School and technology leaders have interesting choices when purchasing devices for students and teachers that they did not have even a few years ago. Whereas they once purchased desktop or laptop computers, they can now choose from: Internet-only notebooks (i.e. Chromebooks)—These are inexpensive devices that are easy to manage, but that provide the least capacity Read More
Category: Technology
Hypothes.is
I have become numb to the messages, tweets, blog posts, and other social media summarizing “the top x tools to do y with technology.” The x is a number that is way too large… if you are pro-porting to be an expert by going public with your recommendation, then tell me *the best* tool in Read More
What Plato Said About Writing
The role of microcomputers in curriculum and instruction has been debated since they first arrived in schools; some advocate for quick adoption of every new tool while others advocate for avoiding digital technology altogether. Disparate perceptions of emerging information technologies among educators is not a new phenomenon. In his 2011 book The Information: A History, Read More
Understanding the Quality of #edtech
“So, is my school’s technology good enough?” is a question that principals and curriculum coordinators and superintendents ask—of course they don’t usually ask it when their IT coordinators or staff are within ear shot. The reality is that most school administrators do not have the expertise to assess the IT for which they are responsible. Read More
Three Choices When Faced with Technology
Technology is a permanent part of society and culture. For decades, scholars who study technology and society have documented the active influences of technology on individuals who experience it and on institutions that reflect it in the organizations that emerge. These effects are particularly acute for educators. The digital devices that students carry into classrooms Read More
Deconstructing #edtech
The question of just what should we educational technology professionals spend their time and energy doing and what school leaders should expect of the IT professionals they hire is one that has been raised by several within my network in the last year or so. The answer that I tend to give is this one: Read More
Non-neutrality of Technology
In the 21st century, information technology scholars have rediscovered the work of the media theorists who documented the strong and active sociocultural influences of information technology, and they are beginning to study technology as a non-neutral factor in society. Andrew Feenberg (1999), a philosopher and historian of science and technology, captured the difference between information Read More
#edtech and Teaching
Since computers arrived in schools, much of the professional development has been designed to show teachers how to use ICT and how to adopt that ICT into instruction (with the assumption that ICT would be a neutral aspect of the classroom). As the emerging educational paradigm shift is completed, the focus of professional development to Read More
Avoiding Red Herrings: Technology Support that Works
I made this presentation at the 2015 Association of Educational and Communications and Technology conference. Avoiding Red Herrings: Technology Support that Works Abstract Information and computer technology has been incorporated in teaching and schooling for several decades. Despite on-going efforts to provide both technical support to maintain functional systems and support for educators to integrate Read More
Turning Flipped Classrooms Upside-Down
This article appeared in a magazine a few years ago… Author’s copy of Turning Flipped Classroom Upside-Down