper for your screen. Start with an empty page and then put anything you like on it. Upload a video, record an interview, snap a selfie, add text or upload some documents, and watch your padlet come to life. Invite as many people as you like and watch the page update in real time with the contributions of others. Used by teachers, students, professionals, and individuals of all ages, all around the world, Padlet is the easiest way to create and collaborate wherever you are.

Padlets easy, intuitive interface makes it a breeze to quickly create a new document. You could hold a live collaboration lesson where students can all share and add content to your sheet at the same time, or set a task to create a summer holiday scrapbook before school returns in September.
27. Microduino - DIY Electronics for Makers of All Ages

Tech Trends 4 Teachers.

Microduino designs and manufacturers digital electronic building blocks which are connectable to a large selection of digital input and digital/analog output devices. Compatible with Arduino, the Microduino Series blocks are packaged in multi-piece kits that allow users to build, animate and control objects that they construct. Kits also include interactive components that sense physical attributes and output devices. In its most popular form, mCookies are stackable, magnetically and electronically connectable and colour-coded to easily identify the functional family type.

mCookies are physically compatible with LEGO blocks. Connected in stacks, mCookies are available into the consumer, maker space and educational markets as components and/or in convenient kits such as the Microduino 'Itty Bitty City'.

Microduino recent awards include Time Magazine named Microduino 1 of the top 5 STEM education kits to teach kids engineering and coding, Gold winners of the 2016 IDEA awards by the IDSA. Microduino modules are on permanent display at the Henry Ford museum of Innovation, One of the 'Five Best Things' from the World Maker Faire.

"Microduino is the perfect tool for STEM/STEAM education" - Nikolaos Chatzopoulos

28. TouchCast - Leading the Smart Video Revolution

Brad Gustafson.

At the core of TouchCast are Smart Videos. What makes video smart? Tools to create and stream video that are blissfully simple to use. The means for any file to be shared inside video. Interactive elements that make them more engaging. The ability to collaborate with your team anywhere in the world.

With TouchCast Studio, you have a full-blown TV studio at your fingertips. Use the green-screen feature to place yourself against a background or inside content. Or step inside a virtual set. Read from a scrolling script. Add titles. Annotate. Record your video, edit it, and share securely. Live stream it privately to a small group, the whole company, or publicly to the entire world.

This is smart video creation, where broadcasting is easy.

"We use TouchCast to supercharge school communications and unleash student creativity. TouchCast is like having a free professional recording studio in your classroom." - Brad Gustafson

29. Puzzlets - Make Game Time, Brain Time

Seymour Educate.

Puzzlets is a hardware accessory for your tablet or computer used to play Puzzlets-specific games. Each game focuses on a traditionally "tough" STEAM subject, such as: coding, math, and colour theory. Each game comes with its themed set of physical Puzzlets tiles.

Puzzlets apps use these toy puzzle pieces to control video games for K-2 (ages 6+). This hands-on learning game philosophy starts with fun first and offers endless possibilities to the educational market. Cork the Volcano, the first game for Puzzlets, enriches logic, sequencing, fine-motor skills through physical interaction and gameplay. New Puzzlets games on the topics of Math and Art, releasing Summer 2017, will expand the platform and learning.

30. Ebookadabra - 100's of Children's Books in One App

Sophie's Nursery.

Ebookadabra is the 'Netflix' of kids picture books. Aimed at children aged 3-7, it offers a huge library of picture books from well-known publishers, educational games and rewards - all within an environment that is safe and fun.

For a single monthly subscription that covers the whole family, parents and up to four kids can join in the fun - with everyone being able to access Ebookadabra simultaneously on an unlimited number of devices. Families can message each other, post reviews and record audio books.
31. Smart Feed - Quality Movies and TV Shows for Kids

The Ebookadabra library is constantly growing and new stickers, games, avatars and emoji are added regularly to maintain a fresh and engaging world of reading.

Daisy Dyer Duerr.

SmartFeed is the parents' trusted platform to curate, deliver, manage and connect to their kids' digital media - across all content and devices. Media is increasingly everywhere, especially in front of our children. Kids find and consume it easily, just like junk food. SmartFeed aims to change the paradigm: rather than just filtering out the junk, this tool helps parents feed their kids positive, engaging, healthy content instead.

It's also an incredibly useful tool within schools that provide digital devices to students to use during lessons, ensuring attention is focussed on their learning goals and not on 'junk media'. Additionally, the Smart Feed screening and filtering process mean teachers and educators can be safe in the knowledge that any external media used in their lessons has already been flagged as appropriate for their students age group.

32. TinyTap - Create Games and Learn from Others

30 Goals Challenge for Teachers.

TinyTap is a marketplace of interactive educational games created by teachers. TinyTap empowers students to learn through play, with over 100,000 learning activities from a worldwide community of educators. Master concepts through curated courses and measurable lessons, that you can play on your mobile device or computer. Create interactive presentations for school work, or detailed study guides for tests and quizzes with TinyTap's easy-to-use creation tool. Special needs teachers and caretakers can utilise this simple and powerful platform to come up with new ways to help those in need and personalise activities to fit each person individually.

The TinyTap team also believe that there is no better way to learn than by teaching - which is why they created the TinyTap Market. The TinyTap Market is an online community of millions of kids, teachers and parents that create and share their fun educational games everyday. Created games can be published on the TinyTap Market, giving creators the option to sell their games - whether created by an author, illustrator, educator or just someone full of imagination.

"TinyTap is a wonderful app to encourage children to create interactive games and presentations for others with their own images, sound effects, and much more." - Shelly Terrell

33. EDPuzzle - The Easiest Way to Engage Your Students With Videos

Teaching With Technology.

Edpuzzle allows teachers to easily customize a video by adding questions and audio throughout the video to have more engaging video-lessons. Helping to dispel the classic problem of students dozing off during longer videos, Edpuzzle allows you to add natural stopping points throughout the video. Add pauses at the end of each key video segment to trigger questioning and discussion amongst the class - all while making sure they're still paying attention!

Edpuzzle also allows teachers to encourage self-paced learning by adding their own voice recording on top of the existing video. This means students can watch or review videos individually depending on their level of progress, helping to remove the chance of them becoming bored due to learning something they have already mastered.

34. UpGrad - Online Education Programmes for Professionals

Lightbox VC.

UpGrad was founded with an aim to empower working professionals and individuals to reach their full professional potential by providing them with high quality industry-relevant online programs in upcoming technological areas, which have high demand and increasing job opportunities.

So far, UpGrad has successfully launched programs in new age verticals like Product and Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Digital (including areas in Marketing), and Data Analytics. Merging the latest technology, pedagogy and services, UpGrad offers an impactful and engaging learning experience for the digital world.

In its first year, UpGrad's Start Up India Learning Program has become the single largest online program in India, by enrolment. In addition, UpGrad's Data Analytics PG Diploma Program has become the single largest online program in India, by revenue. With a strong community of 50,000+ students, UpGrad is redefining online education in India, both in terms of enrolment/retention achievements as well as perception.

35. Loop - Student Feedback Made Easy

Loop allows teachers to collect structured feedback from their students about their learning experience and wellbeing. Providing a private, digital setting gives students more confidence to speak out about things that might be holding back their learning.

Teachers can enable anonymous responses, schedule questions, reply to feedback one on one or to groups of students with similar feedback, track changes over time, send announcements, and more. Loop is web and app based, and integrates with Google Classroom.

Loop provides multiple benefits for students and teachers, including giving students a greater voice in their education, especially those who are shy, or fear speaking out in front of their peers. Teachers can more easily spot and support struggling students and g ain insight into what is or isn't working in the classroom for a particular cohort of students.

Loop provides a mechanism for professional development as teachers can refine their teaching style. Replacing student surveys, which can be slow and the results of which typically can only applied once students have finished a semester or learning module. This makes feedback more actionable than traditional student surveys using Google Forms or similar.

36. Quizlet - Improve your grades by studying with flashcards and games

Teaching With Technology.

Quizlet aims to harness the world's knowledge to allow anyone to unlock their learning potential. They do this by making it simple for students and teachers to create and share online learning materials, currently used by more than 20 million students and teachers each month.

Quizlet offers tools for students to make flashcards, practice spelling, play learning games, test their knowledge, collaborate with other students and more, providing engaging, customizable activities with contributions from people everywhere.

37. Tinybop - Toys for tomorrow

As nominated by Terry Heick, Director at Teach Thought.

Tinybop builds elegant, educational apps to spark the curiosity, creativity, and kindness of kids around the world. Tinybop apps inspire kids to learn, create, and grow by diving into big ideas, testing how things work, and making connections about the world they live in. Tinybop's flagship app The Human Body, has reached the #1 spot on the App Store's education charts in 143 countries, and has been downloaded by more than six million families across the globe. Other Tinybop apps have won multiple awards from Children's Technology Review, KAPi, Parent's Choice, and AASL.

Tinybop builds elegant, educational apps to spark the curiosity, creativity, and kindness of kids around the world. Tinybop apps inspire kids to learn, create, and grow by diving into big ideas, testing how things work, and making connections about the world they live in. Tinybop's flagship app The Human Body, has reached the #1 spot on the App Store's education charts in 143 countries, and has been downloaded by more than six million families across the globe. Other Tinybop apps have won multiple awards from Children's Technology Review, KAPi, Parent's Choice, and AASL. Tinybop has recently brought their award-winning collection to the web through their new platform Tinybop Schools.

38. CommonLit - Free literacy resources and progress tracking tools

CUE.

Founded by former teachers, CommonLit is a nonprofit EdTech organisation that operates an award-winning reading and writing platform. With CommonLit, teachers can create a free account to gain access to a host of standards-aligned, levelled, digital library of short texts including news articles, poems, historical documents and more. Their formative assessment tools help teachers target instruction and support struggling readers.

39. Living Tree - The private social network for your school community

Kleinspiration.

LivingTree is your district's own private, social network for family engagement. It replaces public social media, websites, emails, blogs, single purpose apps, paper flyers, etc. LivingTree simplifies engagement for both families and teachers. Each classroom and school has a private network which nests into the broader district network. Within your network, you have all the engagement features you need in one easy to use app (web or mobile) and even two-way translation to 100+ languages. LivingTree was recognised at the 2016 Stevie Gold Award winner for Community Involvement Program of the Year and 2016 Stevie Silver Award winner for Smartphone App of the Year.

40. Diagnostic Questions - Better results, more confidence, less time.

Bruno Reddy.

Diagnostic Questions is a world leading assessment tool that provides detailed insights into student understanding in a fraction of the time, simultaneously reducing your workload and improving student results and confidence.

In just three steps, assign a year's worth of assessments to your students created exclusively by AQA, OCR and EdExcel. Create your own quizzes and assessments or choose from the thousands created by teachers, awarding bodies and publishers.

41. Bloomz - One app for all your parent communications

Cool Cat Teacher.

Bloomz is the mobile and web app that allows teachers to share instant messages, announcements, photos, calendars, volunteer and conference sign-ups, student portfolios and more through one easy-to-use interface. Teachers can control who can reach them and when without shutting down the communication pipeline, and with the recent addition of Robocalling, Bloomz is truly a comprehensive solution to school-wide communication.

Free to use for parents and teachers, Bloomz creates a private and secure environment for their community to thrive in. Online portfolios mean that assignments don't get lost, and make distance learning painless. With the ability to translate more than 100 languages, Bloomz makes sure that even language barriers can't get in the way of school communication.

Administrators use the app to track parental involvement through engagement reports, gain visibility into classroom communications, and target specific audiences for announcements by sending information to individuals, specific classrooms, or the whole school or district.

"Bloomz is my parent connection tool. It is so awesome that grandparents and students are now wanting to join. The biggest advantage is that it's available as either an app or email and parents can set it up in the way they like best. Parents love it!" - Vicki Davis

42. My Simple Show - Create your own explainer video in minutes

Cool Cat Teacher.

The My Simple Show video maker tool allows users to create professional educational explainer videos in minutes. The tool is a great resource to be used inside or outside the classroom, both for teachers and students. To create a video, users simply choose a storyline and write the script, copy the script from a document, or upload a PowerPoint, and My Simple Show will create the video for you, with graphics and voiceover.

My Simple Show is so easy to use and intuitive to learn that it make a great tool for setting homework or assignments. Get students to create animated presentations or explanations of key topics to cement their understanding and allow them to demonstrate their knowledge.

43. Ozobot - Smart toy robots to learn and play

Seymour Educate.

Ozobot launched in fall 2014 with the vision to create an innovative way to play, learn and socially interact in an ever-expanding digital world. Through game applications and creative curriculums, Ozobot introduces interactive robots by blending entertainment and education in the family room as well as the classroom. Their mission is to provide learners as well as gamers of all ages a new option to play, learn and interact as well as inspire them to make the jump from using technology to actively shaping and creating it.

"As we have a K-12 computer science pathway we were looking for CS toys to use at our younger grade levels, and of course students love robots! Ozobot is a fantastic tool for teaching coding as the robot and programs are scaffolded allowing us to use Ozobots at numerous grade and skill levels." - Brian Seymour

44. Airhead - The open cloud desktop for teaching and learning

Learnocracy.

Winner of the prestigious 'Innovation in ICT' award at Bett 2015, Airhead is simply the best cloud desktop for schools, colleges and universities. With Airhead you'll save time, make the cloud more easily accessible and support communication and sharing. Airhead's integration with Microsoft Office 365 and Google G Suite means you'll also be able to improve collaboration and productivity across one or many establishments. In short, you'll supercharge your journey to the cloud. Airhead is the glue that turns the Web into a meaningful educational service that delivers on the promise of anytime, anywhere, any device learning.

45. Tiggly - Interactive toys and iPad learning apps for kids

Seymour Educate.

Tiggly believes in the power of connected play - the magic that happens when you bring the best of physical play into digital apps. They design fun hands-on toys that interact with engaging learning apps on tablets! Tiggly has three learning systems, Tiggly Words, Tiggly Math, and Tiggly Shapes, and has been featured on TIME, Forbes, BBC, CNBC, Huffington Post and many others.

"Tiggly has been a great addition to our kindergarten classes in allowing students to interact and learn their numbers and letters on the iPad. Students like using the large letters and numbers and seeing the different apps work as they select the correct letters or numbers." - Brian Seymour

46. Canva - Empowering the world to design

I Heart Edu.

Canva makes it amazingly simple for everyone to create professional quality graphic designs. Its online design platform brings together a simple drag-and-drop design tool and a library of more than one million photographs, graphics and fonts, allowing anyone to take an idea and present it beautifully in print or online.

Canva can be used to design almost anything: presentations, posters, blog content, cards, online marketing materials, invitations, flyers and so much more. Since launching, Canva has grown to more than 10 million users in 179 countries around the world. It is now available in 25 different languages, and recently launched on iPhone and iPad.

Because it's so easy to pick up and use, Canva is a brilliant tool for creating educational content. Potential applications include using Canva to create resources for the classroom, or asking students to collaborate on projects like digital posters or infographics.

47. Lithan - On Demand Learning and Mentoring

Red Dot Ventures.

Lithan's mission is to redefine adult education through learning innovation. They provide lifelong career progression and learning to individuals and provide training solutions for enterprises.

Through virtual and blended delivery in the classroom, at the workplace, at home, and even overseas, Lithan allows non-invasive learning without geographic boundaries. Using innovative technology, Just-in-time learning delivery allows individuals and enterprise learners to study at their own pace, anytime and anywhere while still experiencing close mentorship and support.

By providing easy to access learning solution, Lithan is supporting adult learners to skill-up competencies and develop their talents to be future ready within the working environment.

48. Kami - Online PDF and Document Viewer, and Annotation Tool

I Heart Edu.

Kami is an educational technology application that provides educators and students tools to view and edit documents and PDF files.

Kami offers easy-to-use and valuable tools to millions of educators and students needing a document and PDF solution. Kami also enables the increasing number of American K-12 schools to edit and collaborate on worksheets and interact with publisher-supplied PDF files.

Kami is a proud Google Partner, a 2012 The University of Auckland Velocity 100K Challenge finalist, and the 2015 New Zealand Innovation Award winner.

49. Peardeck - Powerful Learning Moments for Every Learner, Every Day

Connect Safely.

Pear Deck was founded by educators on a mission to help teachers create powerful learning moments for every student, every day. Pear Deck's intuitive solutions guide teachers towards best practices in the classroom and are used in flexible learning environments around the world to connect with learners of every age and ability. With Pear Deck, educators can easily assess student understanding in real-time, while facilitating student equity and creativity.

Educators using Google Apps for Education or Microsoft Office 365 apps like PowerPoint Online and Teams can easily add formative assessments and interactive questions to their classroom experience with Pear Deck. Pear Deck's powerful Teacher Dashboard and Student-Paced Mode make it a must-have tool in flexible learning environments. New product enhancements include Add Audio, which allows educators using Pear Deck for Google Slides to record or upload audio files to each slide; and Teacher Feedback, which enables teachers to give students feedback on individual responses, prompting understanding, driving metacognition, and promoting a growth mindset in students.

50. SiLAS Solutions - Avatar animation software for social skills

The Teched Up Teacher.

SiLAS is a browser-based web app that allows students to act out social scenes using video game pads and microphones to control their 3D avatars. SiLAS records the interaction in real-time, then produces a studio-quality animation that teachers and students can re-watch, critique, and assess. Student-performance data is tracked and animations are saved in guardian accounts allowing for crucial carryover year-to-year and outside the classroom. Kids can also create and watch interactions in full virtual reality.

The instructor selects the setting location for where the students will interact. Does the student need help initiating conversation in the cafeteria? The students can now practice the situation in the virtual cafeteria setting before going to eat their actual lunch. SiLAS is a great tool for helping kids who have social anxiety or interaction difficulties and for educating those with SEN about different social situations.

51. Showbie - The heart of your paperless classroom

Connect Safely.

Showbie combines all of the essential tools for assignments, feedback, and communication in one easy-to-use platform.

Showbie's features were designed with teachers and students in mind. Unlike other learning management systems that require extensive training and time to implement, teachers can start using Showbie's powerful platform within minutes. Teachers who use Showbie love how it transforms their classrooms into engaging, collaborative, and organized learning environments. Showbie's suite of tools make it easy to give rich, differentiated feedback to students, so everyone gets the help they need to succeed. Showbie allows students to share files and ideas with each other, ensuring everyone is on the same page and encouraging collaboration.

Showbie lets teachers work with their peers and easily engage with families. Teachers can set up groups to work directly with colleagues, share best practices, or discuss the needs of particular students. Parents can easily be part of the conversation too; teachers can set up groups just for families where they can post class updates and even permission slips.

52. Black Bullion - Opening the doors to financial education

Vivi Friedgut.

The lack of a financial education can have a crippling effect on students' wellbeing. Through empowering students to take control of their financial future, BlackBullion positively impact on the student experience as well as retention, lifelong attainment and employability.

The platform educates users through easy to understand native content and interactive modules that engage but never patronise. Users can then access intelligent insights through smart analytics and reporting for minimum hassle and maximum efficiency, empowering learners to achieve lifelong learning and personal development. As Blackbullion put it, it's more like a chat with a knowledgeable friend than a lecture from a bank manager!

53. Quizalize - The Easy Way to Differentiate Your Teaching.

House of EdTech Podcast.

Trovvit allows you to create a "record" of what you are learning - save school work, maker projects, sports photos, art work, camp crafts, after school certificates. Once you save your record, you'll have it forever.

Trovvit's mission is to help learners at every stage - from toddler to senior citizen - learn, save records of their work, share their passions and grow their network. The team behind the app believe that creating a personal and permanent record of a learning experience is an important part of reflection and growth.

As building a community network is critical to successful learning, so Trovvit encourages learners to share their work and experiences with family and mentors through a private, secure feed and portfolio. Through sharing, they can get feedback, encouragement and ideas, telling their personal development story with an online profile and curated portfolio.

Daniel Christian.

Labster is a company dedicated to developing fully interactive advanced lab simulations based on mathematical algorithms that support open-ended investigations. They combine these with gamification elements such as an immersive 3D universe, storytelling and a scoring system which stimulates students' natural curiosity and highlights the connection between science and the real world.

The labs are being used by California State University, Harvard, Gwinnett Technical College, MIT, Exeter University, University of New Haven, Stanford, University of New England, Trinity College, University of Hong Kong and Berkeley among others internationally.

Kleinspiration.

"ABCya is the leader in free educational computer games and mobile apps for kids. The innovation of a grade school teacher, ABCya is an award-winning destination for elementary students which offers hundreds of fun, engaging learning activities.

Over 125 million users visited ABCya in 2019, playing over a billion games! Apple, The New York Times, USA Today, Parents Magazine and Scholastic, to name just a few, have featured ABCya's popular educational games."

Sophie's Nursery.

Aimed at 4-14 year olds, DoodleMaths system diagnoses a child's strengths and weaknesses and creates a work program that ensures progression (validated by University of Bath studies). By harnessing all that is good about mobile technology, it fosters regular daily use from its users in bite-sized chunks over long periods of time. DoodleMaths is emerging as a popular choice in the home-learning market, and as a homework tool within primary schools, and has been the recipient of many awards including winning at the Duke of York's Pitch@Palace competition.

Josh Murdock.

Founded by educators who are creating solutions to the problems of educators, AspirEDU helps schools help more students graduate. They analyse the data that schools already have, allowing their solutions to identify students that are most at risk of dropping out of or failing courses, and to identify the best practices that instructors can use to maximise the performance of their students. Retaining more students is good for schools and even better for the students themselves.

Bruno Reddy.

Brix believe that every Maths student should have the support they require to fulfill their Mathematical potential, both in the classroom and at home. Brix is the only Maths learning platform in the world engineered around a deeply researched pedagogy designed to deliver impact. Their approach is focussed on increasing student engagement, confidence and enjoyment in order to drive achievement.

App ed review is an online database of in-depth educational app reviews designed to support teacher's use of apps in the classroom. In addition, they have also gone a step further and started to build a bank of lesson plans designed around certain apps that are different, fun and engaging for students.

Aavishkaar.

Butterfly Fields was founded by people with a passion to create more 'doers' in India. They felt that the Indian educational system, with its emphasis on theory and exams, was taking the joy out of learning and more importantly, its very purpose. As with many great journeys, Butterfly Fields began its journey by asking some simple questions that challenged the status quo:

Shouldn't education be more about understanding and less about marks?

Shouldn't schools be training children in improving intelligence rather than memory?

Shouldn't learning be about solving real-life problems rather than answering some questions in a paper?

The ButterflyFields Innovative DIY kits have been designed indigenously by their in house R&D team comprising of highly qualified engineers and designers from top institutions. These products have been tried and tested as part of school programs by over 5000 children.

The Daring Librarian.

Since 2005, Edublogs has grown into the largest educational blogging network in the world

The team believe that blogging transforms the educational experience of students and have seen first hand how Edublogs increases ownership of learning, engages students, and becomes a source of pride in the classroom. Edublogs is a project of the prominent WordPress company Incsub; the same team behind CampusPress and WPMU DEV.

Ben Collins, Instructor at General Assembly.

Flubaroo is a free tool that helps you quickly grade multiple-choice or fill-in-blank assignments. More than just a grading tool, Flubaroo also computes average assignment score, computes average score per question and flags low-scoring questions. It can also display a grade distribution graph, gives you the option to email each student their grade and an answer key, and finally provides the facility to send individualised feedback to each student.

Beth Holland.

Formative was born out of research during the founding team's time as UCLA graduate students. Prototyped in the Startup UCLA program, vetted by teachers in the 4.0 Schools incubator, and turned into a company in the Imagine K12 accelerator, Formative was launched for educators in January 2015. The company is now partnered with the Jefferson Education Accelerator and schools around the U.S. in an effort to bring "formative teaching" to educators everywhere, eroding the need for assessments after the fact.

Formatives goal is to help all stakeholders have more recent and actionable data by using its platform both for formative assessments and daily activities, such as lab reports, homework, and more. A teacher can use previously created materials, share with colleagues, or create something on the fly. All responses are served back to the educators in a clean and helpful dashboard that helps them see overall and individual trends. Very soon, those same educators will see the students' progress on standards as they go through the year, getting ahead of their summative assessments.

Revision Buddies - GCSE Revision Apps

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Tutorful - The 101 Hottest EdTech Tools According to Education Experts

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If you work in education, you'll know there's a HUGE array of applications, services, products and tools created to serve a multitude of functions in education. There are so many tools, though, that it can be difficult to keep up - especially with the massive volumes of planning and marking teachers have to do, never mind finding the time to actually teach!

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Article + Video: Technology Integration and Blended Learning - There is a Difference!

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Article + Video: Technology Integration and Blended Learning - There is a Difference!

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Video: Technology Integration in the Classroom

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Video: Technology Integration in the Classroom

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Article: Technology Integration in the Classroom

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Article: Technology Integration in the Classroom

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What is Technology Integration?

Technology integration is the blending of computer-related learning activities into curriculum to have students acquire, organize, demonstrate, and communicate information. To understand what technology integration is, it is often useful to consider what it is not. Technology integration is not teaching computer-related skills in isolation, whereby students learn a set of isolated word processing or spreadsheet skills. Instead, technology integration has technology skills taught in connection with meaningful activities that have cross-curricular connections.

When trying to understand technology integration, you may compare the computer to a pencil. When children start school, they learn how to hold a pencil to print, write, and draw. However, the focus of instruction quickly shifts away from the tool itself to more important matters such as using the device to write a report, design a poster, or solve a math problem.

This is just like the computer. Although, there is more knowledge required to use this tool, the focus of instruction should be upon using the computer throughout the learning process to acquire, organize, demonstrate, and communicate information, instead of upon the device itself.

Why is Technology Integration Important?

Many educators may remember life before the invention of the computer, Internet, email, chat, cell phones, video game systems, and hand-held music players. However, many children today cannot. They have grown up in a world where they are surrounded by digital devices that they use for communication, entertainment, and learning.

Many children are familiar with technology and because of this fact they do things differently than people did it in the past. Today many children regularly use the Internet instead of a book to research. They send an email or use chat instead of picking up the phone to call a friend. Moreover, they frequently use the computer to type a document instead of writing it out by hand. Technology is seamlessly integrated into their daily lives.

Since children are growing up in a digital world, it is important that technology integration is part of education. Students need learning experiences to be relevant and meaningful. For this to occur, activities need to include the use of technology to acquire, demonstrate, apply, and communicate information.

In addition, educators have an obligation to prepare children adequately with the skills they need to be successful. It is important to realize that the workplace has dramatically transformed since the invention of the computer. Today, workers rely on computers to complete their job duties. Computers are needed to communicate with clients and coworkers, calculate data, analyze information, generate reports, and create publications. With the Internet, people are no longer tied to a physical location to complete their work. Instead, wireless technology can be used to check email, research information, and access files from a mobile device such as a laptop or cell phone. Children need the skills to thrive in this type of workplace.

Although many children are competent users of technology, often their knowledge and skills are limited. For example, not many children spend their spare time discovering how to use a spreadsheet program to organize data and generate graphs. Instead, most children use technology to play games, communicate with friends, and watch videos on the Internet. For this reason, educators need to present learning opportunities that have students expand their knowledge and skills to broaden their understanding of how technology can be used.

As well, it is important to acknowledge that although many children have technology skills, many do not. For example, not all children have a computer, Internet, and software at home. For this reason, education must provide equal access to technology resources and provide instruction to make sure ALL children have the skills they need to become productive members of society.

Moreover, it is essential to recognize that just because children possess some technology skills this does not mean they have a clear understanding of their ethical or safe use. Education plays an important role in having children become responsible participants in the digital world. To this end, educators must teach ethics and safety in relation to technology use.

What are the Goals of Technology Integration?

The goal of technology integration is to have students use technology ethically and safely to acquire, demonstrate, apply, and communicate information. Specifically, students need to be able to:

practice safe, ethical, and responsible use of technology

gather, research and evaluate information from a variety of sources

create original works such as reports, posters, presentations, and other documents

calculate, manipulate, and analyze data

organize data using tables, graphs, and other organizers

summarize ideas using a variety of media

solve problems using technology

present information

communicate information effectively to an audience using a variety of media

interact and collaborate with peers to solve problems and share information

transfer knowledge to new technologies

Find out more about technology integration and view real-life examples at Edutopia and Technology Integration in Education.

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Technology Integration in the Classroom - TechnoKids Blog

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What is Technology Integration? Technology integration is the blending of computer-related learning activities into curriculum to have students acquire, organize, demonstrate, and communicate information. To understand what technology integration is, it is often useful to consider what it is not. Technology

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Tips/Tricks: 10 Big Ideas for Technology Integration

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Tips/Tricks: 10 Big Ideas for Technology Integration

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"If technology is an event in your school, you're doing it wrong!" -Josh Allen

Technology use is no longer done in isolation. Computers use is no longer confined to a computer lab.

TPAK Integration Framework has three main domains to think about when integrating technology: Technological knowledge, content knowledge, and pedagogical knowledge.

The SAMR framework is another way to think about tech integration. It features Substitution, Modification, Augmentation, and Substitution.

The RAT framework has Replacement, Application, and Transformation.

Jonathan lists other frameworks on Slide 7 of his presentation.

People who are not willing to change won't take risks.

Teachers can learn a lot from lessons and activities that fail.

"Don't worry about failures. Worry about the chances you miss when you don't even try." -Jack Canfield

Technology is not always going to be the best solution for what you want to accomplish.

Not every activity will be enhanced with technology.

Using real objects can be better than digital objects.

Paper and pencil is not illegal in a 1:1 classroom.

Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration

This skills are important for college and the workplace.

Content can take precedence over these important skills.

"If a student goes a year without creating a video, it would like going a year without writing." -Dean Shareski

The National Education Technology Plan promotes active use of technology over passive usage.

Jonathan sees Blended Learning as a teaching initiative, not a technology initiative.

"Learning has always been personalized and individualized. School is catching up." -A.J. Juliani

Too often professional learning provided to teachers is boring.

Professional learning for teachers should be personalized.

"Technology decisions are education decisions." -Jason Marshal

The technology you buy and the technology you block is certainly a decision about education.

David Fringer's "Let it go" List for school technology departments...

The tech department is "in charge" of technology decisions.

"We know what you need."

Computers are "precious" commodities.

The internet is dangerous!

Resources should be locked down tight.

Technology costs money. The community need to see reasons or successes for the investment.

"It is our responsibility to transform the thick brick barriers surrounding our schools into clear, transparent walls of glass." -Hacking Leadership by Tony Sinanis & Joe Sanfelippo

70%-80% of the households in your community don't have students enrolled in your school.

Build up social capital so that the community trusts that you're doing great things.

CCSD 59 in Illinois has a monthly video series featuring a member of their staff.

It's an educator's responsibility to teach kids to use technology safely, ethically, and responsibly.

E-Rate funding requirements state schools need to "provide for educating minors about appropriate online behavior, including interacting with other individuals on social networking websites and in chat rooms, and cyberbullying awareness and response."

According to surveys, not enough teachers are teaching students about legally using web content.

Jonathan ends with sharing some of the great resources he has a hand in creating. They include the Grant Wood AEA Digital Learning Blog, The EdTech Takeout podcast, and the Makerspace Show.

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"If technology is an event in your school, you're doing it wrong!" -Josh Allen Technology use is no longer done in isolation. Computers use is no longer confined to a computer lab. TPAK Integration Framework has three main domains to think about when integrating technology: Technological knowledge, content knowledge, and pedagogical knowledge.

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Tips/Tricks:25 Easy Ways to Use Technology in the Classroom [+ Downloadable List]

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Tips/Tricks:25 Easy Ways to Use Technology in the Classroom [+ Downloadable List]