00:00 - 00:02
In this video series, I'm going to be answering the question of how
00:02 - 00:05
teachers can be using technology in their classrooms.
00:05 - 00:08
I believe really strongly that it’s no longer enough
00:08 - 00:11
to just be teaching technology in a single computer science class.
00:11 - 00:14
Long gone are the days of my childhood where I would go into a computer lab
00:14 - 00:16
for a single hour to practice some typing,
00:16 - 00:19
look for Carmen Sandiego somewhere around the world,
00:19 - 00:22
hunt for different animals while I was exploring the Oregon Trail.
00:23 - 00:26
Today’s world demands an entirely different approach to technology
00:26 - 00:29
integration. My name is Sam Kary and this is my YouTube channel
00:29 - 00:30
for The New EdTech Classroom.
00:38 - 00:41
In this video I’ll be taking a look at 14 different strategies
00:41 - 00:44
for how to take a holistic approach to technology integration.
00:44 - 00:47
To be clear, it’s not that I believe that technology
00:47 - 00:50
can fix all of the issues that we have in our education
00:50 - 00:53
system today, but I do believe it can help us with engagement,
00:53 - 00:56
connecting with families, helping students find their voice,
00:56 - 00:59
preparing students better for the future, helping to
00:59 - 01:02
inspire students to discover new talents and interests
01:02 - 01:05
and potentially careers that they would want.
01:05 - 01:08
And if you're interested in learning a little bit more about all the different reasons
01:08 - 01:10
why I think that technology
01:10 - 01:13
is important in education, make sure to check out my other
01:13 - 01:14
video series that covers that topic.
01:15 - 01:17
If you find my video helpful, I’d appreciate it
01:17 - 01:19
if you would hit the like button, subscribe to my channel and hit the notification
01:19 - 01:22
bell if you don’t want to miss any of my weekly videos, and if you have
01:22 - 01:26
any questions or comments about the strategies that I suggest
01:26 - 01:28
in this video, I’d love to hear about them in the comments.
01:28 - 01:32
The first strategy for how to take a holistic approach to education technology
01:32 - 01:36
is to use digital classrooms. Digital classroom platforms
01:36 - 01:38
like Google Classroom and Schoology help teachers
01:38 - 01:41
organize materials, resources
01:41 - 01:44
and assignments. They serve as a central hub
01:44 - 01:47
where students can go to access all the other
01:47 - 01:50
EdTech software that you are using in class.
01:50 - 01:55
But more importantly, digital classrooms help make material in the class more accessible.
01:55 - 02:01
Gone forever are the days that a student says that they can’t do work because they lost an assignment.
02:01 - 02:05
If you post it to Google Classroom it’s there for everybody to see.
02:05 - 02:10
You can post more than just assignments, you can also post your Google Slides lesson plans,
02:10 - 02:13
so students can go back and re-look at the lessons that
02:13 - 02:16
you taught. You can also have students discuss topics
02:16 - 02:19
in your digital classroom. And with the digital classroom,
02:19 - 02:22
parents also have access to everything that you are doing in class.
02:22 - 02:25
The second way is to use technology to create student
02:25 - 02:27
centered, differentiated
02:27 - 02:30
learning experiences. Meeting the learning needs of all students
02:30 - 02:33
in a single classroom is one of the greatest challenges
02:33 - 02:35
an educator today faces.
02:35 - 02:39
Technology helps teachers personalize instruction and
02:39 - 02:42
deliver materials right at their instructional level.
02:42 - 02:45
Personalized math instruction programs like ST Math
02:47 - 02:49
help remediate math skills for students if they need
02:49 - 02:52
those skills to access the curriculum. Reading programs
02:52 - 02:55
like Newsela allow all students to access the same
02:55 - 02:58
content at their just right reading level.
02:58 - 03:00
And personalized instruction platforms like
03:00 - 03:03
Khan Academy and Freckel offer a
03:03 - 03:06
range of differentiation and personalized learning across
03:06 - 03:09
subjects and grade levels. In addition to
03:09 - 03:11
providing materials at different skill levels,
03:11 - 03:15
technology also helps teachers teach to different modalities
03:15 - 03:18
whether visual, auditory or experiential.
03:18 - 03:21
The third strategy for how to use education technology
03:21 - 03:24
is to use it to increase engagement. Engaging students
03:24 - 03:27
is really hard and unfortunately in today’s
03:27 - 03:31
public schools we are facing a crisis of engagement. All the
03:31 - 03:33
data shows that if students are not engaged, they aren’t
03:33 - 03:36
learning. Although using technology doesn’t guarantee that
03:36 - 03:39
students are going to be more engaged, it does still take a highly
03:39 - 03:42
skilled teacher to do that, still rather than
03:42 - 03:44
lecturing, introducing new material with a
03:44 - 03:47
Flocabulary rap video, an
03:47 - 03:50
interactive Google Slides that you are making with Pear Deck, and then
03:50 - 03:53
having students prepare for a test by playing a Kahoot game or a
03:53 - 03:56
Jeopardy board that you make on Google Slides is almost
03:56 - 03:59
inherently going to be more engaging for students.
03:59 - 04:02
The fourth strategy is to use technology to ditch
04:02 - 04:05
textbooks and flip classrooms. The idea
04:05 - 04:09
of ditching textbooks comes from Matt Miller’s book, Ditch That Textbook.
04:09 - 04:12
One of the key ideas that he talks about is the fact that in
04:12 - 04:15
our digitized world, educators are no longer
04:15 - 04:18
the holders of information. Instead of being the gatekeepers
04:18 - 04:21
of information, we should be guiding students through the digital
04:21 - 04:24
world to help them develop strategies to find what is most
04:24 - 04:28
interesting, relevant and useful. Teachers who
04:28 - 04:31
embrace their role as guide through the digital world can start
04:31 - 04:34
flipping their classes, where their job is actually
04:34 - 04:36
to curate sources, create video
04:36 - 04:39
tutorials that students are then learning about
04:39 - 04:42
on their own outside of class, the way
04:42 - 04:45
that they would in the real world, so that when they come into class
04:45 - 04:48
they can be engaged in more rigorous, collaborative project-based
04:48 - 04:51
learning activities instead of just sitting
04:51 - 04:53
and listening to a lecture and taking notes.
04:53 - 04:57
The fifth strategy for how to use education technology is to give
04:57 - 05:00
students the opportunity to share their knowledge in differentiated
05:00 - 05:03
ways. Rather than limiting students to showing what they
05:03 - 05:06
know through traditional means like tests, essays,
05:06 - 05:09
and presentations, with technology and creativity
05:09 - 05:12
apps, students can now show their knowledge through a
05:12 - 05:16
ton of different, interesting ways that make sense to them.
05:16 - 05:19
They can create podcasts,
05:19 - 05:20
digital comics,
05:20 - 05:22
digital books,
05:26 - 05:33
There are all kinds of different possibilities. Once students learn how to use these different programs, a teacher can offer them choice
05:33 - 05:36
for how they would show their learning on a future assignment.
05:36 - 05:39
We know that offering students choice is a clear way
05:39 - 05:43
to have students more connected to the learning that they are doing in class.
05:43 - 05:47
Technology provides a clear path for how we can achieve that.
05:47 - 05:51
The sixth strategy is to use technology to teach students 21st century skills.
05:51 - 05:54
Imagine attending college today without skills on how to
05:54 - 05:57
navigate the web, touch type, compose an
05:57 - 06:00
email, collaborate on a Google Doc,
06:00 - 06:03
or create a Google Slides or PowerPoint presentation.
06:03 - 06:06
And students with more advanced computing skills in coding,
06:06 - 06:09
web design, app creation, robotics
06:09 - 06:13
will almost certainly have a leg up in the future
06:13 - 06:15
job market. Although lots of students from more affluent backgrounds
06:15 - 06:18
will probably learn these skills outside of school,
06:18 - 06:21
for many of our students, school will be the only
06:21 - 06:24
opportunity they have to teach these skills.
06:24 - 06:26
It’s our responsibility to do so.
06:26 - 06:30
The seventh strategy for using education technology is to bring abstract experiences
06:30 - 06:33
to life through augmented reality and
06:33 - 06:35
and virtual reality. The fact is that
06:35 - 06:38
many times, despite a teacher’s efforts, students lack the
06:38 - 06:41
schema to understand new concepts. I am personally
06:41 - 06:44
an experiential learner. I totally
06:44 - 06:47
empathize with the fact that sometimes it’s hard to learn something
06:47 - 06:50
unless you experience it for yourself. Augmented reality
06:50 - 06:53
and virtual reality has the potential to fill that gap.
06:53 - 06:56
Immersive virtual reality experiences
06:56 - 06:59
offered in Google Expeditions can literally drop
06:59 - 07:02
students inside of a geographic location or inside
07:02 - 07:05
of a cell in a human body. Preliminary studies
07:05 - 07:08
have also shown that virtual reality can have an impact on
07:08 - 07:11
increasing a person’s empathy for another person’s experience
07:11 - 07:14
because you have literally just walked in that person’s shoes.
07:14 - 07:17
Similarly, augmented reality platforms
07:17 - 07:20
like Merge allow students to literally hold a
07:20 - 07:23
dynamic globe or human organ in the
07:23 - 07:26
palm of their hand. And programs like CoSpaces
07:26 - 07:29
and Adobe Arrow allow students to actually create
07:29 - 07:32
virtual reality and augmented reality
07:32 - 07:35
themselves. Virtual reality and augmented reality
07:35 - 07:38
is definitely an emerging technology, but it has a lot of
07:38 - 07:42
exciting potential for what it can do to change education.
07:42 - 07:46
The eighth strategy is to use technology to expand classroom walls.
07:46 - 07:49
In an ideal world all students across the nation would be able to take field trips
07:49 - 07:53
anywhere they wanted, connect with educators all around the world,
07:53 - 07:56
and build relationships with other international students.
07:56 - 07:59
Technology affords students some of these opportunities. Students
07:59 - 08:02
can use tools like Skype and Google Hangouts to go on
08:02 - 08:05
virtual field trips, to meet classes around the world,
08:05 - 08:08
or to have a scientist from National Geographic
08:08 - 08:11
do a lecture from the field. Even with unlimited
08:11 - 08:14
budgets, students wouldn’t be able to experience all the different things
08:14 - 08:17
that they could through technology. Technology can help
08:17 - 08:20
redefine the classroom from a brick and mortar structure and help
08:20 - 08:23
connect students with others all around the world.
08:23 - 08:26
The ninth strategy is to use technology to teach our
08:26 - 08:29
students digital citizenship skills. We are currently
08:29 - 08:32
living in a world that has been dramatically
08:32 - 08:36
impacted from rapid technological change. We need
08:36 - 08:39
to be equipping students with the right skills that they will need in order
08:39 - 08:42
to navigate the digital world and to make respectful and responsible
08:42 - 08:45
choices in digital spaces. PBS Learning Media
08:45 - 08:48
and Common Sense offer educators free resources
08:48 - 08:50
for how to teach students about important
08:50 - 08:53
life skills, such as digital footprints,
08:53 - 08:57
cyberbullying, determining whether or not information on the
08:57 - 09:00
Internet is reliable, as well as the implications of oversharing.
09:01 - 09:03
The tenth strategy is to use technology to
09:03 - 09:05
promote social sharing. Whether or not you agree
09:05 - 09:09
or disagree with the concept of being a digital native, the
09:09 - 09:12
reality is that students today are used to sharing with other people and
09:12 - 09:14
really like doing it. Rather than fight
09:14 - 09:17
against it, educators today should embrace the fact that students
09:17 - 09:20
want to share what they have created with their friends. Educators can
09:21 - 09:23
leverage this impulse to try to motivate students to do
09:23 - 09:27
their absolute best. When students know that they are going to be sharing
09:27 - 09:29
what they have created with others and not just the teacher,
09:29 - 09:32
they tend to be more motivated to do their best work. Sharing work
09:32 - 09:35
with peers as well as others outside the classroom
09:35 - 09:38
also imbues their work with more meaning. Students understand
09:38 - 09:41
that they are making something that other people are actually
09:41 - 09:44
going to read or watch or participate in in some way.
09:44 - 09:47
They are not just doing school in the way that I did school, where I
09:47 - 09:49
wrote a paper and gave it to my teacher and beyond that
09:50 - 09:51
my work wasn’t really shared or read
09:52 - 09:53
by anybody else. It’s kind of sad
09:53 - 09:56
that all my hard work sort of went to waste. Many technology apps
09:56 - 09:59
are set up to help promote social sharing. Padlet is a
09:59 - 10:02
free bulletin board where students can post
10:02 - 10:04
different pieces of work that they have created
10:04 - 10:07
and then comment on them. I use Padlet all the time in my
10:07 - 10:10
class for students to share what they have created with each other and they
10:10 - 10:13
absolutely love it. Apps like BookCreator facilitate social
10:13 - 10:16
sharing of digital books by creating a digital library
10:16 - 10:20
that can be shared with other students in the class, the school,
10:20 - 10:21
or even the world outside of them.
10:22 - 10:23
And then programs like Flipgrid
10:23 - 10:26
allows students to record short videos to explain
10:26 - 10:29
their thinking or showcase their knowledge and then share
10:29 - 10:33
those videos within your classroom, where students can then create video responses to each other.
10:33 - 10:36
The eleventh strategy is that technology helps students develop
10:36 - 10:40
collaboration skills. Students have to learn collaboration skills in order to be
10:40 - 10:44
successful in higher education and in their careers. Learning to work in diverse teams
10:44 - 10:48
to solve complex problems is one of the most important skills
10:48 - 10:51
that a teacher can teach. Unfortunately teaching
10:51 - 10:54
collaboration isn’t that easy. It’s not like you can just create an activity,
10:54 - 10:57
throw a group of students together and say hey,
10:57 - 11:00
do that. Technology helps teachers develop collaboration
11:00 - 11:02
in two important ways. The first is that it provides
11:02 - 11:05
the tools necessary for collaboration. Students can
11:06 - 11:08
edit the same document together from different locations
11:08 - 11:11
or hop on video or text chats to talk
11:12 - 11:14
about the work that they’re doing. And secondly, technology
11:14 - 11:17
helps teachers create tasks that are complex
11:17 - 11:20
enough to merit collaboration. One of the biggest problems
11:20 - 11:23
with collaborative activities in schools is that a lot of
11:23 - 11:27
the tasks that students are asked to do are simply not all
11:27 - 11:30
that complex and don’t actually merit having four people
11:30 - 11:33
working on that activity. One of the complex collaborative tasks
11:33 - 11:36
I like doing with my students is having them
11:36 - 11:38
create a green screen video. In order to do that,
11:38 - 11:41
they have to plan together, record a video together,
11:41 - 11:45
and edit that video together. It’s the kind of task that would be very difficult to do
11:45 - 11:48
if there were only one or two students working on the project.
11:48 - 11:52
The twelfth strategy is to use technology to help students develop
11:52 - 11:53
metacognition. I know when I got
11:53 - 11:56
into education it was my mission to imbue
11:56 - 11:59
a love of learning and self-awareness
11:59 - 12:02
in my students. Getting students to take ownership over
12:02 - 12:05
their own learning is perhaps the most powerful lesson
12:05 - 12:08
a teacher can teach. I’m a huge believer that students should
12:08 - 12:11
be setting smart goals and tracking their academic progress
12:11 - 12:14
throughout the year to build a sense of autonomy and
12:14 - 12:17
self-efficacy. Tools like Google Sheets,
12:17 - 12:20
Google Docs, and Seesaw allow students to track their
12:20 - 12:23
academic progress over the course of the year. They can also be shared with
12:23 - 12:25
family so that they’re more kept in the loop.
12:25 - 12:28
That brings me to my thirteenth strategy,
12:28 - 12:31
which is to use technology to enhance family engagement.
12:31 - 12:34
Research shows that when families are more connected to schools,
12:34 - 12:37
students perform better. Technology facilitates greater
12:37 - 12:40
family involvement in many ways. Once you set up
12:40 - 12:43
your digital classroom, families can now see all of the different
12:43 - 12:46
things that students are doing in school. Parents can easily
12:46 - 12:49
sign up to get notifications from digital
12:49 - 12:52
portfolio programs like Seesaw, so every time
12:52 - 12:55
students upload a piece of work into their portfolio,
12:55 - 12:57
the parent gets to see it and comment on it as well.
12:57 - 13:00
Opening up this window into what is
13:00 - 13:03
happening in school also helps students
13:03 - 13:06
understand that the work that they are creating matters.
13:06 - 13:09
My last strategy for how to take a holistic approach to
13:09 - 13:12
technology integration in schools is to use
13:12 - 13:15
technology to improve teacher practice. I’ve worked with
13:15 - 13:18
numerous educators and every single one I know
13:18 - 13:20
wants to improve their practice to improve outcomes
13:20 - 13:23
for students. Unfortunately, teacher professional
13:23 - 13:26
development violates nearly every standard we set
13:26 - 13:30
for good teaching practice. It isn’t personalized,
13:30 - 13:33
differentiated, experiential, or presented
13:33 - 13:36
keeping different learning modalities in mind. Numerous technology tools
13:36 - 13:39
exist to address this need. Teacher created YouTube channels
13:39 - 13:42
like this one can help teachers develop new strategies for technology
13:42 - 13:45
integration that they want to bring into their classrooms. Similarly,
13:45 - 13:48
teacher blogs and Twitter provide lots of
13:48 - 13:52
different ideas that teachers can use in their classroom. There is some interesting stuff
13:52 - 13:55
going on in artificial intelligence as well. Teachers can use an
13:56 - 13:59
A.I. program called TeachFX and it will analyze the percentage of
13:59 - 14:02
student talk versus teacher talk in your
14:02 - 14:05
classroom, so you can adjust your practice
14:05 - 14:08
to improve student engagement. Private video sharing platforms
14:08 - 14:10
like Edthena support teacher development by allowing
14:10 - 14:14
teachers to virtually visit and analyze other
14:14 - 14:17
classrooms in order to learn from other educators.
14:17 - 14:20
Used in tandem with thoughtfully planned and skilled instruction,
14:20 - 14:23
education technology has the power to improve academic
14:23 - 14:26
outcomes and to transform the educational
14:26 - 14:29
experience for students, families, and teachers.
14:29 - 14:32
I’m sure I missed some ways that technology can be used in
14:32 - 14:33
education and I’d love to hear
14:33 - 14:35
your thoughts in the comments below.
video to article