Tech Alone is NOT Enough

Why Ed Tech Is Not Transforming How Teachers Teach

Students in a classroom at Mount Pleasant High School in Wilmington, Del., listen to a social studies lecture from their teacher.

—Charles Mostoller for Education Week

Student-centered, technology-driven instruction remains elusive for most

By Benjamin Herold

Public schools now provide at least one computer for every five students. They spend more than $3 billion per year on digital content. And nearly three-fourths of high school students now say they regularly use a smartphone or tablet in the classroom.
But a mountain of evidence indicates that teachers have been painfully slow to transform the ways they teach, despite that massive influx of new technology into their classrooms. The student-centered, hands-on, personalized instruction envisioned by ed-tech proponents remains the exception to the rule.


"The introduction of computers into schools was supposed to improve academic achievement and alter how teachers taught," said Stanford University education professor Larry Cuban. "Neither has occurred."

Click here to read the entire article...

#csd49 #NCCE2015 Tweets

Here are Tweets from the Chimacum School District Tech Committee's trip to NCCE 2015 in Portland, OR (#NCCE2015):

How Teachers Can Use iPads

5 Ways Teachers Can Use their iPads Professionally

This is a guest post from Jennifer Carey (@TeacherJenCarey) and EdTechTeacher, an advertiser on this site.

iPads are powerful tools for teachers in the classroom. In addition to being robust, mobile creation devices for students, they help you to stay organized, be on top of your classes, create content and lessons, focus on continued learning, and build your PLN. Here are five ways to turn your iPad into a robust, education machine!

Organize Yourself

You can easily sync your Outlook or Google Calendar to your iPad by going to iPad Settings → Mail, Contacts, & Calendar → Add Account.

Click here to continue reading this...

Free Online Tech Course

I came across this online tech course. It looks like it's free. Check it out if you're interested and if it is indeed free, please leave a comment so we can all know for sure:
http://www.movenote.com/v/3CrctQdBkh2CP

How is Cheating Being Redefined?

Cheating vs Collaborating in Online Learning Environments

Posted by Smadar Goldstein on May 30, 2014 in Making The Shift, Voices, Web Tools That Deepen Learning

Say what you like about technology use in the classroom, the biggest difference for me is that it changes the way I teach, and the way my students learn.

That may seem easier for me to say, since I’m a mostly-live online teacher. But I’ve joyfully discovered that there are plenty of benefits that affect educators in face to face or asynchronous education as well.

One big plus of utilizing online tools is the ease of organizing course material. Here is a photo of a student locker at a private school in Paramus, NJ. Sadly, this was not the only one: there were rows and rows of these disaster areas.

The division head who showed me around the school waved it all off with a smile. “Yes, they always look like this.” How can students keep track of their belongings and assignments when this is what their lockers look like? Are students taught organizational skills or given time to organize and leaf through old material?

A huge benefit of using a Learning Management System (LMS) is never receiving the excuse: “I lost my classwork/homework.” It’s true that students find other excuses – “I didn’t see that question posted” and “I didn’t understand what to do” are popular. However, most of my students get the hang of and appreciate the benefits of using an LMS.

Click here to continue reading this post...

SAMR & TPCK

Here's a good video on Educational Technology Integration featuring the SAMR and TPCK models.

NCCE Notes

I put together this Prezi with my thoughts and takeaways from this year's NCCE Conference. The conference was a great experience full of great learning and great people.
  Here's a link in case the embed doesn't show up.

NCCE Livebinder

http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=1288261&backurl=/shelf/my


This livebinder includes notes from three sessions at NCCE.

Digital Learning Goals

I asked to borrow this image to give us ideas about a simple digital learning goals from a small, rural district in CO for our District Tech Plan.

Here is another one from a small, rural district in WI:

Most Important Goals:

• Ensure that we are utilizing existing technologies to their fullest potential.
• Integrating technology effectively into teaching and learning.
• Creating students who are 21st Century ready.
• Maintaining and expanding the district's infrastructure.

Challenges:

• Tight budgets/having to share equipment throughout schools/district
• Adequate professional development, in-service and training for educators.
• Finding time in busy schedules and curriculum to fully integrating technology into all content areas
• Complete support and "buy-in" among all administrators and staff members.

Here's another one from another small, rural school in CO:

What are the most important goals for updating teaching and learning in your classroom, school, district or organization?

1. Integration of technology into curriculum with a meaningful purpose
2. Internet safety and appropriate use education in curriculum
3. Elementary access to electronic devices

What are the biggest challenges you and your colleagues must address to achieve these goals?

1. Bandwidth - this is our largest factor.  We currently very limited by the amount of bandwidth (6 MB ) we have available.  We also pay an exorbitant price of $200/MB.  We cannot add any more devices or curriculum until we have the bandwidth too support it. 
2. Staffing - We have a 5/7 time technology coordinator.  We continue to add devices and technology needs but we do not increase the time for our technology staff.
3. Infrastructure - We made a great deal of progress this past summer with the additional of wifi access throughout the entire school.  As we continue to see more devices including byod, we will need to build upon our infrastructure.
4. Professional Development - With limited staff, time and money, we need to provide more professional development to our staff to help them integrate technology into their curriculum.

NCCE 2014 Tweets

Here are our District Tech Committee's tweets from the NCCE 2014 conference. Our tweets capture our learning and the resources we collected and curated at the conference. We will use what we learned as we develop our district's tech plan.