Chromebooks: We can Do Better

So one of my favorite questions to discuss with teachers lately has been the question, "We have 1:1 (one-to-one), now what?

I feel that the majority of educators believe that technology is not the "end-all" solution for education, however, technology is an incredibly powerful tool for teachers and students. Educators have pooled together many educational resources and tools for helping student learning. Now, it is time for the next step. This step involves looking at the learning process and seeing how technology can promote 21st century learning skills.

Research has been done to see how students and teachers are utilizing their devices in the classroom and it has been suggested that technology is most often used for lower level thinking skills, the so-called "skill and drill" practices. While this does seem to be the case in my experience, this is only the first step of technology integration.

Now that we have the technology it is time to us to refine the teaching and learning processes to reflect higher level thinking skills.

It seems fitting to quote one of the founding members of Pixar, as this quote embodies this emerging philosophy toward education technology.

"Art inspires the technology. The technology inspires the art."

Here is an example of this philosophy. Technology fulfills some teachers' greatest wishes, such as self-grading assessments. Having this ability has inspired educators to look at assessments in a completely different manner, allowing students to complete portfolios, wiki's, or visual projects, replacing traditional multiple choice, matching, short answer assessments. These assessments require higher level thinking skills and allow for student creativity. Granted, some have been inspired because students could google the answers to the old assessments, due to lower level thinking skills required.

Chromebooks: We can and must do better

http://www.alicekeeler.com/2018/02/01/chromebooks-can-must-better/

An American Chromebook Crisis

http://andylosik.blogspot.ca/2018/01/an-american-chromebook-crisis-new.html

GoGuardian's Report on Chromebook Usage

https://www.goguardian.com/annualbenchmark.html

Chromebook Creativity Project

http://andylosik.blogspot.com/p/chromebook-creativity-project.html

Comments

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...

Lessons Learned From Repairing Chromebooks #EdTech

Here are some lessons/tips and tricks I have learned throughout handling chromebook repairs in my district for the past 5 years. Background This is our first year with 1:1, although we have had Chromebooks in our District since 2013. During that time, we have handled all damage repairs in house at our school. With the implementation of the 1:1 program, we have over 1,700 chromebooks assigned to our students and staff. In 2017, we implemented a student help desk that assists with chromebook repairs. We have 3 different models of chromebooks, Samsung XE303Cs, EduGear R4, and Lenovo N22. Our teachers each have a HP 14 G3 Chromebook. 1. Don't throw anything out 3 or 4 years of collecting chromebook parts has substantially reduced the amount of parts I have had to order. In turn, this has reduced the cost of repairing devices. Over the summer, when I was repairing chromebooks, many parts were salvaged from other chromebooks that were too far gone to repair or were beyond repa...

3 Tips for Classroom Discussion Backchannels: Class Tech Tips

A backchannel is a space where students can post questions, respond to prompts and participate in a discussion without raising their hand. You might set up a backchannel for students using the free tool Today’s Meet or have older students set up a Twitter account and tweet using a shared hashtag for a virtual class discussion. If you haven’t used backchannels before you may want to check out this post for a quick overview. So what does this have to do with BrainPOP? BrainPOP is a favorite resource for helping students dive into a range of topics. Read more on the link below. http://www.techlearning.com/blogentry/12230

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