Skip to main content

Spring Break Post: A Useful Rule of Technology




I was at a transitioning to 1:1 teaching conference earlier this month. At that conference I had the opportunity to speak with educators outside of our area. One of the teachers said something to me that I still think about sometimes. "If I had to make a back-up plan to every lesson, I am essentially doubling the amount of work I have to do each lesson and I don't have time for that."

That comment struck me by surprise as, since my first education course in college, I was taught to always have a contingency plan. In some ways, I get it. We as teachers have become reliant on technology always being there. Often my backup plans as a teacher involved a different tech tool, but did not anticipate a total network outage or power failure, and so on. What do you do if the technology does not work?

Article Preview

If you're going to teach trainee teachers or colleagues just one rule about technology, it should be this:

It's not a question of if the technology goes wrong, but when.

That's obvious to those of us who have been around a bit as far as education technology is concerned, but not to those who haven't. In my experience, when something goes wrong for a teacher who has decided to use some ed tech perhaps for the first time, they personalise it. They think it must be something to do with them, or that they are naturally incompetent.


See the full article here

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

8 Google Sheets Add-ons Teachers Need!

Google sheets is a very powerful, although a bit basic when compared with the industry standard Microsoft Excel. Google Sheets Add-ons add some of the advanced features of other spreadsheet programs into Sheets. These add-ons have allowed me to completely move away from Excel for all data entry. We ...selected for you the 8 most popular applications there. Using these add-ons will enable you to: Create graphs and forms and write complex math in your sheets Create and modify a planning schedule for project management in a spreadsheet; easily scaffold, manage and assess students projects in Google Drive ...see the article below for more http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2017/07/8-google-sheets-add-ons-every-teacher.html

What Comes First, Education or Technology?

http://www.ictineducation.org/home-page/2016/2/24/what-comes-first-education-or-technology This is a good article about putting education technology in perspective. "What has happened is that the existence of the technology has enabled you to reconsider some of your teaching methods." Technology has sparked a critical change in education. When integrating technology in education, for the most part of the 20th century, the focus was on adding technology to already existing teaching practices. “I want to get people to start from the notion that there are educational things that they want to do, or educational processes that they would like to engage with, and then - and only then - talk about the technology.”— The death of the digital native... Technology is inspiring us to change what we are doing in our classrooms and how students are learning. Here is an example of how technology can inspire a change in teaching practice: 1990s Tech Example: VCR usa

50 Must Read K-12 I.T. Blogs 2015

Sadly I did not make this list this year. :) However, if you wonder where I get some of the information I post to this blog, many of my sources are included in this list. http://www.edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2015/04/50-must-read-it-blogs-2015 Here are some of the EdTech Blogs I frequently read: 21st Century Educational Technology and Learning Alice Keeler Dangerously Irrelevant Lisa Nielsen  - The Innovative Educator Shake Up Learning TeachThought and I have added some more from the list.