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A site that publishes articles insightful information on technology.

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The Journal

Five years from now K-12 classrooms will look dramatically different than they do today because of the four trends identified in this week's blog post. You can take that prediction to the bank

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EdTech Magazine

By Meghan Bogardus Cortez From a strong network infrastructure to better teacher support, districts made sure to have everything in place to use technology to boost learning outcomes this year. Classroom Management Networking Personalized Learning Professional Development Training

EdTech Magazine

By Wendy McMahon Modernizing learning in the 21st-century school can start in the library. 3D printing Classroom Collaboration Hardware

EdTech Magazine

By Wendy McMahon Modernizing learning in the 21st-century school can start in the library. 3D printing Classroom Collaboration Hardware

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2017, Technology and Trends - EdTech Update

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The Journal Five years from now K-12 classrooms will look dramatically different than they do today because of the four trends identified in this week's blog post. You can take that prediction to the bank Sign Up for our Newsletter EdTech Magazine By Meghan Bogardus Cortez From a strong network infrastructure to better teacher support, districts made sure to have everything in place to use technology to boost learning outcomes this year.

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Steps for Integrating Technology in Lesson Plans

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Steps for Integrating Technology in Lesson Plans

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The article link provide six steps to consider when planning for technology.

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Technology Solutions That Drive Education

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If the idea of squeezing even one more thing into an already jam-packed curriculum - and teaching day - seems daunting, the prospect of having to integrate technology into lesson plans is enough to put some teachers over the edge.

But the need to make new technology as easy and familiar to students as pencils and calculators will only grow stronger. It's an important task that all educators must not merely accept, but embrace.

Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the International Society for Technology in Education recommends that integrating technology be made a focal point of preservice teacher preparation. According to ISTE's National Educational Technology Standards, "...candidates must continually observe and participate textcafe join-from 3 in the effective modeling of technology use for both their own learning and the teaching of their students."

By investing the time in creating that model, not only will educators infuse their lesson plans with technology, but they'll be creating a tool that they will use again and again.

As with any investment, you need to invest sweat equity. If you've never used technology in the classroom, it makes sense to take a workshop to familiarize yourself with IT tools and their use in education. Even without additional training, you can divide your project into manageable steps and develop the model for your new lesson plan before you know it. The process of creating models of

technology can be broken into six steps.

STEP 1: ANALYZE THE BENEFITS

You may be able to infuse one of your long-standing lessons with technology, but you must first determine whether doing so will benefit students' overall achievement. Schools have high standards that their technology curricula must meet, so familiarize yourself with those standards to ensure that your lesson plans meet them.

If, in your selected lesson plan, students will learn curricular objectives and achieve a new skill while meeting those objectives, you have a win-win situation, and you should go to the next step.

If you have difficulty determining whether this will be the outcome, sit down with a technology expert, who could be another teacher excited about using technology, a technology instructor or coordinator, a media specialist or even a highly skilled, technology-savvy student looking for a new challenge. The tech expert can help match a technology to your project needs and goals.

STEP 2: START BRAINSTORMING

Ideally, you won't be on your own in developing your project. A team approach (with teachers working either on individual lesson plans or on an integrated, multidiscipline lesson plan) can add megawatts to your collective brainpower, especially if some of those colleagues are experienced technology users.

Webbing is a useful tool at this stage: Beginning with a central topic, then brainstorm to build out subtopics and related ideas to create a visual map. Concept webbing software, such as Inspiration from Inspiration Software, can help get ideas flowing. A visual map of ideas lets you select lesson elements, such as related ideas or suggested activities, and ensure their integration in the lesson plan.

Check out resources available online, such as quality educator resource materials and software. Why reinvent the wheel? Useful materials, including software recommendations, may already be available.

STEP 3: MAP THE PROJECT

You and your team have selected the ideas, concepts and activities that you want to include in your lesson plan or plans, and you have the information needed to select the hardware, software and skills that will be used to complete the plan's tasks and produce the end product.

Next, create a rough sketch or a storyboard of how the project will flow. If your project entails making a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation or shooting a video, use a simple template that lets you lay out what you would like on each page.

The storyboarding process is equally important for your students to do when they're producing their projects. By plotting out the project step by step, you ensure the students have the content to do the project and don't get hung up on using the extraneous features of multimedia.

STEP 4: CREATE THE TEACHING TEMPLATE

One of the most difficult tasks in planning a new technology project is to accurately predict how much time it will take. The best way to do that is to create a sample project. This crucial point in the modeling process is not the time to skimp on your investment. In fact, it's probably the most important step toward ensuring the success of a new technology project.

You can select a basic project - for instance, how to prepare a five-minute speech. It's a wonderful way to introduce students to public speaking, as well as to teach them how to use informative writing skills to develop a process model for doing a particular task, such as baking chocolate chip cookies.

If you or your students are new to the technology, a good subject for your sample project is a step-by-step presentation on how to do the project - say, a PowerPoint presentation on how to do a PowerPoint presentation or a digital video on how to create a digital video.

By making a model project yourself, you gain the needed background knowledge for instructing your students and fine-tuning the project's parameters. You'll also gain a clear sense of the time, materials, preparation and personnel needed to make the project a success.

An instructor who is uncomfortable using the technology may be tempted to bypass this step. One word of caution: Don't! Asking students to create their projects without proper direction or modeling will cause frustration and outweigh any potentially positive results.

In the "see one, do one, teach one" model, you're at the do-one stage. So just do it!

STEP 5: DEVELOP ASSESSMENT TOOLS

With the process still fresh in your mind, it's time to reflect on the skills and information the students will be responsible for demonstrating in their project. Create a rubric to construct a means for performance-based assessment of the students' work. Identify how much weight you'll give to grammar, spelling, content, specific technology skills, layout and presentation.

By giving the rubric to the students before the project begins, you clearly lay out your expectations. Many resources are available online to help you create an ideal rubric.

STEP 6: EVALUATION MODE

Having finished your sample project, it's time to evaluate what worked and what didn't. What resources or technology were missing or unnecessary? What did you learn along the way that you would have liked to have known when you started? Is there any way to streamline the process of using the technology to achieve the lesson's goals or make the project more effective?

By reflecting on the process, answering these questions and incorporating their answers into the model for your new lesson plan, you'll find that you have the experience to work confidently with your students and cope with future glitches.

With each additional class, your experience will deepen, and your horizons will broaden. Think of it as a sort of unofficial Step 7, in which you and your future students get to collect the dividends of your investment.
Laura Stockslager is the technology coordinator of Old Trail School in Bath, Ohio.

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6 Steps For Integrating Technology into Your Lesson Plan

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If the idea of squeezing even one more thing into an already jam-packed curriculum - and teaching day - seems daunting, the prospect of having to integrate technology into lesson plans is enough to put some teachers over the edge.

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Tips for Avoiding Technology Overload.

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The Techy Teacher Ed Leadership May 2016

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Digital tools and apps that support formative assessment.

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There is no shortage of formative assessment strategies, techniques, and tools available to teachers who use formative instructional practice in their classrooms. Here is an extensive list of 75 digital tools, apps, and platforms that can help you and your students use formative assessment to elicit evidence of learning. We didn't just add any old tool to this list. Here are the criteria we used for those that made the cut:

Supports formative instructional strategies and ways to activate learners to be resources for themselves and peers

Is free or awful close to it (under $10 per year, where possible)

Allows both students and teachers to take the activator role when possible (sometimes teachers need to get things started)

Before you dig into the tools, I encourage you to spend some time thinking about exactly what you want to accomplish with your students. "How to pick the right digital tool: Start with your learning goal" by Erin Beard can help you wrap your head around goals and guide you in choosing the best tool for the task. "27 easy formative assessment strategies for gathering evidence of student learning" can help you decide what strategies work best for you and your students.

Record audio and video

Create quizzes, polls, and surveys

1. Crowdsignal Lets you create online polls, quizzes, and questions. Students can use smartphones, tablets, and computers to provide their answers, and information can be culled for reports.

2. Edulastic Allows you to make standards-aligned assessments and get instant feedback.

3. FreeOnlineSurveys Helps you create surveys, quizzes, forms, and polls.

4. Gimkit Lets you write real-time quizzes. And it was designed by a high school student!

5. Kahoot! A game-based classroom response system that lets you create quizzes using internet content.

6. MicroPoll Helps you create polls, embed them into websites, and analyze responses.

7. Naiku Lets you write quizzes students can answer using their mobile devices.

8. Obsurvey Designed to make surveys, polls, and questionnaires.

9. Poll Everywhere Lets you create a feedback poll or ask questions and see results in real time. Allows students to respond in various ways. With open-ended questions, you can capture data and spin up tag clouds to aggregate responses.

10. Poll Maker Offers unique features, like allowing multiple answers to one question.

11. ProProfs Helps you make quizzes, polls, and surveys.

12. Quia Lets you create games, quizzes, surveys, and more. Access a database of existing quizzes from other educators.

13. Quizalize Helps you create quizzes and homework.

14. Quizizz Guides you through designing quizzes and lets you include students in the quiz-writing process.

15. Quizlet Lets you make flashcards, tests, quizzes, and study games that are mobile friendly.

16. Survey Hero Designed to build questionnaires and surveys.

17. SurveyMonkey Helpful for online polls and surveys.

18. SurveyPlanet Also helpful for online polls and surveys.

19. Triventy Lets you create quizzes students take in real time using individual devices.

20. Yacapaca Helps you write and assign quizzes.

21. Zoho Survey Allows you to make mobile-friendly surveys and see results in real time.

Brainstorm, mind map, and collaborate

Present, engage, and inspire

Generate word or tag clouds

1. EdWordle Generates word clouds from any entered text to help aggregate responses and facilitate discussion. Word clouds are pictures composed of a cloud of smaller words that form a clue to the topic.

2. Tagxedo Allows you to examine student consensus and facilitate dialogues.

3. Wordables Helps you elicit evidence of learning or determine background knowledge about a topic.

4. WordArt Includes a feature that allows the user to make each word an active link to connect to websites, including YouTube.

Get real-time feedback

Foster family communication

1. Remind Lets you text students and stay in touch with families.

2. Seesaw Helps you improve family communication and makes formative assessment easy, while students can use the platform to document their learning.

3. Voxer Lets you send recordings so families can hear how their students are doing, students can chat about their work, and you can provide feedback.

Strengthen teacher-to-student or student-to-student communication

Keep the conversation going with live chats

1. Yo Teach A backchannel site great for keeping the conversation going with students.

2. Chatzy Supports live, online chats in a private setting.

Create and store documents or assignments

1. Google Forms A Google Drive app that allows you to create documents students can collaborate on in real time using smartphones, tablets, and laptops.

2. Piazza Lets you upload lectures, assignments, and homework; pose and respond to student questions; and poll students about class content. This tool is better suited for older students as it mimics post-secondary class instructional formats.

Learn more

There are several resources for learning more about formative assessment and responsive instruction strategies. Consider our formative practices workshops, where school and district teams can gain a better understanding of the role formative practice plays in instruction and the four foundational practices to use in the classroom. Or for a quick start, download our eBook "Making it work: How formative assessment can supercharge your practice."

Jump in, try new tools and methods, and have fun!

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75 digital tools and apps teachers can use to support formative assessment in the classroom

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We've compiled an extensive list of 75 digital tools that can help teachers use formative assessment to elicit evidence of student learning.

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Culture and Online Learning Environments

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Culture and Online Learning Environments

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A diagram showing components of an effective learning environment that takes culture into consideration.

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Figure A 1 from the original version of 'Teaching at a Distance'

Over the last two months I have done a couple of workshops on building an effective learning environment, based on Appendix 1 of my online, open textbook, Teaching in a Digital Age. I identified the following as critical components of an effective learning environment:

These workshops have reinforced my feeling that I originally excluded a critical component.

The importance of culture

Within every learning environment there is a prevailing culture that influences all the other components. In most learning environments, culture is often taken for granted or may be even beyond the consciousness of learners or even teachers. I will try to show why faculty, instructors and teachers should pay special attention to cultural factors, so that they can make conscious decisions about how the different components of a learning environment are implemented. Although the concept of culture may seem a little abstract at this stage, I will show how critical it is for designing an effective online learning environment,

Defining culture

I define culture as

the dominant values and beliefs that influence decision-making.

The choice of content, the skills and attitudes that are promoted, the relationship between instructors and students, and many other aspects of a learning environment, will all be deeply influenced by the prevailing culture of an institution or class (used to mean any grouping of students and a teacher). Thus in a learning environment, every one of the components I described will be influenced by the dominant culture.

For instance, parents tend to place their children in schools that reflect their owns values and beliefs, and so the characteristics of learners in that school will also often be influenced by the culture not only of their parents but also of their school. This is one of the many ways that culture can be self-reinforcing.

Identifying cultures

I first noticed the impact of different cultures many years ago, when I was doing research in the U.K. on the administration of large comprehensive (high) schools. Given that these schools had deliberately been created by a left-of-centre government in Britain in the 1960s to provide equal access to secondary education for all, and that these schools had many things in common (their size, their curricula, the idea that every student should have the same educational opportunities) one would have expected that they all would have had a similar prevailing culture. However, I visited over 50 such schools to collect information on the how they were managed and the key issues they faced, and every one was different.

Some were created from formerly highly selective grammar schools, and operated on a strict system of sorting students by tests, so that successful students would go up a level and the weakest students would drop down a level, in order to identify the best prospects for university. Here the dominant value was academic excellence.

Some schools were single sex (I am still puzzled by how a school segregated by sex could be considered 'comprehensive'). One of the key objectives of a girls' school I visited was to teach girls about 'poise'. (This led to a very confused miscommunication between me and the headmistress, as I thought she had said 'boys'.) Here the dominant value was on developing 'ladylike qualities'.

Others were inner city schools, where the focus was often on bringing the best out of each child, whatever their abilities. In such schools, each class would contain children with as wide a range of abilities as possible, but they were often rowdy, raucous places in comparison to the more elite-oriented institutions. Here the emphasis was on inclusiveness and equal opportunity.

The differing cultures of each of these schools was so strong I could sometimes detect it just by walking in the door, by the way students reacted with staff and each other in the corridors, or even by the way the students walked (or ran).

Culture and learning environments

Whether you consider culture to be a good or bad influence in a learning environment will depend on whether you share or reject the underlying values and beliefs of the dominant culture. Residential schools in Canada into which aboriginal children were often forcibly placed are a prime example of how culture drives the way schools operate.

The main purpose of such schools was deliberately to destroy aboriginal cultures and replace them with a religious-influenced Western culture. In these schools children were punished for being what they were. In such schools, all the other components of their learning environment were used to reinforce the dominant culture that was being imposed.

Although the outcomes for most children that attended these schools have turned out to be disastrous, those responsible (state and church working together) truly believed they were doing the right thing. We are still struggling in Canada to 'do the right thing' for aboriginal education, but any successful solution must take into account aboriginal cultures, as well as the surrounding predominant 'Western' culture.

Culture is perhaps more nebulous in higher education institutions, but it is still a powerful influence, differing not just between institutions but often between academic departments within the same institution.

Culture and new learning environments

Because prevailing cultures are often so dominant, they are very difficult to change. It is particularly difficult for a single individual to change a dominant culture. Even charismatic leaders will struggle, as many university presidents have found.

However, as new technologies allow us to develop new learning environments, instructors now have a rare opportunity consciously to create a culture that can support those values and beliefs that they consider to be important for today's learners.

For instance, in an online learning environment, I consciously attempt to create a culture that reflects the following:

mutual respect (between instructor and students, and especially between students)

open-ness to differing views and opinions

evidence-based argument and reasoning

making learning engaging and fun

making explicit and encouraging the underlying values and epistemology of a subject discipline

transparency in assessment (e.g. rubrics and criteria)

recognition of and respect for the personalities of each student in the class

collaboration and mutual support.

The above cultural elements of course reflect my beliefs and values; yours may well be different. However, it is important that you are aware of your beliefs and values, so that you can design the learning environment in a way that best supports them.

You may also consider these cultural elements to be more like learning outcomes but I disagree. These cultural elements are broader and more general, and reflect what I believe are really necessary conditions for building an effective learning environment in a digital age.

Lastly you may question the right of an instructor to impose their personal cultural conditions on a learning environment. For myself, I have no problems with this. As a subject expert or professional in teaching, you are usually in a better position than learners to know the learning requirements and the cultural elements that will best achieve these. In any case, if you believe that learners should have more say in determining the culture in which they learn, that too is your choice and could be accommodated within the culture.

Summary

Culture is a critical component of any learning environment. It is important to be aware of the influence of culture within any particular learning context, and to try and shape that culture as much as possible towards supporting the kind of learning environment that you believe will be most effective. However, changing a pre-existing, dominant culture is very difficult. Nevertheless, new technologies enable new learning environments to be developed, and thus provide an opportunity to develop the kind of culture within that learning environment that will best serve your learners.

However, in every learning environment there will be cultural elements that prevail through all components, which is why I have added culture as a background to all the components of a learning environment in the graphic below.

Questions

1. Do you agree with my definition of 'culture' as used in describing an effective learning environment? If not, how would you define it? Would you use another term for what I am discussing?

2. Can you describe the culture of the institution in which you work? What are its prime characteristics or goals? Or are there many cultures?

3. Can you describe the culture within your own class or classes? What do you 'inherit' and what can you create or change?

4. Do you share my views on the importance of understanding the culture within a learning environment? Or is culture something a teacher should/can ignore?

5. What would be the ideal culture for your classes/teaching? How could you foster or create such a culture?

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Culture and effective online learning environments

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Figure A 1 from the original version of 'Teaching at a Distance' Over the last two months I have done a couple of workshops on building an effective learning environment, based on Appendix 1 of my online, open textbook, Teaching in a Digital Age.

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An article discussing areas of focus that put learning objectives first while still using digital tools.

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Five areas you can focus on to ensure that the digital tools transforming education serve your learning objectives.

It's wild to think about how new technologies are changing the way we think about teaching and learning. The digital tools many students have access to both inside and outside the classroom require us all to take a hard look at the way we use these tools in the context of learning experiences. It's easy to get caught up with the shiniest, brightest, or most attention-grabbing digital device or website, but it is possible to pause, reflect, and prioritize tasks over digital tools in the classroom. Are we putting the learning first?

Designing rigorous learning experiences in a tech-rich classroom requires us to take a step back and think about the ways technology can elevate and energize students. Prioritizing learning experiences means identifying our objectives and pausing to explore how digital tools can help students dive into these learning experiences like never before.

Digital tools let students collaborate in new ways, question the world around them, connect their work with the world, create products that demonstrate their understanding, and wonder about new topics they encounter. These strategies can help you integrate technology into a lesson as you design learning activities.

Collaborating

Although digital tools have changed the way we think about creating in the classroom, collaboration means more than accessing the same document from different devices. Students can work together as they dive into new content and apply what they've learned in the classroom.

You might ask students to log in to a shared presentation outside of school hours to combine their research efforts in one place. Remote collaboration on a shared document is powerful and gives students a new way to provide feedback to one another. Designing learning activities that leverage the collaborative nature of digital tools allows students to explore a topic while sitting in different classrooms or time zones.

And when students share a screen-leaning over to discuss, record, and dive into media together-they also build transferable skills. This shared-screen collaboration gives students an opportunity to compromise, work toward a common goal, and think critically as they dive into course content with their peers.

Questioning

Typing a question into a search bar won't always give students the full answer. We can leverage the power of digital tools to help students explore the world and answer questions that haven't been asked yet or don't have one correct answer. These deep-dive questions require educators to model their own searches and strategies for evaluating websites and online resources.

Modeling how to evaluate sources to find the answer to deep-dive questions is important for students to develop in any subject area, for any learning objective. As students navigate the internet from a personal or school device, we can create experiences for them to pose questions, share their findings, and build an appreciation of lifelong learning online.

Connecting

An authentic audience breathes life into both tech-rich and low-tech tasks. What makes the use of technology especially powerful is how digital tools can connect students with readers, listeners, and viewers of their work.

Using online spaces to share student work with the world helps students connect their learning with an audience. Students can tweet a video they've created to share their opinion about a novel, or share the steps to solve a math problem on a classroom blog.

Open-ended creation tools give students a space to demonstrate their understanding. They can capture their voice, record video, and tell the story of their learning. A tool like Spark Video might be perfect for students to narrate images they've collected during a community walk as they create a public service announcement to share with their school board. Helping students determine the product for that will showcase their learning can take many forms.

Students who are going to share their new knowledge about a topic might use an audio tool like Soundtrap to create a podcast, and ones who will gather a handful of videos they recorded during a science experiment might use Book Creator to share their learning. Focusing on the features students need in order to share their learning with the world can help us place tasks before apps.

Providing a safe space to ask questions gives purpose to learning activities inside the classroom. Students have interests they can explore in the context of your learning goals. They might wonder why some animals are endangered and others are not, or they might wonder why an author chose to write about a topic.

Digital tools can help students discover new things, explore topics that pique their curiosity, and empower them as content consumers and creators. As they wonder about the world around them, students have access to online resources to help them harness their curiosity.

At the end of this learning experience, what should students understand?

How will I know for sure if students understand?

What would I like students to accomplish?

As you work to prioritize learning experiences over technology this school year, pause to ask:

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Putting Learning First With New Tech Tools

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Five areas you can focus on to ensure that the digital tools transforming education serve your learning objectives. It's wild to think about how new technologies are changing the way we think about teaching and learning.

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A digital site to create, collaborate, and share documents.

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Create and collaborate on online documents in real-time and from any device.

Seamless collaboration, from anywhere

Edit together in real-time with easy sharing, and use comments, suggestions, and action items to keep things moving. Or use @-mentions to pull relevant people, files, and events into your online Docs for rich collaboration.

Write faster with built-in intelligence

Assistive features like Smart Compose help you write faster with fewer errors, so you can focus on ideas. And save time with spelling and grammar suggestions, voice typing, and quick document translation.

Seamlessly connect to your other Google apps

Docs is thoughtfully connected to other Google apps you love, saving you time. Reply to comments directly from Gmail, embed charts from Google Sheets, and easily share via Google Meet. You can even search the web and Google Drive for relevant content and images, directly from Docs.

Bring collaboration and intelligence to other file types

Easily edit Microsoft Word files online without converting them, and layer on Docs' enhanced collaborative and assistive features like action items and Smart Compose. You can also import PDFs, making them instantly editable.

Do more with add-ons

Access a variety of third-party applications, right from Docs. Whether it's an e-signature app or project management tool, open it from Docs to work faster.

Work on fresh content

With Docs, everyone's working on the latest version of a document. And with edits automatically saved in version history, it's easy to track or undo changes.

Stay productive, even offline

You can access, create, and edit Docs even without an internet connection, helping you stay productive from anywhere.

Security, compliance, and privacy

Secure by default

We use industry-leading security measures to keep your data safe, including advanced malware protections. Docs is also cloud-native, eliminating the need for local files and minimizing risk to your devices.

Encryption in transit and at rest

All files uploaded to Google Drive or created in Docs are encrypted in transit and at rest.

Compliance to support regulatory requirements

Our products, including Docs, regularly undergo independent verification of their security, privacy, and compliance controls.

Private by design

Docs adheres to the same robust privacy commitments and data protections as the rest of Google Cloud's enterprise services.

You control your data.

We never use your Docs content for ad purposes.

We never sell your personal information to third parties.

Find the plan that's right for you

Google Docs is a part of Google Workspace

Try Docs for Work

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Self-service online and community forums

24/7 online support and community forums

Collaborate from anywhere, on any device

Access, create, and edit your documents wherever you are - from any mobile device, tablet, or computer - even when offline.

Get a head start with templates

Choose from a variety of dashboards, project trackers, and other professionally-designed templates to kick things off quickly.

Projects

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Google Docs: Online Document Editor | Google Workspace

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Use Google Docs to create, and collaborate on online documents. Edit together with secure sharing in real-time and from any device.

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A game based learning site to quickly assess students and gather data.

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A digital learning and study tool for students.

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An online survey tools that can be used to gain feedback on student collaboration.

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A digital tool to plan, create, and deliver lessons.

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Tes provides a range of primary and secondary school teaching resources including lesson plans, worksheets and student activities for all curriculum subjects.

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Talks from inspiring teachers | TED Talks

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A great teacher can change the trajectory of your life. Here, talks from teachers you'll wish you had.

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TED-Ed lessons on all subjects. TED-Ed celebrates the ideas of teachers and students around the world. Discover hundreds of animated lessons, create customized lessons, and share your big ideas.

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A video explaining the importance and effect of being a connected educator.

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Teachers are interviewed to explain the importance of being connected.

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Interview with educators about the importance of being "connected" in order to be an effective teachers and leaders. Video was created as part of Connected Educators Month

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A video sharing platform where students and discuss topics.

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A digital assessment tool to create lessons and assignments.

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A digital student portfolio and parent communication tool.

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A digital notebook for publishing student writing.

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A video making platform for students to publish work.

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A digital platform to create videos and tutorials for education.

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Record, edit and share video to connect with students, parents and faculty.

91%

think it is easier to build good working relationships when you can see and hear people

64%

Answered: "In a 60-minute work meeting, less than 30 minutes is relevant to my job."

87%

think that seeing and hearing people is less likely to result in misunderstandings.

Findings based on a 2022 survey of 1,064 ScreenPal users.

Expand your knowledge and learn how to use video creation tools for learning in any environment.

Easily integrate with the tools you already use

Connecting in the classroom

Communicate more effectively

When you have the video and you have a platform to share it with an 'authentic audience,' it creates ownership with the learning ... the student becomes invested in their learning. They want to improve everything they do.

Read Dr. Doak's 4 C's

Educational Technologist at Hawaii Preparatory Academy

Asynchronous communication

The best tool in the global marketplace for asynchronous communication... We have the capacity to run a video recorder on any platform and create a solution to capture any screen-based resource, anywhere, anytime.

Read Martin Mehl's profile

Cal Poly University and co-author of Digital Academic Revolution

A full-featured application

You pull it up and it's super easy to get started and press record. It also has editing capabilities, too, that really put that production value in and allow you to cut the video down, add effects, add titles...

Read about Teaching in Higher Ed

Director of Teaching Excellence and Digital Pedagogy at Vanguard University of Southern California

Video learning: Frequently asked questions

It's easy to record videos with ScreenPal! You can launch our screen recorder and start recording within a few minutes. You can read more about our screen recorder in this ' Ultimate Guide on How to Screen Record.'

With our free recorder, you can record videos for up to 15 minutes long. It's plenty of time for many educators. You'll also have basic editing options including trimming the start or end of your screencast, adding music options from our stock music library, and adding a captions file.

If you want more including draw and zoom features, green screen, or options to edit your screencast, we invite you to take a look at our affordable Deluxe plan.

There are many reasons why videos are good for learning. We have educators around the world who have implemented videos into their curriculum. They report seeing higher levels of engagement, a stronger connection with their students, and improvement in their grades.

According to research, the average viewer remembers 95% of a message when it is watch; compared to 10% of text-based messages. There's no doubt that video can help with learning.

Here are a number of educators who share their own stories of success:
5 Powerful Ways Educators Are Using Video Professor Uses Flipped Learning to Spark Passion In Her Students Professor Believes Digital Literacy and Video Learning Can Change the World

Absolutely! With your ScreenPal hosting account, you can create a channel dedicated to your class topics.

Create a channel (or playlist) of video content for each of your subjects. Then send a sharable link to your students so they can watch your channel. It's a great way to share your videos!

With ' Channel Recorder,' you can create a channel with its own recording button. Encourage your students to create their own videos to share within your channel.

Here is an overview of our hosting management platform and how to create your own video channel.

With ScreenPal, you don't have to worry about privacy or security concerns. We offer a free screen recorder you can launch on our website.

You don't need to create an account or have a login. This is especially helpful for educators who want their students to create their own videos.

Encourage your students to launch the free screen recorder and start recording videos for class. This easy how-to guide will get you started.

Yes! We are excited to provide a badge program for educators. Our program features educators and how they are able to implement video into their class curriculum.

To get started, head to our badge program to watch all the videos needed for your certification. After watching, take a quick quiz.

Once you pass, you'll receive a badge and a certificate of completion.

Yes! We offer discounted team plans for schools and universities of any size.

You can head here to find out more about our team plans.

Having a team plan is a great idea if you are looking to implement video learning into your school or university. It's a great way for your educators to communicate and collaborate with their students.

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Video creation and management for education. ScreenPal offers the most robust, easy-to-use and cost-effective solutions available for video creation, management, and sharing.

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By Barnett Berry, Kathleen M. Airhart, and P. Ann Byrd We teachers are passionate about our professional learning. But rarely are we able to use artifacts from our classroom and student learning evidence to share with our colleagues what we're accomplishing. This will be the greatest benefit of microcredentials. Microcredentials offer a new way for teachers to document their learning using work samples, videos, and other artifacts and have the potential to transform professional development. I have learned so much from other teachers, and microcredentials can help administrators see the power of how we can lead.
- Marc Walls, high school science teacher

- Leticia Skae, high school English language arts teacher

Walls and Skae are highly accomplished teachers who have led in a variety of formal and informal ways, such as designing a program to provide new teacher support and coaching peers to teach college- and career-ready standards. But a great deal of their learning and leadership is neither recognized nor rewarded.
Personalized learning - for all
Both teach in Tennessee - a state that has invested in a wide array of teaching reforms, including training for standards-based instruction, as well as implementing more rigorous teacher evaluations. The state has been rightfully recognized for making some of the greatest gains of late in math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). But Tennessee students' reading scores on NAEP have stagnated, and substantial achievement gaps remain. Although 90% of the state's teachers report they have "changed" their teaching, fewer than 40% say they have "adequate time to collaborate or adequate access to instructional resources and expertise" (Tennessee Department of Education, 2015, p. 15).

Policy leaders in Tennessee have called for a new chapter in school reform - expanding access to personalized learning for all K-12 students and making sure they're ready for the demands of the global economy upon high school graduation. To be sure, college- and career-ready now means that it's no longer sufficient for students to just memorize facts, take standardized tests, and write term papers. They must work toward the mastery of specific competencies through personalized assignments, often including project-based learning and internships.
So what are microcredentials?
This has important ramifications for teachers' learning. As Walls, the science teacher, pointed out, "If personalization of learning is important for kids, then it is important for those who teach them." But making this happen will require significant shifts. The hard truth about professional development in most U.S. schools has been well-documented: Few teachers are satisfied with their in-service training opportunities, and few school districts organize professional development according to best practices (Berry, 2015). Scholars point to specific components of effective professional development - that it should be job-embedded, inquiry-driven, and collaborative (Darling-Hammond, 2012). But few teachers in the United States experience professional development of this kind. Granted, a recent nationwide study (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2014) revealed that school district leaders want to spend more time on "personalized formats" (like coaching and professional learning communities), but teachers are dissatisfied with how these methods are implemented. The study's authors aptly describe these findings as a serious "problem of execution." Microcredentials offer a new approach.

You've probably heard of digital badges. Organizations and companies have been using badges for more than a decade to represent accomplishment in the workplace or in recreational pursuits like gaming. Students are earning badges, too, whether through their districts (like Aurora Public Schools in Colorado) or nonprofit organizations like the Connected Learning Alliance (http://clalliance.org).

Inspired by the badging movement, microcredentials offer teachers opportunities to document their formal and informal learning . . . in bite-size pieces. They use work samples, videos, and other artifacts to make public what they have mastered and accomplished with their students and colleagues. Based on this evidence, which is assessed against established rubrics, teachers can then be recognized for what they've achieved. As Skae noted above, microcredentials "show how we can lead our own learning."

For example, an educator completing a microcredential on Assessing How Time is Currently Used (issued by the Center for Teaching Quality as part of its Teacher-Powered Schools stack) would submit brief responses to overview questions analyzing data gathered about instructional time, a completed time-tracker document, and an essay (or seven- to 10-minute audio/video clip) addressing specific reflection questions.

Four characteristics distinguish the microcredentialing approach from traditional professional development systems:
Building the system

Competency-based. Microcredentials focus on evidence of teachers' actual skills and abilities, not on the amount of seat time they've logged in their learning.

Personalized. Teachers select microcredentials to pursue on the basis of their own needs, their students' challenges and strengths, school goals, district priorities, or instructional shifts. They identify specific activities that will support them in developing each competency.

On demand. Microcredentials are responsive to teachers' schedules. Educators can opt to explore new competencies or receive recognition for existing ones any time of the day, using an online system to identify competencies and submit evidence.

Shareable. Educators can share their microcredentials across social media platforms, through email, and on blogs and résumés. As a result, microcredentials are portable currency for professional learning that educators can take with them wherever they go

Over the past two years, Digital Promise, a nonprofit seeking to accelerate innovation in education, has been building an ecosystem for advancing the design, development, and implementation of microcredentials for educators. Digital Promise has partnered with BloomBoard, an online professional development platform, to facilitate the process of an educator selecting a microcredential and submitting evidence to earn it.
Here's how it works
As of late summer 2016, more than 30 content partners have developed more than 200 microcredentials - organized in "stacks" - to address a variety of educator skills and competencies. Microcredentials home in on a wide variety of competencies, from Teaching Practices for Deeper Learning (issued by Digital Promise) to more traditional pedagogical skills, such as Data Literacy and Wait Time (issued by the Relay Graduate School of Education). Teacher leadership is a focal area for some other microcredentials, such as stacks developed by the Center for Collaborative Education on Performance Assessment Literacy or by the Center for Teaching Quality on Teacher-Powered Schools and Leading Virtual Communities of Practice.

Each microcredential in the Digital Promise ecosystem includes six components: competency, key method, method components, research and resources, submission criteria, and scoring rubric.

To start, teachers identify the skill they wish or need to develop, submit proof of their competence, and earn digital badges verifying their expertise. Required evidence might include a portfolio, a video, student work, classroom observations, teacher and student reflections, or other documentation of their learning. Trained assessors - individuals that the issuing organization has qualified to review the evidence - examine the teacher's submission against a rubric. Then the issuing organization determines whether the teacher should be awarded the microcredential across math and reading (Ronfeldt et al., 2015).

Depending on a teacher's skills and experiences, some microcredentials may take no more than an hour or so to submit, whereas others may take weeks. School systems can tap the resulting data to improve their professional learning investments. Microcredentials can yield valuable information about who knows what, identifying teachers who are well-positioned to lead their colleagues' learning or spearhead specific reforms.

Some school districts, like Kettle Moraine in Wisconsin, are already experimenting with microcredentials for educators - and finding success. Last year, more than half of Kettle Moraine's 288 teachers earned at least one microcredential. One of them is Katie Hoff, an 8th-grade social studies teacher who chose microcredentials that fit seamlessly into her curriculum, like Digital Promise's Managing Project Cycles and Persuasive Presenting (Barnes, 2016). Earning the microcredentials offered not only a new path for Katie's relicensure but also a way for her district to reward her (with a salary bonus) for developing the knowledge and skills needed to engage students in deeper learning. Kettle Moraine superintendent Pat Deklotz, Wisconsin's 2016 Superintendent of the Year, reports that microcredentialing allows her to enact a new vision for teachers' learning, one that "is not a fixed script but an ever-changing dynamic" (personal communication, Oct. 19, 2015).
Tennessee's approach
More districts and states are now investing in teacher leaders to help drive next-generation teaching and learning, as well as the instructional shifts needed for students to meet higher academic standards. For example, Tennessee, where Walls and Skae teach, has made significant investments in professional development - and is now looking to microcredentials as a way for teachers to lead their own learning and provide evidence of its effect (Tennessee Department of Education, 2015). Here's how that story is unfolding.

Over the past several years, Tennessee has ramped up its teacher leadership efforts, with both its department of education as well as local and national nonprofits establishing fellowships for classroom experts to support the implementation of college- and career-ready standards and serve as instructional coaches for colleagues. Teachers are receiving more high-quality feedback than ever before through the Tennessee Educator Acceleration Model (TEAM), the state's teaching evaluation rubric.

But teachers report that the feedback from peers and instructional coaches is not always actionable. Even in some of the state's most innovative districts, teachers' assessment of their professional development mirrors those of their colleagues across the United States. In particular, they lament insufficient ownership of their learning and too few opportunities to engage with one another in cycles of improvement (see Figure 1).

Recently, Tennessee Department of Education leaders have recognized that the state's teacher relicensure requirements are out of sync with its commitment to ensure that teaching evaluation focuses primarily on continuous improvement and sharing pedagogical practices. Tennessee Education Commissioner Candice McQueen summarized state leaders' goals:

To improve student learning, teachers must continuously increase the knowledge and skills they have to teach more rigorous content and engage students in learning. We have made this goal the central focus of teacher evaluation, and now we must align professional learning to meet this goal. To date, most state approaches to granting professional development credit have not evolved to meet individualized educator needs matched to the results of teacher evaluation (personal communication, Aug. 6, 2016).

Tennessee is tackling these issues head-on. In partnership with Learning Forward, the Tennessee Department of Education is working with several school districts (including Knox, Loudon, and Shelby counties) that are "identifying their local professional learning challenges and then creating scalable solutions" (Learning Forward, 2016). A multidisciplinary team of educators from the department is working with districts as well as with vanguard teachers to launch a microcredential pilot. Figure 2 shows the timeline for implementation.

In 2016-17, the pilot will pair 30 highly effective teachers with 30 novices in their respective districts. Throughout the year, the teachers will submit evidence on several Digital Promise microcredentials aligned with the TEAM rubric, focusing on specific areas (such as thinking, questioning, and problem solving) that have previously proven daunting for teachers in the state, as well as for administrators, who have struggled to give constructive feedback in these areas.

Supported by the Tennessee Department of Education and the Center for Teaching Quality, pilot participants will collaborate in a virtual community, sharing resources and reactions to the microcredentialing process. The department will look to these participants as a design team that can inform the content, process, and support structures needed to implement microcredentials with all beginning teachers.

In 2017-18, leaders from the Tennessee Department of Education plan to begin linking microcredentialing to the state's licensure advancement system. State officials believe that 25% of novice teachers will opt into microcredentialing to complement other more traditional options as their route to obtain the professional development points required for licensure advancement. In addition, the department expects to launch an empirical examination of the microcredentials. The study will draw on a range of evidence (for example, TEAM results, surveys, and so on) from teachers who have earned microcredentials for licensure advancement and compare their experiences with those of their peers who continue to use more traditional models of professional development.
Why we're so optimistic
Tennessee Department of Education leaders anticipate that in subsequent years, the microcredentialing movement will expand to support much-needed reforms within the state, including the creation of innovative teacher leadership pathways, the identification of expert evaluators and coaches, and the cultivation of leaders for virtual communities of practice on a range of instructional topics. It's likely that expert teachers and administrators in Tennessee will design some microcredentials to complement those offered by Digital Promise's partners, addressing competencies relevant to districts' pressing needs and teachers' interests. Over time, the department intends to act on its research findings to support all of the state's 67,000 teachers to experience personalized professional learning.

Microcredentialing is in its nascent stages, and there still are far more questions than answers. Key challenges include figuring out funding and sustainability, communicating effectively with administrators and teachers, and organizing people and resources to best support local districts in this effort. These are big issues, but we're optimistic about the prospects for microcredentials.

Microcredentialing is well-positioned as a solution for U.S. schools' longtime professional development woes for five reasons. First, the microcredentialing approach is grounded in empirical evidence about effective teacher collaboration. Researchers have assembled mounting evidence about how and why teacher collaboration influences student learning (Ronfeldt et al., 2015). Other scholars have demonstrated that teachers are most likely influenced to make instructional shifts by colleagues from similar contexts and whom they trust (Hattie, 2015). Microcredentials can create ways for teachers to lead their own learning - built from research evidence and tailored to balance the learning needs of individual practitioners, teacher teams, schools, and districts.

Second, we think the approach will appeal to practitioners who have long been disillusioned with the professional development offered by their school systems. A recent national survey by Digital Promise (Grunwald Associates & Digital Promise, 2015) revealed that although teachers are dissatisfied with their formal professional development opportunities, nearly three in four are pursuing informal learning that satisfies their quest to improve. The survey also found that after teachers are introduced to microcredentials, about 31% report they are "extremely" or "very likely" to try them when they become available, and another 34% are "somewhat interested." Teachers reported that they are most eager to find professional development that is easily accessible, personalized, and grounded in research.

Third, microcredentials enable teachers to get credit for what they're already learning informally in online networks. Growing numbers of teachers, supported by nonprofits like the Center for Teaching Quality, are engaged in professional learning communities of their choosing that cut across schools, districts, and states, de-siloing classroom practitioners from one another. One in five teachers report they participate in online networks (Grunwald Associates & Digital Promise, 2015). According to a report by Scholastic and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (2014), nearly 6 in 10 teachers are now using technology to work with teaching colleagues they "would not otherwise know." As Walls told us, "I've grown more in the last year or so. It's not in-services or PLCs. It's Twitter. I've been able to pick the brains of so many teachers and administrators as well." Microcredentials harness new technologies and can create a system of professional learning currency for teachers that is portable and shareable. They can provide administrators with invaluable data for making the most of what teachers learn through online networks.

Fourth, microcredentials, although revolutionary in concept, can fit readily into existing systems. In many states, professional learning policies already integrate seat-time and competency-based learning. Over the past year, seven states have begun to allow microcredentials to replace continuing education units needed for re-licensure. As Phil Rogers, executive director of the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification, told us:

I don't know of a state that has a high-quality teacher recertification system. Some do not even do much to approve vendors. Most state education agencies want to move away from counting hours for recertification. They know what they have does not work. They just do not have the impetus to do so - yet (personal communication, Nov. 18, 2015).
A better way
Finally, the recent passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) presents district and state leaders with new opportunities to rethink and fund differently systems for teachers' professional learning and growth. ESSA defines professional development as "sustained (not stand-alone, one-day, or short-term workshops), intensive, collaborative, job-embedded, data-driven, and classroom-focused." And the new federal law supports states in specifying how their use of "Title dollars" can improve teaching effectiveness through "personalized support and feedback for improvement." With ESSA Title II professional development funds as well as an overhauled Teacher and School Leader Innovation Program, districts can try more creative performance pay and other teacher quality improvement measures. In doing so, states can make the most of the emerging ecosystem of microcredentials to recognize and reward classroom practitioners for leading their own learning and documenting their accomplishments.

The imperative for change is clear. U.S. schools invest about $18 billion in teacher professional development annually, and teachers, on average, engage in about 68 hours of formal training annually directed in large part by their school district (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2014). Yet teachers and administrators continue to testify that the current workshop, seat-time approach to professional development has not been working. And researchers concur.

System leaders can leverage microcredentials to support the continual growth of all teachers, whether they are novices finding their way or accomplished teachers seeking to expand their influence without leaving the classroom. The evidence-based system also presents new opportunities for administrators to assess the effect of specific professional development expenditures on teaching and learning.

There are other benefits, too. System leaders will have new ways to identify practitioners with particular kinds of expertise - and to calculate where gaps may need to be filled. And teachers will have a powerful tool to communicate with policy makers and the public about what deeper learning looks like for students and themselves. Education advocates, policy makers, and those who prepare teachers will find it an easier lift to pinpoint the practitioners, schools, and systems that model what we need the next generation of teachers to do and be.
References
Of course, transforming professional development in the United States will be no small feat. But personalized, competency-based student learning can only take hold if we change how we support teachers to learn and lead. The shift has already begun, as we can see in the rapid growth of online networks as well as the passage of ESSA. Microcredentials can help system leaders move teaching and learning forward in powerful ways, developing innovative approaches to document, strengthen, and maximize the expertise of teachers like Walls, Skae, and countless others across Tennessee and the nation.

Barnes, A. (2016, May 9). Increasing potential with microcredentials: An interview with teacher Katie Hoff. BloomBoard. http://blog.bloomboard.com/increasing-potential-with-micro-credentials

Berry, B. (2015). The dynamic duo of professional learning: Technology and collaboration. Phi Delta Kappan, 97 (4), 51-55.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (2014, December). Teachers know best: Teachers' views on professional development. http://k12education.gatesfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Gates-PDMarketResearch-Dec5.pdf

Darling-Hammond, L. (2012). Creating a comprehensive system for evaluating and supporting effective teaching. Stanford, CA: Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education. https://edpolicy.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/publications/creating-comprehensive-system-evaluating-and-supporting-effective-teaching.pdf

Grunwald Associates & Digital Promise. (2015). Making professional learning count: Recognizing educators' skills with microcredentials. http://digitalpromise.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/making_professional_learning_count.pdf

Hattie, J. (2015). What works best in education: The politics of collaborative expertise. London: Pearson. www.pearson.com/content/dam/corporate/global/pearson-dot-com/files/hattie/150526_ExpertiseWEB_V1.pdf

Learning Forward. (2016, May 12). Learning Forward launches community of practice to support 20 leading school systems. https://learningforward.org/blog-landing/press-releases/2016/05/12/learning-forward-launches-community-of-practice-to-support-20-leading-school-systems#.V55WXmX10y4

Ronfeldt, M., Farmer, S.O., McQueen, K., & Grissom, J. (2015). Teacher collaboration in instructional teams and student achievement. American Educational Research Journal, 52 (3), 475-514.

Scholastic & Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (2014). Primary sources: Update: Teachers' views on Common Core state standards. www.scholastic.com/primarysources/PrimarySources-2014update.pdf

Tennessee Department of Education. (2015). Tennessee succeeds. Where are we going? How will we get there? www.tn.gov/assets/entities/education/attachments/strategic_plan.pdf

BARNETT BERRY (bberry@teachingquality.org) is founder, chief executive officer, and partner at the Center for Teaching Quality, Carrboro, N.C. KATHLEEN M. AIRHART ( kathleen.airhart@tn.gov) is chief operating officer and deputy commissioner of education for the state of Tennessee. P. ANN BYRD ( abyrd@teachingquality.org) is chief operating officer and partner at the Center for Teaching Quality.

Originally published in November 2016 Phi Delta Kappan 98 (3), 34-40. © 2016 Phi Delta Kappa International. All rights reserved.

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Microcredentials offer a new way for teachers to document their learning using work samples, videos, and other artifacts and have the potential to transform professional development. By Barnett Berry, Kathleen M. Airhart, and P. Ann Byrd We teachers are passionate about our professional learning. But rarely are we

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An infograph  showing the importance of being a connected educator.

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Within the silo of a school or classroom, it's difficult to find time for meaningful conversations about what works and why.

By reaching beyond school walls and connecting with colleagues from around the globe, many educators have discovered vibrant learning communities in which teachers and leaders share ideas and propel each other to grow.

Getting connected isn't always easy. We asked some of our most plugged-in educators to offer tips on how to connect with colleagues outside your school community to form an invaluable professional learning network. Take a look at the infographic below and read on to find out what they advise.
1. Dedicate time for networking.
Networking may sound intimidating, but it doesn't have to be. Half the battle is simply setting aside time to initiate conversations, whether online or in person.

"Find a way to regularly get together with excellent educators to fine-tune your practice," said Flip Your Classroom co-author Jon Bergmann. "Don't have an agenda, but just talk about good practices."
2. Participate in ed chats.
Educators get together on Twitter at regular times to talk about the subjects that ignite them. Throughout the week, dozens of education-related chats on topics ranging from 1:1 to flipped learning present opportunities to build relationships.

"You can build a great PLN and connect with like-minded educators by following the Twitter hashtags that most interest you in terms of grade level, subject area or topic," said education consultant and author Jerry Blumengarten.
3. Join a network.
If handpicking your personal network seems too time consuming, you can join a ready-made group such as one of ISTE's Professional Learning Networks (PLNs). Each one focuses on a specific topic or area of interest, and many provide year-round professional learning as well as opportunities for leadership and collaboration.
4. Attend conferences and edcamps.
Events such as the ISTE Conference & Expo provide an opportunity for face-to-face collaboration and can deepen your connection to your PLN. Many educators with online networks relish the chance to meet their distant colleagues in person.

"By taking part in conferences such as ISTE, ALA, November Learning BLC Conference, School Library Journal Summit and edcamps, I have strengthened and deepened the relationships that started online with my educator friends and colleagues," said education consultant and speaker Shannon Miller. "These relationships have brought so many amazing things back to my students and school community, including collaborative projects, connected classrooms and exchanges between our students."
5. Share your ideas.
True connection is a two-way street. Sharing content online - rather than merely consuming it - can help you find like-minded colleagues to collaborate with.

"One way I find educators to connect with is to create a survey on a hot topic that I am interested in, spread the word through my social media channels, and tell the respondents that I will share the collected data with them," said educational technologist Kathy Schrock. "I often find some creative new item or idea, and I can contact that person and connect for more information."

Writing your own blog is another way to initiate conversations online, said Science Leadership Academy founding principal Chris Lehmann.

"Blogging is still really important," Lehmann said. "People are still reading, and the voices of educators are more important than ever."
6. Ask a connected educator for help.
"If you are unsure about how to use the internet to connect, find somebody else who has connected online and learn how they connect," Bergmann said.
This is an updated version of a post that published on Oct. 10, 2014.

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Infographic: How to become a connected educator

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Within the silo of a school or classroom, it's difficult to find time for meaningful conversations about what works and why. By reaching beyond school walls and connecting with colleagues from around the globe, many educators have discovered vibrant learning communities in which teachers and leaders share ideas and propel each other to grow.

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"Shifts" for teachers to consider that promote teacher learning and leadership.

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Knowledgeable. Versatile. Creative. Engaged.

Being college- and career-ready is no simple task. It's time for all American students to take part in deeper learning.

Limitations of current reforms

Recent investments in education are not yielding adequate results, as dismal test scores and other indicators reveal. High-stakes accountability systems (or, as Andy Calkins puts it, "the policy equivalent of... 'Shock and Awe' tactics") aren't doing the trick. Neither are efforts to "disrupt" education with charter schools or opening up the marketplace so anyone can teach.

And technology is no panacea. Digital tools offer powerful assists. But even in technologically rich environments, deeper learning can only achieve its aims-and do so for all students-when grounded in relationships.

What's more, as education historian Larry Cuban has noted, the student-centered, hands-on, personalized instruction envisioned by education technology advocates remains the exception to the rule. Why? He points to the lack of time for teachers to "learn, experiment, and overhaul their practices in collaboration with each other." A 2015 report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, examining use of technology and student learning across the world, reached the same conclusion.

A recent Gallup poll hints at what else is amiss, reporting that only 30 percent of America's teachers are "actively engaged" in their jobs. While a vast majority of teachers say they see teaching as their life's calling, the Gallup survey showed that teachers "scored dead last" among 12 occupational groups in agreeing with the statement that their opinions count at work.

Teachers feel disconnected from decisions relevant to their jobs, and their working conditions do not encourage ongoing professional growth. How can we then expect them to exercise energy and enthusiasm as they engage students in deeper learning?It is time for policymakers and practitioners to create an effective system of teacher learning and leadership.

The promise of deeper learning

Yet these innovations have limited reach. For decades, as Richard Elmore has noted, ambitious American reforms have flopped because of the lack of "intentional processes for [the] reproduction of successes."

For deeper learning to spread, teachers must be able to evaluate the impact of new practices on student learning and broaden their own reach. To borrow Elmore's terms, growing numbers of teachers will need to "go public" with their practices and expand their "web" of influence, no longer thinking of themselves as "solo practitioners." And schools will need to take new organizational approaches that develop teachers as leaders and create the conditions that allow (and encourage) their expertise to be tapped and spread.

We can advance this work by leveraging three promising shifts:

1. Next-generation accountability approaches can make American teachers' expertise-and the evidence of their impact-more visible.

2. Meanwhile, policymakers and administrators are learning more about innovative organizational designs (including practices of top-performing nations and leadership trends beyond education) that can spread teaching expertise.

3. And teachers are tapping online tools and networks to support one another's learning and leadership growth in resourceful, impactful ways.

Here are just a few examples of networks and online communities that have emerged and/or rapidly expanded in recent years:
CTQ's Collaboratory has attracted more than 11,000 members in less than three years, creating unique opportunities for teachers to learn about policy and practice from one another and to go public with their ideas.

LearnZillion and Bloomboard provide e-platforms that allow teachers to curate and share exceptional lessons, tools, and resources connected to new student standards.

Literacy Design Collaborative offers a research-based framework that equips teachers to develop and share literacy-rich classroom assignments and courses across content areas.

The National Writing Project, the nation's foremost exemplar of how teachers teach one another, is at work in more than 200 locales-and is now expanding virtually.

Online networking boom

Meanwhile, a recent national survey shows that while teachers are not satisfied with their formal professional development opportunities, almost 3 in 4 classroom practitioners are pursuing informal learning (including participation in new networks and online communities) that does satisfy their quest to improve.

The next step: take advantage of this increased connectivity to spread and document teachers' expertise. Enter the micro-credentialing movement, which presents teachers with opportunities to document their learning-whether formal or informal-and maximize their engagement in online communities.

Scaling up educational change is no simple feat. But by making the most of the three shifts above to fuel teacher learning and leadership, we can create the excellent and equitable public education system all students deserve.

This post is an excerpt from a new paper commissioned by the Ford Foundation. Visit teachingquality.org/deeperlearning to read more.

Barnett Berry (@BarnettCTQ) is founder and CEO of the Center for Teaching Quality (@teachingquality), a national nonprofit that advances a high-quality public education system for all students, driven by the bold ideas and expert practices of teachers. Barnett is an investor in EdSurge.

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Deeper Learning Demands Deeper Leading-and Technology Can Help - EdSurge News

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Knowledgeable. Versatile. Creative. Engaged. Being college- and career-ready is no simple task. It's time for all American students to take part in deeper learning. Recent investments in education are not yielding adequate results, as dismal test scores and other indicators reveal. High-stakes accountability systems (or, as Andy Calkins puts it, "the policy equivalent of...

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Building An Inclusive Classroom Through UDL

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Building An Inclusive Classroom Through UDL

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Principals that lead to a more inclusive classroom.

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Would you want to be a learner in your classroom? That's not a trick question-think about it. Perhaps some of the activities and lessons wouldn't resonate if you were sitting behind a desk listening to them yourself. This may be especially true in classrooms where material is presented in a one-size-fits-all format. After all, the more options students are given to complete assignments, the more likely it is they'll find one that interests them.

Such an approach is nothing new. Many educators know it as the building blocks behind Universal Design for Learning, or UDL. Developed by CAST, UDL is comprised of three guiding principles that seek to increase engagement and accessibility: Providing learners with multiple means of engagement; representation; and action and expression.

What does that mean: engagement, representation and action and expression? First, engagement looks at ways the learner regulates their learning while sustaining interest, effort and motivation. Representation is focused on how the information is presented to the learner, in order to to promote understanding. Finally, action and expression focuses on the ways the learner can demonstrate their mastery of the subject and respond to the activity.

UDL is not a special ed thing or even a general ed thing. It's just an ed thing. It is a way to connect every student to the learning experience, and a way at looking at learning that is fully inclusive and promotes success for all learners, regardless of ability.

According to educator and author Todd Rose (watch his TEDtalk The Myth of Average), everyone has a "jagged learning profile." That is, we have both strengths and weaknesses. Educators who employ UDL principles in their classroom are taking a proactive approach to learning and working to ensure that every learner has the opportunity to demonstrate their expertise and use their strengths to be successful. Every student can be an expert in something, and the UDL principles can help them show it.

That's because the ultimate goal of UDL is to develop expert learners, which CAST defines as "purposeful and motivated; resourceful and knowledgeable; and, strategic and goal directed."

Intrigued? Let's dig deeper into the three principles and discuss some real world classroom applications to lead to a more inclusive learning experience for all students.

Engagement

Let's start with engagement, or finding ways to motivate learners and promote persistence as they move through the learning activities. Getting students to help design the learning experience can also increase engagement-as can strategies that help them become more invested in what's being taught.

One tool that demonstrates this idea of engagement is Flipgrid. This free video response tool, recently acquired by Microsoft, allows students to respond to questions through video. Students who may not be comfortable participating in whole-group activities may be more inclined to participate via pre-recorded video. Students can also leave video comments for classmates and engage in deeper discussions.

It's not all high-tech tools, though. Some no-tech examples of engagement could include using sticky notes as an exit ticket to check for understanding, a daily reflection journal and classroom expectation checklists.

One important thing to remember about engagement is that it's OK for a learner to disengage during an activity. Think about it: you do that throughout your day, right? You stop an activity to check email or perform another task. The critical component here is fostering an environment that promotes re-engagement. How can I bring a learner back to the activity and provide support to facilitate success?

Representation

For many students who learn differently, their days are filed with worksheets and other print materials that they are unable to read. Why not provide some options beyond text to promote understanding?

Providing text in a digital format will increase opportunities for accessibility and flexibility for all learners. Apps like Seeing AI, Claro Scan Pen and Prizmo Go use the camera on your mobile device to take a picture of text and then read it aloud. (Check out this YouTube playlist to see how these tools look in action.)

How about providing an audio recording of the materials? Any audio recording app will work. Look around your school and find an old tape recorder. Make this a classroom job for students to read materials into the recorder and produce audio clips. I have worked in schools where volunteers have created audio materials for students to use. (Would you prefer to listen to this article read by the author? Follow this link to listen to the audio version of the article, which was recorded using Anchor. This free app/web tool can provide a platform for audio recording and podcasting.)

Low-to-no tech examples of representation include teachers posting infographics around the classroom that share important information and using a graphic novel instead of a text-heavy work of fiction. The pictures below show Moby Dick in two very different formats. Both share the same information but each format offers an opportunity to connect with different learners.

Want to create your own digital versions of print materials? One of the most powerful digital creation tools is Book Creator. Available as an iOS app or web-based tool (which works well on Chromebooks), educators or students can create engaging digital books that can feature text, pictures and embedded multimedia through the use of audio and video clips.

Other great tools include KWL charts (a form of graphic organizer), as well as visuals posted in the classroom for vocabulary and writing strategies and manipulatives for math equations.

Action & Expression

As we move into this last focus area of UDL, note that many of the tools and strategies mentioned above can also be used by students to provide options for action and expression. Students can use video as a response to an assignment instead of writing, create a comic strip using a tool like StoryboardThat to complete a writing task or produce an audio podcast. Presentations can be a powerful way for students to share their voice. From Pages to Google Slides to Microsoft Sway, there are plenty of edtech tools available in our classrooms to amplify student voice.

As with the other areas of UDL, technology is not necessary to provide options. Students can draw their own comic strip for a writing task or use a word wall (with words/pictures) to compile work.

These are just some examples of learning options the can be integrated into our learning environments to support all students. There are so many other options we can use to promote inclusive learning environments. Do you have an idea you used in your classroom? Share it via this Flipgrid. Like our students, we all get better when we share.

What are some immediate steps you can take to promote an inclusive UDL learning environment? Be intentional as you design learning experiences. Ask yourself: Am I providing options during this learning experience? You won't be able to infuse all areas of UDL into every lesson. That's OK. Start small. Find ways to infuse UDL into learning activities. Build on your successes. And keep moving in a positive direction and watch your students succeed.

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Tips, Tricks and Tools to Build Your Inclusive Classroom Through UDL - EdSurge News

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Would you want to be a learner in your classroom? That's not a trick question-think about it. Perhaps some of the activities and lessons wouldn't ...

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A list of 40 educational Twitter chats for education

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For educators who thrive on connections, Twitter chats may be the perfect form of professional development. They're free. They focus on just the topic you need. They happen regularly. And they give you access to an instant community, complete with networking opportunities, emotional support and the chance to give back.

Participating in chats even aligns with the ISTE Standards for Educators because they allow you to improve your practice by learning from and with others to explore proven and promising practices that leverage technology to improve student learning.

"The collective intelligence of a chat can provide educators with classroom-tested lessons, a variety of perspectives on specific problems or an introduction to emerging technologies," says Daniel Krutka (@dankrutka), who uses Twitter to connect to his students and the rest of the education community. "Chats also offer leaders opportunities to expand their audiences and influence, and they give voice to teachers who might not otherwise have the chance to exercise leadership outside their classrooms or schools."

But with hundreds of ed-related chats, how do you know which ones are worth giving up an hour of your day?

First, pick your angle. Some chats, such as#edchat, tackle a broad range of education issues, while others are based on shared interests in a particular topic, content area, grade level, job type or geographical region. Next, try out a couple that fit your criteria and see which community you feel most at home in.

To get you started, check out this list of 41 education chats curated by the ISTE community, organized by chat type. If you don't find something for you on this list, check out Participate.com, which hosts an easy to use list of chats organized by topic and even highlights happening each day.

General education chats

#engchat (Monday, 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET)
Where English teachers share ideas, resources and inspiration.

#nt2t (Saturdays, 6 a.m. PT/9 a.m. ET)
For educators who are new to Twitter.

#OK2Ask (every other Thursday, 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET)
Friendly chat with lots of classroom resources shared.

#satchat (Saturdays, 4:30 a.m. PT/7:30 a.m. ET)
For current and emerging school leaders, #satchat became so popular it spawned two geographically specific offshoot chats:#SatchatWC for West Coasters and #SatchatOC for educators living in Oceania (Indonesia, Polynesia, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, etc.).

Job role chats

#1stchat (Sunday, 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET)
Chat about first grade teaching.

#kinderchat (Mondays, 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET)
For anyone interested in kindergarten and early-childhood education.

#mschat (Thursdays at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET)
For middle school teachers.

Topical chats

#AppleEDUchat (Tuesdays, noon and 6 p.m. PT/3 p.m. and 9 p.m. ET)

#AR4Learning (Thursdays, 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET)
Focused on augmented reality in the classrooms.

#ARVRinEDU (Wednesdays, 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m.ET)
Discussion about augmented and virtual reality in education.

#BookCreator chat (Last Thursday of the month, 11 a.m. PT/2 p.m. ET)
Over the course of the chat, participants collaborate on a book and publish it online.

#EdTechChat (Mondays, 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET)
Focuses on topics related to edtech.

#FlipClass (Mondays, 5 p.m. PT/8p.m. ET)
For those interested in the flipped classroom model.

#formativechat (Mondays, 4:30 p.m. PT/7:30 p.m. ET)
Discussion of topics related to formative assessment, from giving effective feedback to giving students more ownership of their learning.

#Games4Ed (Thursdays, 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET; Sundays, noon PT/3 p.m. ET)
For those interested in game-based learning and gamification.

#iteachphysics (Saturdays, 6 a.m. PT/ 9 a.m. ET)
Bi-weekly chat for physics teachers.

#kidscancode (Tuesdays, 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET)
For educators interested in helping students learn to program.

#LearnLAP (Mondays, 5 p.m, PT/ 8 p.m. ET)
Focuses on strategies for creating a student-led classroom.

#pblchat (Tuesdays, 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET)
For project-based learning fans.

#PersonalizedPD (Tuesdays, 6 p.m. PT/ 9 p.m. ET)
For those interested in customizing professional development to meet the needs of each educator.

#plearnchat (Mondays, 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m.ET)

Topics focus on personalized learning, learner agency, changing culture, voice and choice, and strategies to transform teaching and learning.

#Read4fun (Every other Sunday, 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET)
Connects passionate educators with books, and with each other.

#Shiftthis (Tuesdays, 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET)
Focuses on implementing gradual change for massive impact in the classroom.

#sschat (Mondays, 4 p.m. PT, 7 p.m. ET)
For social studies educators.

#TLAP (Mondays, 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET)
For educators who embrace David Burgess' approach of teaching like a pirate.

#WeirdEd (Wednesdays, 7 p.m. PT/10 p.m. ET)
Focuses on positive issues, taking action and the kids.

#whatisschool (Thursdays, 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET)
Educators discuss shaping the future of school.

#XPLAP (Tuesdays, 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET)
Based on Explore Like a Pirate, chat focuses on gamification.

Regional chats

#CAedchat (Sundays, 8 p.m. PT/11 p.m. ET)
California educators discuss education topics relevant to the West Coast.

#NCed (Tuesdays, 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET)
For North Carolina educators.

#UrbanEdChat (Thursdays, 7 p.m. PT/ 10 p.m. ET)
For educators who want to discuss urban education.

#UTedChat (Wednesdays, 8 p.m. PT/11 p.m. ET)
Focuses on education topics relevant to Utah and the general education landscape.
This post is an updated version of an article originally published on May 19, 2015.

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40 education Twitter chats worth your time

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For educators who thrive on connections , Twitter chats may be the perfect form of professional development. They're free. They focus on just the topic you need. They happen regularly. And they give you access to an instant community, complete with networking opportunities , emotional support and the chance to give back.

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10 Tips for Becoming a Connected Educator

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10 Tips for Becoming a Connected Educator

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Tips for teachers on how to become and stay a connected educator.

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1. Embrace Making Mistakes

I've been in so many meetings with educators who talk about the power of making mistakes. We all nod our head in agreement and say that not only is this important for us to teach, but we also need to walk the walk. But when it really comes to us, we hesitate. Why? Because we're afraid. Just with learning anything new, mistakes will be made. It's how you learn from them that matters. Still need convincing? Here are Seven Wonderful Ted Talks on Learning from Failure.

2. There's No Right Way -- There's Only Your Way

When I teach others how to get started using social media for professional development, many request a manual of some sort -- a detailed step-by-step account that tells you exactly what you need to do. There are some guides out there that can help (here's a collection of resources on Twitter I like), but you can't learn how to connect to other educators from a manual. I'd recommend surveying your social landscape and deciding on one social space you'd like to try first. The most important thing to keep in mind is that just because someone is using this social network a certain way, that doesn't mean it's the right way for you. Think of some goals that you'd like to achieve and start from there. Once you get more familiar with the platform, you'll be able to refine your goals.

3. Just Jump In!

I recently heard this playful metaphor of a puppy getting loose for the first time to describe how people should use social media. When loose, the puppy jumps a fence and doesn't look back. No hesitation -- it's running full speed to explore -- and most likely get into trouble. That type of excitement and non-hesitation is needed (minus the trouble) if you're going to dive into social media and really experience it. Make those mistakes, listen, and reflect on how you can use all this to help you.

4. Be Open to Learning Unexpected Things

One of the things I love about being connected is that I'm constantly learning important things that weren't originally on the top of my list to learn. It's kind of like that old saying, "You don't know what you don't know." By being connected, you can be directly connected to some of the greatest and most inspiring minds in education (check out the next tip on how to do this). Just make sure that you're in a mental space to learn things that may not currently be top-of-mind for you.

5. Follow Like-Minded (and Not So Like-Minded) People in Education

If you're in an online community, look at discussions that you've learned from -- who's commenting? Make sure to friend or follow them. If you're on Twitter, you can start by following these lists of inspiring people in Education: Edutopia bloggers, Edcamp Organizers and Great Educational Organizations. On Twitter, you can also search for specific topics; here's a list of education-related hashtags and education chats. Within your searches, feel free to follow people that you're interested in hearing more from. And if you're on Google+, you can peruse the many education-oriented communities to get your network started.

6. Join the Edcamp Movement

Edcampers are some of the most inspiring and action-oriented people in education. I feel smart (and sometimes incredibly lazy) just being around them. Edcamps are educator-led unconferences -- conferences that have no set agenda. Make sure to follow the organizers on Twitter using the above Twitter list. You can also check out this wiki for a list of upcoming events. Not convinced that this is worth your time? Check out this video:

7. Join a Live Virtual Event

There are so many free online events out there to take advantage of. Whether it be a live Twitter chat ( here's a list of them all), a Google Hangout On Air or a virtual conference, they are all great on-demand ways to learn. Side note: Every week, Edutopia highlights upcoming edcamps, webinars, and virtual conferences on this page.

8. Block Out Time to Get Connected

If you don't prioritize this, it won't happen. At the minimum, I'd suggest reserving 30 minutes of your work week -- that's only six minutes a day. And once you get more familiar with everything, you'll actually find that being connected will save you time (no joke!).

9. Be Yourself and Help Others

Many join a social network and think that they need to be "Jane Doe, 7th grade science teacher." I know you're more than just that. Add some personal things about yourself so that people can connect with you. For example, if you have a passion for running, add that, and mention it occasionally. I tend to use the metaphor of a cocktail party to help guide proper interactions in online spaces. The people you like to talk to at a party are people that listen, don't talk about themselves all of the time, and perhaps offer helpful advice. At the heart of social media is the word "social" -- if you wouldn't do something in person, it's probably not right for social networks either.

10. Start Blogging

Once you get a hang of being connected, make sure to share your experience and thoughts with others through blogging. Blogging is a great way to reflect on what you've learned in your personal learning network (PLN), and it's also a fabulous way to give back.

I'd like to close with some powerful quotes that came from ASCD's 2013 annual conference on the power of being connected:

"If you are the smartest one in the room, you need a bigger room. That's Twitter." -- Paula White, elementary gifted resources teacher, Charlottesville, Virginia

"Alone we are smart, together we are brilliant. Twitter helps us do that." -- Steven Anderson, educator, Winston-Salem, North Carolina

"Twitter is one of the best ways to connect w/other educators from all over the world for anytime PD. Be the Change!" -- Jimmy Casas, high school principal, Bettendorf, Iowa

Please feel free to use the comments section below for asking any questions you have on how to get started. I'll make sure to respond to all comments. Hope to see you on a social network soon!

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Ten Tips for Becoming a Connected Educator | Edutopia

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I've been in so many meetings with educators who talk about the power of making mistakes. We all nod our head in agreement and say that not only is this important for us to teach, but we also need to walk the walk. But when it really comes to us, we hesitate.

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Reluctant Adopters and Technology Initiatives

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Reluctant Adopters and Technology Initiatives

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An article explaining teachers' technology concerns and how they can accept the change.

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When school leaders decide to start a new technology project-whether it's a small one like adopting a new technology tool or a large one like going 1:1-they often dread one or two teachers they suspect will be reluctant and could keep the project from succeeding. They may avoid these teachers or not address their reluctance.

But understanding the position of reluctant teachers may help the leaders preserve collegial relationships and encourage the teachers to accept and work hard for the new project-such teachers, far from being stubborn, may have valid points that those who are eager for change may have overlooked.

Change is difficult, and individuals accept it at different rates. In the fundamental work on how change occurs, Everett Rogers argued that people can be divided into five main groups in terms of how they accept change.

The innovators, the first group, jump onboard easily-these are the people who wait in line for the newest phone or laptop. The next group, early adopters, wait for a little more information but are relatively quick to embrace change and are often seen as leaders by others who are deciding whether to join in or not. The next two groups, the early majority and late majority, wait to see how things will work out-people in the late majority are generally skeptical of change-but they do join once they're sure an initiative is moving forward. Rogers classified his final group as laggards, and these are the people leaders dread-very skeptical of change and willing to fight to stop it.

Working With Reluctant Adopters

The thing is, leaders should expect to find members of this group on staff, and they should be part of any implementation plan. What that requires is first exploring what it is that's stopping them from implementing the proposed change. While it might be frustrating to spend time convincing people to move forward on a technology project, the time spent working to reduce barriers can help ensure positive relationships.

Peggy Ertmer of Purdue University has studied the barriers that keep people from adopting new technology projects. First-order barriers are external and technical, such as difficulty using a new piece of software. Second-order barriers are internal-for example, a teacher may think that a technology project doesn't match what they believe about teaching and learning.

First-order barriers are the easiest to deal with; making sure that teachers have support to learn these technologies and to deal directly with technical problems will resolve these problems. Second-order barriers are more difficult. If teachers don't believe that a specific technology will make a difference to students, or if they fear they will lose what they like about teaching, it can be difficult to change their minds.

As with all change, a new technology project is about relationships, so dealing with second-order barriers begins with getting to know the reluctant teachers and their concerns. Ask them to talk about their teaching-what was their favorite lesson in the last month? Why did they like it? Build on that lesson. Help them identify how technology could enhance that lesson.

Consider pairing the teacher with an early adopter or an early or late majority teacher. Innovators can be overwhelming because they may be too gung ho to empathize with a reluctant teacher's concerns, but teachers who are a little reluctant themselves can show reluctant teachers classroom examples of how the project could benefit them. These teachers could help their reluctant colleagues identify a single app or feature based on individual classroom concerns-teachers are more willing to invest the time to learn a new technology when it directly addresses a classroom need.

If the teacher is fearful that they will lose control in their classroom, consider introducing tools where they have more control. Tools like Google Classroom and Squirrels software allow teachers to see what students are doing on devices. Programs like Nearpod allow teachers to control classroom presentation pace on student devices.

If teachers are worried that the devices will make them feel less connected to students, emphasize tools that promote connection and give student voice. Tools like Remind, Seesaw, and Bloomz allow an educator to communicate with students in new ways and also showcase student work and share positive stories with parents.

Encourage teachers to allow students to create content in open-ended assignments. Showing reluctant teachers these kinds of projects (videos, e-books, presentations, etc.) allows them to see how creating such work can empower students with learning differences or language challenges to participate in new ways beyond traditional classroom activities.

Many schools adopt the SAMR model (an acronym for "substitution, augmentation, modification, and redefinition") when looking at technology integration. For example, filling out a worksheet online instead of on paper is substitution; adding voice annotation augments the student work; modification changes an assignment, as when a teacher assigns a multimedia product instead of an essay; and redefinition may involve completely restructuring a whole activity, like shifting to group problem-based learning. A mistake some leaders make is to expect users of new technology to redefine their practice with every lesson-for many teachers, just substituting technology can make a big difference in the student experience.

For example, going from paper formative assessments to using something like Pear Deck on Google would create positive change. Leaders should look for growth. An innovator may make major changes to their classroom and not show as much growth as someone who makes a smaller change from paper to digital tools. Celebrate the changes that reluctant teachers make and encourage them to push further outside their comfort zone.

For each new school initiative, the educators in the school will have different values that drive them. If leaders and other teachers acknowledge that every project will have some people reluctant to join based on valid barriers and then listen to their concerns and celebrate their movement toward integration, a reluctant technology user can be a valuable member of the team and their changes can positively impact student lives.

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Reluctant Adopters and Technology Initiatives

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When school leaders decide to start a new technology project-whether it's a small one like adopting a new technology tool or a large one like going 1:1-they often dread one or two teachers they suspect will be reluctant and could keep the project from succeeding. They may avoid these teachers or not address their reluctance.

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Tips, Tricks, & Ideas for the 21st Century Teacher

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Tips, Tricks, & Ideas for the 21st Century Teacher

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21 tips, tricks, and ideas that help educators teach in the 21st century.

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"To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to have changed often." -Winston Churchill
The way that today's classrooms look and operate is very different from classrooms 30, 20, or even as recently as five years ago. Technology is developing and advancing at a rapid pace, and that affects everyone's day-to-day life. It's inevitable that those changes trickle down to the classroom and have a huge impact on both the tools available to educators and what effective teaching methods look like. What's the best way for educators to handle all of these changes? Embrace them! Take advantage of all of the new resources and ideas circulating in the education community, and start experimenting in your classroom. To help you get started, we've put together this list of 21 tips, tricks, and ideas for 21st century teaching and learning:

1. Embrace blended learning in your classroom! Check out these Top 10 Blended Learning FAQs to get started!

2. Go paperless for a week (or more!).

3. Encourage your students to embrace a growth mindset by celebrating both successes and learning experiences.

4. Curate a class Pinterest account to organize ideas, offer students additional learning resources, and keep parents in the loop. Connect with Edmentum for lots of free content and classroom inspiration!

5. Introduce your students (and maybe yourself!) to coding! Don't worry-it's not nearly as intimidating as it sounds. The cross-curricular applications are endless, and there are lots of tools to help. Visit Code.org to get started or check out EducationCity's Computing module!

6. Research how other educators, schools, and districts are finding success in their classrooms. Check out how Sheboygan Falls School District is having success using blended learning strategies in its RTI program!

7. Create your own class hashtag to use on social media-we're big fans of #WhyITeach and #MovingEducationForward!

8. Introduce technology-enhanced item types in your classroom to prepare your students for next-generation assessments!

9. Motivate your students with a little friendly competition-hold a classroom contest!

10. Create a classroom blog, and engage your students with a "question of the week" post. Need some blogging inspiration? Subscribe to Edmentum's blog!

11. Encourage collaboration and communication among your students with online tools like Plato Courseware's Collaboration Space or Study Island's Group Session.

12. Embrace technology like smartphones and tablets that your students have access to, and try implementing a BYOD program in your school or classroom-check out these nine tips to get started.

13. Stay focused on literacy! Understand the impacts that a strong foundation in reading and literacy can have on students' academic careers.

14. Have a "no tech day" for nostalgia's sake-download Edmentum's math and ELA worksheet bundles to help make it happen.

15. Keep the learning going on a snowy or flooding day by moving classwork online for at-home-learning days! Learn how Comprehensive Bad Weather Solutions from Edmentum can help.

16. Motivate and engage students and encourage deeper learning by incorporating gamification into your classroom curriculum and activities. Read more about the Case for Game-Based Learning here!

17. Diversify your curriculum, and help your students gain critical skills for success in the workforce with Career and Technical Education courses! Check out Edmentum's complete CTE library, including courses across all 16 National Career Clusters®!

18. Check out an education-focused podcast for great tips and professional development ideas! Not sure where to start looking? We put together this list of Six Podcasts Every Teacher Should Check Out!

19. Help your students understand the importance of appropriate online behavior by incorporating critical lessons on Digital Citizenship in your classroom!

20. Encourage hands-on exploration, and help students take ownership of their education with an engaging Project-Based Learning unit.

21. Take your professional development online-take part in an education-focused Twitter chat! These moderated, online discussions cover different education-related topics, as well as specific geographic locations. Get started by following #EdChat!

Interested in finding out more about Edmentum's online programs to support teaching and learning, including core and elective courses, formative assessment tools, and real-time student progress monitoring? Check out all of our solutions for the 21st century classroom!

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21 Tips, Tricks, and Ideas Every 21st Century Teacher Should Try

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Take advantage of all of the new resources and ideas circulating in the education community, and start experimenting in your classroom! To help you get started, we've put together this list of tips, tricks, and ideas for 21st century teaching and learning.

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Learning Ideas for the 21 Century Educator

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Learning Ideas for the 21 Century Educator

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21 ideas that help teachers integrate technology into education, so that learners can connect and use 21st century skills.

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21 Learning Ideas for the 21st Century Educator

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Small changes happen every day as teachers find new ways to integrate technology, connect with each other, and give students the skills the 21st century requires of them. These changes tend to grow into trends and, if applicable, best practices.

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An article explaining gamification and its effects on the learning process.

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How Does Gamification Effect the Learning Process?

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Spread the loveEducation is any practice that constructively modifies the way we behave, think, and feel. We as humans always have the desire to learn, regardless of age. We also learn in different ways, owing to intrinsic and extrinsic elements not only related to age but also to the level of development and maturity, personality, experience, as well as genetic and environmental factors.

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Digital scavenger hunts that promote learning.

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K-12 Educational Tool To Make Learning Fun | Goosechase

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Boost learning by making the curriculum fun and interactive. Engage students of any age with easy to run, reusable experiences that take education beyond the classroom.

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Digital quiz to review and assess students.

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An interactive whiteboard and screen casting tool for teachers and students to create and share videos.

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Engaging and Empowering Learning Through Technology

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Engaging and Empowering Learning Through Technology

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An article telling about engaging learners through the use of technology. Presents different types of learning and the affects of using technology.

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A digital collaborative board.

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Interactive material, activities, and games.

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A lesson plan format to help integrate technology into a lesson.

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Abstract
The lesson plan that will be presented in this paper includes the use of the ASSURE model. It was developed for an Advanced Placement English Language Composition course in which students were to use Microsoft OneNote in order to produce an outline that would be used while constructing a 40-minute timed essay. The need for the use of an emerging technology in the classroom was identified through the Technology Integration Matrix (TIM), which serves as a guide to decipher the level as well as the learning environment in which educators incorporate technology in their classrooms. According to the TIM this educator was using technology at cell level D1 which translates into an authentic learning environment at the entry level. It was found that this teacher should incorporate technology at the E2 cell which includes a goal-directed learning environment in the adoption level. This lesson requires students to use an emerging technology that will guide them to write better timed essays and its creation was guided using the New Generation Sunshine State Standards and the advanced English course description.

ASSURE Lesson Plan

A lesson plan is an extremely useful tool that serves as a combination guide, resource, and historical document that reflects an educator's teaching philosophy, the current student population, and the proposed goals for students. It can be described with many metaphors such as a road map, blueprint, or game plan, but regardless of the analogy, a lesson plan is essential not only for novice teacher, but also convenient for experienced teachers (Jensen, n.d.). The ASSURE model is a step-by-step process that is used by educators in order to create lessons that effectively integrate the use of technology and media in the classroom as a means to improve student learning (Smaldino, Lowther, & Russell, 2012).

The need for the creation of an ASURRE model lesson plan was discovered through the use of the Technology Integration Matrix (TIM), that was created in order to aid in the intricate task of evaluating technology integration in the classroom (Florida Center for Instructional Technology, 2011) in order to close the technology use gap presented by this educator in which she exhibited D1 as the highest level of technology use in the classroom which translates into an authentic learning environment at the entry level. As a result, this teacher found that she should incorporate technology at the E2 cell, which includes a goal-directed learning environment in the adoption level in order to better address the authentic learning as well as technological needs of the students that she serves on a daily basis. The purpose of the paper is to present a step-by-step lesson plan for an Advanced Placement English Language and Composition Course using the ASSURE Model.

Analyze Learners

According to Smaldino et al., (2012), the first step in planning a lesson is to identify the learner characteristics, which should be associated with the learning outcomes. The key areas that need to be examined in this step are: (a) general characteristics of the students, (b) entry characteristics (previous knowledge and skills about the subject matter), and (c) learning styles. In terms of the general characteristics the 30 students enrolled in the Advanced Placement English Language and Composition Course are between the ages of 15 and 16. There are 13 boys and 17 girls in this group of which 0.45% are Hispanic, 0.35% are White, and 0.2% are Black.

These students are enrolled in this course because they scored a three or higher on their Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) writing score. In addition, they completed an English Honors during their sophomore year and received a recommendation to be part of the Advanced Placement program through their past English instructor. All students are proficient in the use of technology and have access to use a digital device (laptop or smartphone). Also, they have the capacity to create and save documents using a word processor, navigate the Internet, independently complete coursework through online educational platforms, use correct grammatical conventions of Standard American English, and revise and edit writing to improve compositions. The students in this course present a preference towards visual and kinesthetic learning styles because they prefer to complete tasks through a hands-on approach, in groups, and by seeing presentations done by their peers and the instructor as well.

State Standards and Objectives

The second step in developing and effective plan using the ASSURE model is to state the curriculum and technology standards that have been adopted by the educator's district as well as the objectives (Smaldino et al., 2012). For the purpose of the lesson that will be delivered using this ASSURE model lesson plan the following New Generation Sunshine State Standards will be used: (a) LA.A.1.4.4: apply a variety of response strategies, including rereading, note taking, summarizing, outlining, writing a formal report, and relating what is read to his or her own experiences and feelings; (b) LA.A.2.4.4: locate, gather, analyze, and evaluate written information for a variety of purposes, including research projects, real-world tasks, and self-improvement; (c) LA.B.1.4.1: select and use appropriate prewriting strategies, such as brainstorming, graphic organizers, and outlining; (d) LA.B.1.4.2: draft and revise writing that is focused, purposeful, and reflects insight into the writing situation and has an organizational pattern that provides for a logical progression of ideas; (e) LA.B.1.4.3: produce final documents that have been edited for correct formatting that appeals to readers, including appropriate use of a variety of graphics, tables, charts, and illustrations in both standard and innovative forms; (f) LA.B.2.4.2: organize information using appropriate systems; and (g) LA.B.2.4.4: select and use a variety of electronic media, such as the Internet, information services, and desktop-publishing software programs, to create, revise, retrieve, and verify information (Polk County Public Schools, 1997).

In terms of technology the students will be directed through the following National Educational Technology Standards (NETS): (a) students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others; (b) students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information; (c) students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources; (d) students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior; and (e) students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations (International Society for Technology in Education, 2007). The main objective of this lesson is the following: the students will use Microsoft OneNote software in order to construct a research-based outline that will be used to construct an effective 40-minute timed essay on the topic of controversy. According to Fitzpatrick (2009), OneNote is a note-taking and organization tool that includes an outlining tool that is user-friendly.

Select Strategies, Technology, Media, and Materials

Thenext step in building a plan using the ASSURE model is to choose appropriate instructional strategies, technology, and media that will allow the educator and students to achieve the intended objectives of the lesson (Smaldino et al., 2012). This lesson will have a duration of three weeks in order to allow students to understand the concept and purpose of outlining as well as to properly use Microsoft OneNote software to produce an effective research-based outline. In order to complete the aforementioned task the students and teacher will need the following materials: (a) the students will need digital devices (laptop, smartphones, or tablets) in order to conduct research on the topic of controversy through the school's library database; (b) wireless Internet service; (c) the teacher will request a laptop cart that contains 30 computers with Microsoft OneNote preinstalled as well as a teacher laptop; (d) a digital projector in order to show the students how to properly use OneNote; (e) a USB pen drive to save their work or an electronic mail (e-mail) account to send their work for future use; (f) a wireless printer so that students may print their final outline to use and attach to their timed writing assignment; and (g) the teacher will provide the students with a rubric (see Appendix) that will be used to assess the quality of their writing and the appropriate use of Microsoft OneNote to construct their research-based outline.

Utilize Technology, Media, and Materials

This fourth step requires teachers to plan their role for using technology, media, and materials in order to help students achieve the learning objectives that were established in the second step of the ASSURE model (Smaldino et al., 2012). During the first week of instruction, the teacher will discuss with students the role and purpose of creating outlines in order to write effective essays. Through these lessons she will show the students many examples that include effective as well as non-effective examples of outlines. In addition, she will teach the students how to conduct effective research through the use of online databases that are supplied through the school's library website; in the aforementioned process the students will be learning visually and in auditory format only.

During week two of instruction, the students will be provided with a laptop that contains Microsoft OneNote in order to learn how to use this software to construct their outlines; this process will be practiced for two days. On the remaining three days, the teacher will provide the students with a variety of topics in, which they will conduct research and construct outlines as a form of practice in preparation for their final outline, which will be created during week three of instruction. The students may solicit the help of peers in order to complete and evaluate the correctness of the aforementioned tasks that require a kinesthetic learning approach.

Throughout week three of instruction the students will be provided the final topic which will be on controversy as well as the rubric (See Appendix) that will be used by the instructor to evaluate their work which will need to be attached with their final essay and outline. In this instructional week the students will have two days to conduct research on the provided topic and two days to complete their outline using Microsoft OneNote. On day five of instruction the students will construct a 40-minute timed essay on the topic of controversy using their outline as a guide for effective writing.

Require Learner Participation

Effective instruction requires learners' active mental engagement. Therefore, instructors should provide activities that will allow the students to practice new knowledge and skills, which will result in receiving feedback from their peers, the teacher, or through self-evaluation for their efforts before being formally assessed on the topic being taught (Smaldino et al., 2012). On day one of this instructional unit the students will be able to provide their input through an informal writing assignment that requires them to explain what is an outline, describe their previous experience with outlining, discuss the purpose of this strategy, and they will be surveyed to find out if they have used Microsoft OneNote, if so what task did they complete with this software. The students will share their responses as part of classroom discussion in order to explore the student's prior knowledge on the topic that will be explored through the upcoming three weeks. Also, this information will guide the teacher in her instruction in terms of what topics need to be further addressed and stressed during teaching time. Once, the students are provided with a laptop, the students will be able to complete tasks that require a hands-on approach. The students will be able to see how to effectively use Microsoft OneNote as a means to complete an outline. Students will be able to work with the peers to request feedback in terms of correct usage; in addition, the instructor will provide periodic informal feedback and correct any misusage of the program by the students. Furthermore, as the students conduct research and create their practice, outlines they will receive feedback from the instructor to ensure that they include the vital components that will help them construct an effective argumentative essay on the final topic, which will be controversy. During the third and last week, the students will be able to apply correctly the acquired knowledge form the past two weeks in order to produce an outline that incorporates the use of research which will serve as a foundational guide for the construction of a timed essay. The work produced during week three will be evaluated with a rubric (See Appendix).

Evaluate and Revise

Finally, the ASSURE model requires teachers to evaluate the impact of the lesson on student learning after implementation has occurred. It is vital for this assessment to examine if learning objectives were achieved as well as the impact of using technology and media for instructional purposes. The aforementioned will serve to make appropriate revisions that will aid instructors to address areas of concern for future lessons (Smaldino et al., 2012). Through observation the teacher will be able to explore whether students feel immersed in this instructional unit. Also, she will use a previous argumentative essay that did not require the use of an outline to compare the quality of writing presented by the students after completing the essay on controversy. Through the proper use of the rubric (See Appendix) the teacher will examine if the students paid close attention to the elements that would impact their final grade on this assignment. In addition, the teacher will survey the students anonymously to rate and evaluate the effectiveness of the incorporation of the emerging technology (Microsoft OneNote) as a means to develop an outline, the impact it had in their learning, and how this lesson can be improved for future use. The results obtained from this survey will allow the instructor to modify and revise for future use as well as the development of other lesson that will incorporate emerging technologies.

Conclusion

Good lesson planning that incorporates the use of technology is imperative to the process of teaching and learning. An educator who is prepared every time he/she enters the threshold of the classroom will undoubtedly encounter a successful instructional experience. It is important to note that any document that will produce effective results (student engagement and participation) will require a great deal of effort and time on behalf of the educator (Jensen, n.d.). Therefore, this educator deems necessary for teachers to conduct research on best practices of lesson planning and make appropriate use of the ASSURE model, especially when incorporating technology in the classroom.

References

Fitzpatrick, J. (2009). Five best outlining tools. Retrieved from http://lifehacker.com/5419988/five-best-outlining-tools

Florida Center for Instructional Technology. (2011). Technology integration matrix: A video resource supporting the full integration of technology in Florida schools.
Retrieved from http://www.fcit.usf.edu/matrix/2006tim.html

International Society for Technology in Education. (2007). National Educational Technology Standards (NETS): Students. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/nets-s- standards.pdf?sfvrsn=2

Jensen, L. (n.d.). Planning lessons. Retrieved from http://www.princeton.edu/~pia/TEFL.pdf

Polk County Public Schools. (1997). English course description. Retrieved from http://www.polk-fl.net/staff/teachers/documents/EnglishIIIHonor1001380.pdf

Smaldino, S. E., Lowther, D. L., & Russell, J. D. (2012). Instructional technology and media for learning. Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

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Abstract The lesson plan that will be presented in this paper includes the use of the ASSURE model. It was developed for an Advanced Placement English Language Composition course in which students were to use Microsoft OneNote in order to produce an outline that would be used while constructing a 40-minute timed essay.

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Examples to transform lessons using the SAMR model

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Examples of Applying the SAMR Model can Help Teachers Understand and Embrace it

The SAMR Model for integrating technology into teaching, developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura, has gained a good deal of exposure in recent years. "SAMR" is an acronym that stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition. The SAMR model provides a technique for moving through degrees of technology adoption to find more meaningful uses of technology in teaching and move away from simply using edtech for tech's sake.

We recently discussed the SAMR model during an Academic Technology Work Group meeting at The College of Westchester. We examined the video, SAMR in 120 Seconds. One thing that really struck me is how much the example helped, so I made it a point to gather and/or create some more examples.

Following are 8 examples of the SAMR process, each taking an example of a typical classroom exercise that does not use technology and walking it through each phase of SAMR. For half of these, I searched and borrowed from examples that teachers had written about online (original sources are provided - in some cases I tweaked the example a bit). I also created examples of my own. In working through this, it became apparent to me that while Substitution and Augmentation can be relatively straightforward conceptually, there is even more room for interpretation when it comes to Modification and Redefinition.

The goal of this exercise was to help me (and readers) better understand the SAMR model, and to really see how lessons and assessments can be transformed while considering the benefits of evolving them through these stages. I find it particularly interesting to see the vast difference between the original lesson and the redefined lesson - there is often a much wider range of skills required in the latter stages, and lessons can become much more engaging and collaborative when modified or redefined.

Lesson: Writing a Short Paper
Taken from: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/08/samr-model-explained-through-examples.html. A modification of an idea found at https://edofict.wikispaces.com/SAMR+Examples. Taken from: https://edofict.wikispaces.com/SAMR+Examples and modified. Idea taken from: https://sites.google.com/a/msad60.org/technology-is-learning/samr-model and slightly modified. In this example, we take a simple form of assessment and evolve it into a collaborative group project.
Original Assignment: A hand written paper.

Lesson: Geography & Travel

Original Assignment: An overview of a location consisting of hand written content supplemented with compiled cut-and-pasted magazine clippings.

Lesson: Understanding Shakespeare

Original Assignment: Read a Shakespeare play in traditional printed format.

An Assessment Exercise
Original Assignment: Show understanding of fractions on a worksheet by coloring in blocks.
Original Assignment: Take a quiz, answers handwritten in a printed form.

Following are some example lessons, evolved through the SAMR model, that I have tried my hand at creating.It's easy to get caught up in worrying about how effectively an approach constitutes "modification" or "redefinition", but that's not the point of the exercise. To my way of thinking, it's more about understanding the difference between a just replacing or augmenting a "paper" lesson with a "digital" one and actually evolving it in a beneficial way and exploring new possibilities.

Lesson: Art/Painting
Creative Commons license image source.
Original Assignment: Drawing a picture using traditional brush, paint, paper. Of course, there is a a big difference between doing this by hand in the traditional manner and doing it digitally. Digitally is by no means better, it is just different and opens up some interesting possibilities.

Substitution: Use a digital drawing/painting program (like MS Paint) to draw/paint a picture.

Augmentation: Use a tool that allows the creation of your masterpiece to be layed back (like Educreations, for example).

Modification: Pull a background image to use as a canvas. You could even scan something hand drawn and use that.

Redefinition: Create Artwork Collaboratively using a Collaborative Online Whiteboard (like Twiddla or one of these other tools).

Lesson: Email Etiquette

Original lesson: Review printed copies of Email Etiquette concepts and guidelines.

Lesson: Learning Fractions

Substitution: Use an Excel Worksheet to let students color in the blocks.

Augmentation: Use Google Sheets to let students color in the blocks, where the teacher can offer feedback directly on Google Sheets.

Modification: Use Google Sheets and direct students to online examples and supplementary learning materials for areas that they might struggle with.

Redefinition: Use a Fractions App instead (here are a handful of examples for iOS devices).

Lesson: Phys Ed - Learning To Hit a Baseball Well

Original Assignment: Learning how to hit a baseball by watching and listening to a Coach or Phys Ed instructor show you and then trying it yourself.

Hopefully these example of lessons modified through the SAMR cycle help to encourage you to think about how you leverage technology to make some of your lessons more interactive, collaborative, and engaging with some of the many great technology tools available today! Here is a set of tools that may be helpful when working to evolve your lessons: 10 of the Most Engaging Uses of Instructional Technology (with Dozens of Resources and Tools).

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8 Examples of Transforming Lessons Through the SAMR Cycle - Emerging Education Technologies

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Examples of Applying the SAMR Model can Help Teachers Understand and Embrace it The SAMR Model for integrating technology into teaching, developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura, has gained a good deal of exposure in recent years. "SAMR" is an acronym that stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition.

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A PLN.

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A list of educational technology tools.

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Common Sense Education provides educators and students with the resources they need to harness the power of technology for learning and life. Find a free K-12 Digital Citizenship curriculum, reviews of popular EdTech apps, and resources for protecting student privacy.