Educational Technology

Thomas Friedman wrote in his book The World Is Flat 3.0 , that the speed and reach of emerging technology are outpacing the ability of countries to manage it. This rapid pace of change is therefore creating many new pressures on businesses, governments, and individuals that currently do not have the capability to manage it. I believe the same is true for the influence of social media and its far-reaching effects on the educational system and a teacher’s ability to maneuver it. A conversation between friends on the phone or face-to-face is considered private speech. It is very difficult to reprimand a person for "letting off steam" or complaining about a boss or a hard day at work when it's a private statement. Unfortunately, people have used social media to take the place of these conversations. They've made them into tweets, Facebook posts, instant messages, video diaries, and blogs. Due to social media being a relatively new influence on society, a consistent s...

The Bedford County Public Schools Instructional Technology Coaches created a Mini Vodcast and set of resources on Differentiation. Today's blog is a quick summary of those resources and the vodcast. A future blog and mini vodcast will focus on Tiering. Check out the (Mini) #Vodcast on Differentiation (Part 1) on YouTube: https://bit.ly/36crHkR Differentiation is basically tailoring instruction to meet each student’s individual needs regardless of their abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. At the core of Differentiated Instruction is the modification of four elements Content (what students learn),  Process (how do students make sense of the information and ideas),  Product (how they show what they’ve learned) and Learning environment/Affect (the climate or tone in the classroom). This modification is based on an assessment of student differences in readiness, interest, and learning profile. Pros & Cons of Differentiated Instruction Pros Research shows differentiated instr...

Every time  I've thought about  improving my craft as an educator, learner, and leader, I find myself worrying that I am "reinventing the wheel". Why do we say "reinvent the wheel"? According to dictionary.com, it's defined as slang  "To go laboriously and unnecessarily through elementary stages in some process or enterprise; waste time on tediously obvious fundamentals"  The inspiration for this metaphor lies in the fact that the wheel must be the archetype of human ingenuity which allows it to underlie much if not all of modern technology.  As I delve further into this saying, I have found that it's good to "reinvent the wheel" depending on the reasoning, purpose, and mindset of the learner.  Maybe we should first consider the  learning mindset . When it comes to learning, by re-inventing, we learn how solutions map to problems ( backward design, backward mapping ) and get a deeper understanding of how those solutions work ( See...

 Did you know that you can make Google Docs interactive with Google Drawing? And, why would a teacher want to do that? Good reasons to embed Google Drawings inside Google Docs include creating editable drag-and-drop activities for elementary students, generating editable maps for Social Studies, or even producing the dreaded Technology Enhanced Question (TEI).   I like this activity because (as a teacher) you can quickly and clearly see if the student completed the "drawing" correctly without having to click anywhere. Just scroll down the doc and assess.  So... Here's how you do it.  Create a Google Doc and add a title and all the needed directions for your activity.  "Insert" Google Drawing  Pick "+ New" Create the drawing in a way that you want the students to manipulate in order to assess mastery When you are done, click Save.  Now, you can continue with your assignment with other directions as well as add more drawings for students to manipula...