EdTech & Innovation

Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Matthew Lynch, Teachers

What These Leaders in High-Tech Teaching Know About Successfully Embracing The Digital Age

What does successful implementation of technology look like in the real world? Below are three of the current leaders in bringing the modern digital age into the school environment with booming success.

1. The New Technology High School Model Movement
The New Technology High School Model movement began in Napa, California in 1996. The movement had its origins in California, but Indiana has been especially active in promoting the New Tech Model. These school districts claimed they needed to change their existing high school model; they wanted to change the whole high school experience for their students. This model is now being implemented in several schools and is an example of an entire structure of schooling transformed by technology. 
The goal of New Tech is to use group- and project-based learning to generate problem-solving and discussion skills. It’s the result of an effort to give students the necessary tools to face the reality of the changing contemporary job market. Students at New Tech schools study by doing research about specific problems in the world, and they have to deliver a production based on what they have learned. At New Tech schools, you will not find classrooms with a teacher talking to a silent listening class. Group learning is an important part of this model. Teachers encourage group learning and become coaches of this learning process, rather than instructors giving a lecture. See the Professional Crossroads for an example of a teacher who incorporated the New Tech model into her classes.

2. WebQuest
WebQuest is a method for students to research using the Internet. It was developed by Bernie Dodge of San Diego University. This method includes a wide array of learning activities designed for students to develop research skills. The goal is to find all the information they need from the Internet. Through different assignments students learn to find useful and accurate information from the Internet. They are required to do research during classes and outside school, working together in groups, which encourages cooperation and making group decisions. Dodge found that students who used WebQuest were much more involved with the subject they were researching and asked more complex questions. This led to a better understanding of the issue being studied. It’s important to note that the main factor was not the technology itself, but how well technology resources were used

3. Project CHILD
Project CHILD (Computers Helping Instruction and Learning Development), which is based on research conducted by Florida State University, demonstrates how teachers can incorporate technology into common teaching practices. The program is designed for children from kindergarten through fifth grade, and emphasizes reading, writing, mathematics, science, and social studies. Teachers work in cluster teams consisting of three individuals, each focusing on one subject area: reading, writing, or math. Students receive instruction from the teacher and rotate through three stations to complete the work: computer station, textbook station, and activity station; all the while using technology, paper and pencil, and hands-on work. A fourth station is used for small-group tutorials or assistance for individuals. The advantages of this type of program are that students receive the same amount of time in different areas of work, and this allows teachers to individualize instruction. And the teacher isn’t the only source of knowledge, permitting students to get different points of view and learning from information sources as well as from each other.

Do any of these stories resonate with you? Do any provide an example you could follow in your own teaching? Don’t be afraid to try out what others have already found to work. Look around for other success stories for inspiration. Let others’ success help move you and your students forward too!

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Matthew Lynch, Teachers

Tech in Teaching: Is Your Classroom Succeeding?

Can bringing technology into your classroom really have positive results? What benefits could these modern resources hold? What would digital progress in school even look like?

Many teachers have indeed successfully introduced technology into their curriculum. Careful planning have yielded a slew of positive results, including:

1. The classroom turned toward student participation and cooperation.

2. Students became increasingly involved in the activities.

3. Technology-focused activities produced critical thinking and deeper understanding.

4. New technologies provided new ways for teachers and students to stay connected, being able to 
give and receive feedback and coaching during homework activities.

5. The Internet allowed students to be in touch with real-world problems. For example, they could study global warming by looking online at different climates from around the globe. This was especially important for isolated schools or rural schools that didn’t have access to the same information resources as an urban school.

Several business software tools are helpful in performing classroom activities. To use technology successfully for classroom activities, it’s important to keep the following in mind:

1. Everyday technology tools can be used in the classroom for educational purposes. It’s not essential to use applications that have been specifically designed for education. This may include the use of cloud-based software that allows students the freedom of accessing material from their own devices.

2. Using a task-oriented approach requires you to consider which application to use after the lesson activity has been set. It’s better to first know what you want to do and then use the tool that best suits the task.

3. Various elements of technology are useful for various aspects of the curriculum. Data gathering may be easier with video recorders or digital cameras, whereas data analysis will be easier with spreadsheets or database software. Knowing what’s available and suitable is important for every teacher.

4. Developing interdisciplinary activities will mix traditional educational tools with technological applications. Sometimes it’s better for students to carry out the task without the aid of technology to teach them certain elements of theory. After they’ve grasped the underlying concept, they may start to apply technology. For example, geography students may learn how to read contours on a paper map and then use a computer to explore various mountains and valleys across the globe using their new understanding.

When planning your daily lesson plans, consider whether the concepts being taught could be better illustrated or in any way augmented with the use of technology. Will multimedia options help drive the point home, or will using extra technology only distract from the main lesson? With conscientious implementation, media resources can help your teaching to flourish and your students to thrive.

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Matthew Lynch, Teachers

These Teacher-Friendly Software Tools Are Your New Best Friends

The Internet is a huge arena of resources, but sometimes, navigating it effectively can seem like a daunting task. How do you know what’s worth clicking on? Is a site really reliable? What sites have the best tools for you as a teacher?

Certain aspects of technology that are readily available for use by anyone can be put to very specific use by teachers. These are easy to use and can be of help for the general tasks teachers do as part of their job description, such as attendance forms, delivery of grading charts, and finding new resources.

This software can also be a timesaver for a variety of classroom tasks. Here are some of the software tools that can make a teacher’s life easier:

Time-Management Tools

These types of tools are basically calendar
software. They can be used to schedule your appointments, or you may want
to take advantage of more complex features. Some tools can be viewed online, so more than one student can access it. A teacher can arrange appointments or
make a note of due dates for assignments so that all students in their class can see. Most of these
tools allow the option to put some information in private mode and some in public mode, so the administrator can choose which calendars can be seen by everyone and which cannot. Most of
these tools include a feature allowing teachers to arrange meetings and groups.

Software Grade Books

This tool is basically a database that keeps records of student information. Teachers can enter contact information as well as grades. These kinds of tools provide valuable statistical information regarding grades, tests, and performance, giving the teacher a view of each student’s performance and learning progress.

Test Generator Software

With these tools, a teacher can create a database of different questions and tasks. The software will then construct tests from these questions. It can also create versions of the same test using different questions or ordering them differently.

Blogs

Derived from the term web logs, blogs are journals that are available online for any Internet user. Students can publish their photos and videos. The fact that their work is published online motivates students to care more about their work and make a greater effort on it. If the blogs are associated with the school, teachers must be certain to check the entries to ensure that no inappropriate content is posted and that copyright is not violated. Students should be tutored in correct blogging etiquette.

The World Wide Web is vast and variable, but the list above can give you a good place to start in your search for digital resources. For even more information on bringing media into the classroom, check out our other articles to sharpen your tech savvy up even more!

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Matthew Lynch, Teachers

Do Your Online Resources Pass This Test?

How do you know whether or not a website is a worthwhile resource? It can be hard to tell from a single glance if a website is valuable. If you’re considering using a certain site for information for yourself or as a potential site to point students toward but aren’t certain about the website’s value, try evaluating it across the following four categories:

1. Authoritativeness
 The author(s) are respected authorities in the field.
 The author(s) are knowledgeable.
 
The author(s) provide a list of credentials and/or educational background.
 The author(s) represent respected, credible institutions or organizations.
 Complete information on references (or sources) is provided.
 
Information for contacting the author(s) and webmaster is provided.

2. Comprehensiveness
 All facets of the subject are covered.
 Sufficient detail is provided at the site.
 Information provided is accurate.
 Political, ideological, and other biases are not evident.

3. Presentation
 Graphics serve an educational, rather than decorative, purpose.
 Links are provided to related sites.
 What icons stand for is clear and unambiguous.
 
The website loads quickly.
 The website is stable and seldom, if ever, nonfunctional.

4. Timeliness
 The original website was produced recently.
 The website is updated and/or revised regularly.
 Links given at the website are up-to-date and reliable.

Decide whether the site in question matches up against each characteristic in a way that’s poor, fair, or excellent. Tally up the score for each. For a website to be worth using, it should fall mostly in the “excellent” range, have some qualities that are “fair,” and have extremely few to, preferably, no “poor” tallies. You should also decide whether any of the categories and sub-characteristics are “make or break it” qualities. Figuring out ahead of time what you need from a site can help you determine whether any given source will actually give you what you need.

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Matthew Lynch, Teachers

Get Ahead with the World Wide Web of Teacher Development

Technology isn’t just expanding the possibilities for teaching youth – it’s also building up how teachers themselves are trained. Technology is not only influencing the education of students – online resources are being ever the more incorporated into professional education, too.

To save money and time, and capitalize on the technology boom, many school districts in the United States are turning to online professional development for teachers, as a viable alternative to traditional face-to-face training. The impetus for online professional development stems from the need to accommodate teachers’ busy schedules while also providing them with materials and information that may not be available in their district.

At first glance, these programs seem like a godsend to districts struggling to provide quality professional development to their students. But little research has been done on best practices in or the effectiveness of online professional development programs. Many districts issue surveys to measure professional development effectiveness, but unfortunately this practice is unreliable. Also, more research must be done concerning the design and implementation of these programs to ensure that they are operating efficiently and positively impacting student learning. Needless to say, the jury is still out on these programs, although they do seem to hold some promise. That will likely change, however, as more education moves online, and as online development tools are refined.

Has your teacher education included any online resources? If not, what technology is available to you now to help you continue to grow and learn? Don’t be afraid to seek out new tools for your own educational development, as well as that of your students!

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation

Technology has the Power to Equalize Personalized Learning

Technology has the power to greatly improve equality in learning opportunities in K-12 classrooms. Not every school can afford the latest high-priced learning management software, but what if all you needed was internet access?

I recently had the opportunity to demo the personalized learning platform Kiddom and learned about a lot of cutting-edge features that are streamlining teaching.

Class Mastery

Kiddom was co-developed by serial entrepreneur Ahsan Rizvi, former alternative educator Abbas Manjee, and growth engineer Jordan Feldstein. Manjee is a teacher by trade who once worked with at-risk students in the South Bronx. During his 6 years as a public school teacher Manjee used the technology available to him (not much, and not very advanced) to figure out ways to better teach to the individual student. His system worked but wasn’t as streamlined as he knew it could be. Manjee also knew from talking with other teachers that their own students could benefit from a streamlined system and with the added expertise of Rizvi and Feldstein, that hunch became a reality.

Class Mastery 1

Today, tens of thousands K-12 teachers use Kiddom, some just for the gradebook feature and others for the full-platform experience.

See, what Kiddom creators got right is this: most teachers are haphazardly using multiple resources, aggregating on their own, and using a less-than-stellar grade book option because it’s all they have at their disposal. All of that takes up too much time and can frankly lead to some understandable frustration. Kiddom cuts right to the heart of that conundrum by consolidating resources and placing everything a teacher needs for lesson planning, grading, classroom organization, student tracking, and assessments in a central, easy-to-use hub.

Kiddom contains standards for all 50 states and updates its offerings when those standards change, making it easy for teachers to lesson plan and write assessments. In addition to classroom teachers, homeschool parents and groups have also signed on with Kiddom as a way to create lessons, track progress, and monitor state academic standards.

The end goal of Kiddom tools is not to simply automate assessments, though. It’s to create richer, more engaging projects by providing more time (and accessible content) for teachers. It’s amazing what educators can develop for students when they aren’t being overburdened with constant quick-fire assessment creation, grading, prepping for high stakes tests, and related tasks. Kiddom frees up that bandwidth so teachers can provide better learning experiences for students.

Teacher Influence 

Teacher input is important to growth of the Kiddom platform, so the company has a team of advisors called the “brain trust” that use the platform and offer insight and feedback. Anyone can apply to be part of the brain trust group, and there are also less formal teacher message boards and forums that give teachers access to answers right away.

Teacher-Student Communication

Some of the unique features of Kiddom include:

  • A teacher’s control center, with detailed reports on student progress that inform next-step instructional details.
  • Content library, with material for assignments, quizzes, videos, games and more. Some of the content partners include Khan Academy, CK-12, IXL, and CommonLit.
  • Third-party integration, so teachers can sync with other classroom management tools they already use, like Google Drive.
  • Direct teacher-student feedback.
  • Concise rubrics for students that guide them on what they should be doing and when.
  • Easy setup, with one-click student roster setup from Excel, Google or Clever.
  • Student access to real-time reports on what they’ve accomplished, what is still assigned, and where they need improvement.
  • Alignment and sharing ability for assessment material based on Common Core, state, or custom requirements.
  • The Kiddom mobile app, giving students and teachers all the classroom resources on-the-go.

The affordability of Kiddom (it’s free for teachers and students) makes it a smart tool for classroom management. Providing equity in resources is so important in our at-risk student populations and I’m so impressed that this message is at the heart of what Kiddom offers. I like that a public school teacher is part of Kiddom’s leadership team and that classroom teachers continue to drive improvements on the platform.

To sign up for Kiddom for free and request a demo, head to Kiddom.co.

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation

How to Save Time Lesson Planning, Grading This School Year

Teachers: if you could have one additional thing to help in your classrooms this school year, what would it be? More technology? Better behaved students? Less paperwork?

How about more TIME?

When all things are equally weighed, you’d probably spring for the time component (even though a few more iPads might be nice). Teachers spend 95 minutes per weekday outside the classroom on preparation and grading and the typical teacher workday is actually 10 hours and 40 minutes according to a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation survey. Early mornings, nights, weekends – you name it, and teachers are working during it. Teachers can’t just show up before the bell and leave when it sounds at the end of the day and expect to succeed. There is a lot of work that happens when students are not in their seats and it’s necessary work to support students.

What if those additional 95 daily minutes of prep and grading could be cut in half? Or even by 75 or 85 percent?

Teacher Prep goes High-Tech

I recently had the chance to demo Ogment, an educational content curation tool that “clips” relevant information online and saves it for teachers to use in lesson planning and execution. Unlike other systems that simply allow you to save links to reference later, Ogment actually “scrapes” the content so you have all the details, including images and videos, when you are ready to piece it together for a lesson. Ogment allows teachers grab content off the web and strip out the extraneous muck, align the content to standards, cite, format and enhance the content with other technology. In short, Ogment makes lesson creation much easier and less time consuming.

ogment 1ogment 3

Ogment offers The Stream – a treasure trove of content that teachers can search to find materials on the lesson at hand. Teachers can also collaborate inside The Stream and share content. Teachers can even add their own content to complete lesson plans. And all of the organized content is searchable.

ogment 4

Teachers can project the content in their Ogment accounts for students and also manage assignments within the tool. A live curriculum mapping tool keeps both students and teachers on track, too. Customized lesson planning is possible based on student progress tracking within the tool, making it easy to modify lessons for students or student groups.

ogment 5

The technology behind Ogment is so cutting-edge that it actually won a SIIA CODiE award, an AAP Revere award, and three Bessie awards when it was still in pilot program testing. It’s now officially rolled out to the public with the benefit of feedback from actual teachers and administrators in how the platform best works.

Ogment’s Relevancy in Today’s Classrooms

When I was a public teacher, I would have LOVED to have a curation tool like this so I had more time and energy to devote to my actual students. I know the digital native teachers-in-training in our colleges today can make an even bigger impact with the type of technology streaming that Ogment provides, too. By freeing up some of that time traditionally weighed down by research and compilation for lesson planning, teachers have more energy to inject into what actually matters: supporting student progress.

Want to start this school year off with better organization? Try a free 30-day trial with Ogment.

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Matthew Lynch published in Diversity, EdTech & Innovation

STEM projects help ESOL students build skills and shine

Middle school can be challenging as students make the transition from elementary school and adjust to the many physical and emotional changes they’re undergoing. For English language learners the challenges are even greater. Not only do these students have to learn how to speak, read and write a new language, they have to adjust to a new culture. At Hunter’s Creek Middle School in Orlando, FL the school’s 165 ESOL students speak 32 different languages and are gaining confidence and language skills using STEM and project-based learning (PBL).

According to Hunter’s Creek ESOL teacher Yvette Ramirez, “Project based learning is a good fit with ESOL because it gives students an opportunity to dive deep into a topic and really spend time with it. They also get to practice their language skills in a variety of ways from listening to and watching videos to reading articles and writing their own content.”

As an Orange County Public Schools Digital Curriculum Pilot School all of Hunter’s Creek’s students work exclusively on iPads. On the rare occasions when Ms. Ramirez asks her the kids to take out a piece of paper “they look at me strange because they want to use the iPads. We’re not just using digitized work. We are digital.”

Ms. Ramirez is using one of the digital curriculum programs that came pre-loaded on the school’s iPads to implement PBL in her STEM lessons. Defined STEM is an online program that provides educators with resources to create engaging, relevant, cross-curricular PBL lessons. “One of the great things about Defined STEM is that the students are able to access the lesson directions and rubric in many different languages,” said Ms. Ramirez. “But, all of the articles, videos and other supporting content are in English. So students can feel comfortable that they understand the directions by reading them in their own languages but must use their English skills to actually complete the assignments.”

A cultural and a STEM learning experience

During the 2014-15 school year Ms. Ramirez’s ESOL students worked on several STEM projects. The project that generated the most excitement and engagement was Defined STEM’s Culinary Artist: Sustainability performance task. The Developmental Language Arts class, which is for students who speak very little English, worked on the project.

The goal of the project was for students create their own farm to table restaurant, including deciding where to locate the restaurant geographically, what to farm, how to farm, and ultimately what the menu would be. “Defined STEM had a lot of articles and videos within students’ Lexile levels that helped them get started but then they had to go find additional resources outside of Defined STEM,” shared Ms. Ramirez. “Students researched healthy recipes and figured out what kind of gardens they needed and where in the country they needed their gardens to grow.”

The Culinary Artist project culminated in students presenting the commercials and TV interviews they created that showcased their unique farm-to-table concepts. “These students have influences from around the world which they got to show in their menu and food choices,” said Ms. Ramirez. “So even though the project really helped them build their English skills and gain knowledge about American culture and geography, the students still were able to incorporate a bit of home.”

Technology makes effective STEM and PBL instruction easier

Ms. Ramirez has a strong background in teaching ESOL students and believes that a digital PBL STEM curriculum is a highly effective method to teach students both language and curricular skills. A common approach to teaching ESOL students is to pair a student with stronger language skills with a struggling student. This helps them both build their skills. PBL facilitates this kind of collaborative learning. “Without Defined STEM it would have been much harder to do these types of complex, lengthy STEM projects. All of the resources are there and designed to support English language learners. Plus, Defined STEM makes the performance tasks so interesting and intriguing that even when the work gets tough, the students persevere because they’re totally engaged.”

“The Culinary Artist projects were amazing,” shared Ms. Ramirez. “The students worked so hard and really deepened their understanding not only of English but of technology, geography, math, and so much more. They were so proud of themselves and that is exactly how I want my students to feel when they walk out of my class.”

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Matthew Lynch

K-12 Online Learning as a Life Skill

Online learning is more than a fad. The facts are staggering: According to the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, there are nearly 1.9 million K-12 enrollments in online courses every school year, up from under 50,000 in 2000. The current number does not even include students enrolled in primarily online schools. Thirty-one states have full-time online schools that serve on a statewide basis.

The top reason that districts give for offering online options is for credit recovery, with 81 percent of urban schools citing this reason. Are online courses really equal to ones in the classroom though? It really depends who you ask. Recent news reports out of California show that high school graduation rates are at an all-time high of 78 percent, with even higher numbers in areas like San Francisco and San Jose. While some educators use these numbers to point to student success, critics say the rise in graduation numbers does not necessarily mean that students are college ready. The rise of online courses as a means to “make up” failed or incomplete classes are part of the reason more kids graduate – but do they know what they should?

It is of course impossible to answer that vague of a question but the debate rages on just the same. Just how rigorous is an online high school course? This is likely a cloudy area for those of us who grew up before the Internet forever changed the face of distance education. On a basic level, if a student reads the material, and is able to give correct answers on a test, that means he or she has “learned” the content. When an educator takes into account other influential factors like learning style, intelligence and work ethic, that basic definition becomes murky. The general consensus in the education community seems to be that even though online courses have merit, they are less rigorous than classroom settings.

Then there is the issue of online learning as an overarching ideology. Embracing the inevitability that online learning is a very real part of the average college education, the state of Florida began requiring in 2011 that high school students in the 24-credit graduation option to take at least one online course. The public, Internet-based Florida Virtual School leads the way in this innovation and is considered a national leader in the e-Learning model. So in this example, Florida is not simply offering online courses as a backup; the state mandates that students on a college prep path get early exposure to the type of learning they are likely to see in college.

This point really accents the two very different ways to look at online courses in K-12 education. On one hand, there is educational merit, though that education is debatable as to the actual extent of its effectiveness. On the other hand, there is the practicality aspect of exposing students to online learning long before the college years. The second point paints online learning as a life skill of sorts – something for kids to understand before entering the real world as adults, much like balancing a bank account or learning how to create a resume. Without a solid understanding of online learning before graduation, students are less prepared for what they will face academically following high school.

The K-12 online course dissenters are just wasting their breath, in my opinion. The momentum of online learning is gaining speed.

The educators I know love online courses, because they can teach online from anywhere. What are your thoughts?

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Secondary Education

Service-Learning Develops Character in Students

By Michele Pitman, CEO of intelliVOL

Educating the whole child and developing character goes beyond the core subjects being taught each day. Many school districts recognize this and have instituted programs encouraging or requiring students to give time in service to their community and peers. Organizations like the National Honor Society have incentivized service, giving recognition for student efforts outside of school. And, when these students apply to colleges and universities, their service record usually improves their chance at being accepted.

Given how much we as a culture value community service and the well-rounded individual, more U.S. high schools need to offer institutionalized and systemized service opportunities for their students. In the vast majority of public schools, service is a club activity. In private schools, service is so important that it is graded. But in most public schools, students must find their own charitable organization and arrange to work there of their own initiative. There may be an advisor to help in this process or they have established relationships with nonprofits thereby making it is easier to connect, but a student’s service has no bearing on their formal school record.

The National Honor Society does fill in the gap where organized, school-mandated service is not available. Through the NHS, students give hours and track that data by school sponsors who are responsible for verifying, tracking and reporting student hours given to service. This legitimizes the student’s efforts and for college applications, is a critical validation in a hyper-competitive landscape.

Yet, turning service into more than simply checking-off-the-box-so-I-can-get-into-college scenario, requires a bit more effort. In the over 10 million service hours that students have logged and tracked for schools through our company, the overwhelming majority of school leaders tell us that students need to think about their service and its impact. They need to make a personal connection between their lives and those whom they have helped. Schools call this reflection. Service, they say, is more significant and meaningful when students are required to write down their thoughts after they’ve completed their service.

Teachers and student advisors recognize this connection between action and mind. Guilford County Schools in North Carolina has a very active service-learning program with over 1.4 million service hours logged to date, and is nationally recognized as a District of Character by Character.org. Yvonne Eason is the coordinator for character development and service-learning at the district. Guilford, like many schools we work with, requires students to write down their thoughts about their service. “The reflections piece is huge for us. We’re looking for our students to reflect on the experience of service-learning. This goes well beyond just recording the number of learning hours served. It gives students a chance to share what impact each experience had on them personally as learners and individuals, as well as what type of impact they’re having on the community, or organization they’re serving,” says Ms. Eason.

Reflection is at the very base of building a well-rounded individual who has skills and experiences beyond classroom instruction. This simple action–writing down our thoughts of helping others—takes our regimented, subject-heavy learning environment beyond the “how” and answers the question, “Why?”

 

About the Author

Michele Pitman, creator of x2VOL developed the platform in partnership with high schools to give them an easier, more accurate way to manage, track, verify and report service hours students give in the community. x2VOL is the most widely used service tracking and reporting platform in K12 education with over 10 million approved service hours.

 

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