Technology Trends and the Implications for Teachers

This article is probably overdue, as we are already more than halfway through 2014. But as the school year is still fairly new, I thought it was worth addressing. As educators know already, the past five to ten years have created a sizable shift in technology, instruction, and the way students learn.  As we have moved from an era of flip phones to carrying around small computers in our pockets, it is clear now more than ever, that technology changes have given us the ability to teach in ways we have never been able to before.

The difficulty is that we are also thrust in an age of confusion.  There are so many new ways of integrating technology that the educational environment has become chaotic.  Which new technology should schools buy?  What trends do we listen to? Do teachers abandon old practice for something they are unfamiliar with only to find it doesn't work?

The key thing teachers and schools need to remember is that change should not be something that is rushed into.  We need to take advantage of the experience of others and the vast amount of research that has been done in terms of educational technology.  A big fear is that technology is replacing teachers.  Nothing could be further from the truth. Although technology has changed, students will still need teachers as a guide, facilitator, and purveyor of learning. Not all of our students are technologically savvy or are as advanced as others in terms of content. Rather, technology now affords us the ability to differentiate education in ways that allows us to cater to the needs of all learners.

All this being said, I am using this soap box to pass on a few key information sources that can be valuable to teachers and administrators:

• New Media Consortium Horizon Report  - This yearly report defines up and coming trends in technology for the next 1-10 years and the impact those changes will have on teachers, teaching, and education.  Pay particular attention to page 6 covering teacher roles and page 32 covering important developments in technology for schools. 

• Edutopia - Technology Integration - The George Lucas Foundation funds this website which focuses on providing best practices for educators. This specific link covers all articles on Technology Integration in the classroom.  Everything from Differentiated Instruction to The Flipped Classroom can be found here. 

• Google Educators of Oklahoma - Facebook - this facebook page was set up for teachers in our district to stay apprised of new changes to Google Apps for Education as we make the shift to Google. It was expanded to the state to allow anyone to keep on top of Google updates. Articles are curated from many sites around the globe. 

• Edudemic - This site provides articles covering many different topics in education, most of which are related to technology integration. 

• Sandite Exchange - PLCs - this in district site was developed for our teachers to share and exchange ideas. The PLC page, still in its infancy, is growing as we add more resources. If prompted to login, choose login as a guest. 

Hopefully these resources help you and your fellow teachers in finding valuable resources regarding technology integration. As trends change, use these resources to stay on top of things.

Have Student Response Clickers Been Replaced?

This question is actually not a new one.  Clickers have been in decline in recent years as online options have changed.  But the topic came up recently as I worked with a few teachers in setting up a classroom for use with student response clickers.  The question came up as to whether student response systems were worth the time or if mobile solutions were better.

For those of you that may or may not remember, for years, eInstruction, Renaissance Learning, and Smart Response among others, flooded the market with Student Response Systems.  These systems consisted of a computer program in which the teacher could create and deploy test and review questions that students could respond to using hand held clickers.  Of course this was not a new idea as it had been around for years.  These companies had just gotten into the business of perfecting and selling the idea, which was a good one.


Flash forward a few years, and teachers started to see the emergence of free options that allowed students to use mobile devices to respond and interact with classroom content.  Some of the following may ring a bell:

• Survey Monkey
• Poll Everywhere
• Nearpod
• Socrative

Now Google has gotten into the mix in several ways.

Google Forms - You can use Google Forms as an effective quiz or testing tool by adding on a few Scripts or AddOns.  Create a Form and instead of form or survey questions, use test questions.  As students fill in your form, responses are collected in a Google Sheet.  Add-ons such as Flubaroo and SuperQuiz can be used to grade the results.

Google Chrome Apps - The Chrome Store has a whole host of Apps that can be used for student response, including Socrative Teacher & Socrative Student , Nearpod , ExitTicket, and  VirtualClicker.  While some of these require that you have a teacher account, many of them are free.

What does this mean to the classroom teacher who can't afford to buy an expensive set of clickers?  If you are in a school that has gone 1:1, or you have a checkout lab or iPad cart, these online solutions allow you to create and deploy tests in your classroom for free.  Free is definitely good in my book.  Plus if you use Google Forms, you could create quizzes or exit ticket questions to go with videos for the Flipped Classroom.

Whatever situation you are in, we are now in an educational age where free technology is closer to our grasp than ever.  Make use of it in any way you can to further your educational goals.  Just remember that technology is the tool, not the main focus.  We need to work hard as educators to help students learn that there are several tools out there to help them achieve their goals.