Technology in Education

EdTech

Summary of New Developments in Education & Technology

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Carol Holzberg, Director of Technology for Greenfield Public Schools, wrote a short summary of recent developments in education & technology. These developments are:
  • draft of the proposed Massachusetts Digital Literacy & Computer Science standards (DL&CS)
  • newly released National Education Technology Plan (NETP16)
  • newly accepted Federal Every Child Achieves Act (ECA)
We thought this might be useful to everyone, not just those of you on the TiE PLC listserv*.
(*If you are not on the TiE PLC listserv and are interested in joining the conversation and/or attending monthly meetings, please contact technology@collaborative.org)
Here is the summary from Carol.

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TiE2015 Keynote: Rafranz Davis

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Rafranz Davis’ TiE2015 keynote address “Inspiring Change Through Passion, Wonder and Voice” is now online!

This keynote explores ways educators can support young people to use technology and take charge of their own learning. You’ll come away with inspiration and new ideas for learning inside and outside of the classroom. Many TiE2015 attendees came away from this presentation discussing access to and use of YouTube as necessary for students’ success.

Link to TiE2015 Keynote video

You can find more inspiring ideas from Rafranz on her blog – rafranzdavis.com – and on twitter @rafranzdavis. You can check out her brand new book The Missing Voices in EdTech: Bringing Diversity Into EdTech. Cover image of The Missing Voices in EdTech by Rafranz Davis

Evaluating Ed Tech Tools: Our New System

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During a recent workshop at CES, a participant asked us to develop a system for evaluating edtech tools. She said, all she wants is a simple red, yellow, green rating that was informed by a list of criteria. Based on her request, we have developed a system & are testing it on this blog (lucky you!).

Check back to see reviews of edtech tools. If you have any that you’d like us to evaluate, send them along!… [Read More]

One (Rubric) for All?

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How do we create guidelines and rubrics that allow flexibility for student-selected demonstrations of learning?

Recently, we have been working with middle school technology teachers to develop a DDM (District Determined Measure – more on those here, better get some coffee first). Once we selected the standard* we wanted to use, we started in on the rubric. Drafting the rubric–what we wanted students to be able to do, demonstrate, understand, and apply–wasn’t so difficult. The challenge came in creating the prompt (activity, assessment) that would give the teachers enough information to identify if students got it or where they needed more practice and instruction.

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What Students (and Teachers) Want

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In the recent article “Five Things I Want Teachers to Know About EdTech,” student and tech enthusiast Collin Sullivan perfectly said what I’ve known about EdTech tools since I started in this field:

If you aren’t having fun, you’re using the wrong one. These tools are supposed to eliminate stress – or at least reduce the amount of stress. If you aren’t enjoying edtech, your students probably aren’t either.

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