Girls in Tech. Augmented Reality. Www.eschoolnews.com/files/2014/02/Going-Mobile-Strategic-Best-Practices-for-K12-IT-Leaders.pdf. 3 tips for pedagogy-based coaching. One of the best ways a tech coach can reach teachers is to stop talking about technology. It may seem counterintuitive, but focusing on technology can be alienating, especially for the skeptics and reluctant adopters. “Sometimes when tech coaches step in to help, they’ll start with the technology — and they’re not speaking the same language teachers speak when they start talking about technology,” said peer coaching expert Les Foltos, who will present a webinar on “Coaching for Engaging and Active Technology Integration.”
As tech integration specialist Krista Moroder pointed out, most teachers don’t care about technology — nor should they. Teachers care about creating authentic learning experiences, and it’s up to coaches to show how technology can help them do that. “We’ve brought technology into schools, but there is still a really significant number of teachers who don’t use it. 1. Many tech coaches feel pressured to be the expert in the room, especially when it comes to technology. 2. What Students Think About Using iPads in School.
Students Want More Alignment of Tech In and Out of School. Digital Tools Project Tomorrow’s 2013 Speak Up survey of more than 325,000 students and 75,000 parents, teachers and administrators digs into how students and teachers are using technology in school and for learning outside of school, and comes up with some interesting insights about the pervasiveness of tech use. A quarter of students in grades 3-5 and a third of students in grades 6-12 report using a mobile device provided by their school in class. This trend is more pronounced in Title I schools. Still, as tech use proliferates, digital equity has risen to the top as a concern for district leaders. Forty-six percent of district technology leaders say student access to the internet outside of school is one of the most challenging issues they face.
The report also highlighted the popularity of digital learning games among both teachers and students. Check out the Project Tomorrow infographic below for more survey results and read the whole report for an in-depth breakdown. Related. How to Gamify Professional Development in Your School. Sometimes we act like professional development is hard. It doesn’t have to be. Sometimes we treat professional development like a chore. It should be fun, engaging, and wanted. As a K-12 staff developer I’ve spent the past two years giving professional development and receiving a lot of professional development. Because if you reach more teachers, you reach more students. We were kicking around ideas to “flip” our PD this entire year, but the lightbulb moment came during an actual professional development session that we took from Philip Vinogradov at our local IU. Phil gave a session on Gamification, and let me tell you…this guy is a Google Certified master gamer!
If you’ve read my blog before, you know that I don’t spend too much time “thinking” about making a change, I try to jump in and “do it”. In the three weeks since Phil presented on Gamification, Dianne and I have been able to gamify and flip professional development sessions in our district…and are preparing to launch next week.
Cross-Content Apps. Google Education. MOOCs. SAMR. Lesson design. Content areas. Articles. Gaming.