Group items tagged

"Student agency, which we might loosely define as students' ability to influence their own learning, undoubtedly plays a critical role in education. Many schools and districts see the value in it, but it has often been difficult to achieve. Shifting to an approach where each student directs their own learning - rather than the traditional teacher-led approach - does not happen overnight."

"I was approached by a teacher who had never redesigned her lessons to take advantage of edtech's potential to transform learning. She was still stuck in the $1,000 pencil phase of using new tools to do traditional work. When I showed examples of how teachers around the country were challenging students to design and find solutions to their own problems, she immediately saw the benefit of shifting her thinking. The good news was that she was reconsidering her beliefs and was now convinced that she had been underestimating her students. The bad news is, she was afraid of appearing vulnerable in front of her students if something went wrong." It is okay to not know everything about technology. Many times your students know more than you do...and that is okay!

I have found that many traditional methods of classroom management readily translate to a technologically rich curriculum - with some modification. Great article on making the most of your classroom layout with student devices.

"Indeed, a host of national and regional surveys suggest that teachers are far more likely to use technology to make their own jobs easier and to supplement traditional instructional strategies than to put students in control of their own learning. Case study after case study describe a common pattern inside schools: A handful of "early adopters" embrace innovative uses of new technology, while their colleagues make incremental or no changes to what they already do."

"BoostEDU is a program that supports teachers in transforming their traditional lessons into 21st-century lessons through an inquiry-based self-assessment and guided lesson design process."

"Good teaching is the result of the conscious engagement between the teacher and the students, in an environment fostering inquiry, discovery, and creation. Good teaching is what makes digital age environments meaningful to students. Good pedagogy is the key to learning, regardless of the tool."

"The alternative ways suggested here are important. If you look at the suggestions analytically you will see that they center around actively engaging students in the learning task through a variety of ways including, critical thinking, brainstorming, concept mapping...etc."