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Technology alone has little effect on improving student achievement. However, it can be a powerful tool to support the nine instructional strategies identified in Classroom Instruction that Works. This article from Learning & Leading with Technology (February, 2004 31(5)) briefly explains how the following technology tools can be used to support the nine instructional strategies.

Make an impact on student achievement by becoming intensively involved in curricular and instructional issues. To be effective, share leadership with assistant principals, instructional coaches, teacher leaders, and leadership teams. While other areas are important and equally urgent, teaching and learning must be high priorities if student achievement is to be improved.

This book suggests ways in which the research-based strategies in Classroom Instruction That Works can be used with educational technologies, such as word processing and spreadsheet applications, multimedia, data collection tools, communication software, and the Internet.

The future is now at Boston's Lilla G. Frederick Pilot Middle School. In last week's most-clicked ASCD SmartBrief story, we learned about this school with no textbooks, one laptop per student, parent-teacher IM conferences, and online drop boxes for homework assignments. Leveled software is used to differentiate learning experiences, and built-in automatic assessments help teachers pinpoint students' instructional needs. Advances in technology have also expanded the role of online courses in shaping schools-digital curriculum is going global and, some say, decreasing the number of teachers needed in a classroom. Replacing outdated textbooks with laptops, increasing student engagement, and more focused one-on-one instructional time-is there a downside to increasingly automated learning?

This profile tool will help you to compare your current instructional practices with a set of indicators for engaged learning and high-performance technology. For each category, there is a description of the indicators and examples that fall along a continuum. There are three examples for each indicator. Select the example that best describes your current practice, even though it may not represent your instructional goals. You may select only one example for each indicator.

Technology plays a vital role in our schools' ability to serve instructional, operational and administrative needs. Every day we hear about another way in which technology and its applications are changing our field.

There are many theories comprising the concept of motivation, each providing insight into the begging question that many educators have: "How can I get students to remain interested, take ownership, forgo procrastination, and ultimately become a self-regulated learner?" In this short blog we will briefly examine the concept of motivation and assess how we as educators can foster a climate conducive to motivated learners who actually enjoy classroom instruction, are empowered education recipients, and don't require nagging to complete assignments.

Taking A Good Look at Instructional Technology (TAGLIT) is a suite of online assessment tools designed to provide educational institutions effective data to evaluate technology use and integration in the teaching and learning environment. The suite includes assessments for School Leaders, Teachers, and Students. The Enhancing Education Through Technology Act of 2001, issued by the U.S. Department of Education (US DoE), has established requirements by which states must report the technology literacy of all 8th grade students. (SETDA document regarding this requirement) TAGLIT is an established, quick and inexpensive tool to assess 8th grade students and provide information to meet the reporting requirements under this mandate.

During the past decade, 21st Century Skills have been described, debated, and, unfortunately, downplayed when one considers their overall impact on instruction and assessment practices in our public schools. Organizations such as the Partnership of the 21st Century and the former North Central Regional Laboratory have successfully articulated a set of well-defined skill sets targeting needed student outcomes for the 21st Century workplace; yet, a careful scrutiny of district curriculum manuals, pacing guides, and scope & sequence charts reveals little evidence of their existence.  

As the use of personal and instructional technology becomes increasingly embedded into day-to-day operations, superintendents need more than ever to be intimately involved in the direction, decisions and deliverables of a school district's technology initiatives.

School districts create acceptable-use policies (AUPs) to define what is--and is not--acceptable behavior when using their computer resources. But at a time when computers and internet access are seen as increasingly important tools for instruction, many school leaders are struggling with how best to enforce these policies in the event that students transgress them.

First Things First, a framework for school reform, has one goal: to help students at all academic levels gain the skills to succeed in post-secondary education and good jobs. In the process, FTF helps districts and schools meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind. FTF districts and schools commit to: * Strengthening relationships among students and adults. * Improving engagement, alignment and rigor of teaching and learning in every classroom, every day. * Allocating all resources - budget, staff, time and space - to achieve the first two goals. Our partners achieve these changes using three strategies: * Small learning communities. * The Family Advocate System. * Instructional improvement.

Project Tomorrow and Blackboard released Leadership in the 21st Century: The New Visionary Administrator during a breakfast meeting at the NSBA T+L 2008 ConferenceT+L (Seattle, WA) Wednesday, October 29, 2008. This new report, based on the Speak Up 2007 School Leaders Survey, examines school and district administrators' attitudes about technology and learning. The report highlights several Visionary Administrators who have more in common with students than with fellow administrators in terms of technology use and priorities for technology in instruction. 

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the LoTi Framework. Since its inception in 1994, the LoTi Framework has been used as a statewide technology use survey, a district school improvement model, and a classroom walkthrough tool impacting thousands of schools nationally. Today, the LoTi project has grown beyond classroom technology use and has become synonymous with innovative teaching practices.