Paper and Pencil in a Digital World

Educational research is helpful in understanding how students’, teachers’, and administrators’ usage and attitudes about many things, including technology, change overtime. When looking at how students identify the benefits of using technology longitudinally, I was surprised at how little the students’ views have changed since 2016. With the school shutdowns in March 2020 due to COVID and then the continued closures and hybrid learning happening throughout the 2020-2021 school year I expected to see larger changes from before to after that timeframe. Specifically, I thought being ‘in control of my learning’ would have increases more than 5%. Additionally, I would have expected ‘applying knowledge to practical problems’ using technology within learning to have increased, or at least stayed the same. Instead we see a small 4% decrease. I would be curios to see educators perspective on these same prompts as they pertain to students.  Image Credit: Project Tomorrow 2023 SpeakUp Resea...

Throughout the country you will see many different classrooms with a wide array of physical layouts, seating flexibility, technology, and other equipment. In this cornucopia of classrooms, a plethora of pedagogical practices can be observed; teachers and students working together in different ways to learn and discover. Walking through the halls yesterday I saw classes in the midst of lectures, discussions, science labs, independent student work, and a number of different styles of group work.  Active learning  is not new to classrooms, but like many things in education, terminology changes and evolves. Active learning strategies focus on moving students from passive individuals in the classroom to individuals engaged in a variety of activities. Active learning strategies are utilized in classes that have more of a  student centered learning  focus.  Image Credit: Arizona State University: Teach Online ** While there is debate on the actual retention percentage...

We all probably know the story of Hansel and Gretel , two kids leaving a trail of bread crumbs to try and find their way home. Well, fortunately there are no witches in this technological tale but there are crumbs of a sort, not bread crumbs but digital cookie crumbs.  Image Credit: NordVPN (I recognize that in Hansel and Gretel the bread crumbs were left in the forest, while digital cookies are stored on your local device. Also, we are focusing on the impact our presence leaves on the community of people using the site, not what the site leaves on our devices.) At my high school graduation in 2009, with social media in full swing, smart phones are the rise, and people spending more time online than ever before the commencement speaker warned us about our digital footprint . This is still talked about today when we discuss and teach digital citizenship . The idea of a digital footprint fits nicely with the concepts of visitors and residents as presented by David White. White's con...

Technology has become an integral and embedded part of most people's daily lives. Additionally, the presence of technology in schools as become practically ubiquitous over the past 5 years. This inclusion of technology has led to many challenges and triumphs for teachers and students across the nation.  In 2023 ISTE published an article, Edtech's Hottest Topics for 2023 , one of those topics was equity and inclusion. This article from The Journal   reviews some statistics that focus on districts meeting the technological needs of their student populations. Another hot topic was augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality. These tools can take on many different forms and as McGraw Hill  says, AR can further engage students curiosity.  As a science teacher, hands on laboratory experiments and other activities have always played an important role in deepening the connections between class content, academic application, and real life. However, ma...

My EdTech Origin Story I was part of the team leading the roll out of a 1:1 iPad program a decade ago at a Chicago private high school. Initially, the thought integrating technology into daily classes with freshman and sophomore students was daunting and at times unnerving; there were so many unknowns. During this process, the SAMR model was very popular among faculty and helped many, like myself, find a sense of comfort. This model acted as a simple guide for thinking about ways to incorporate technology where previously very little had been available in the classroom. Additionally, as teachers became more comfortable with the ideas of technology incorporation we introduced the TPACK model. This model, while visually more complex, was well received by many because it highlights both content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge. This allowed everyone to realize they had a place from which to start and we were not asking them to completely redesign their courses, or change everything abo...