With the Common Core’s emphasis on data-driven instruction there is a misguided focus on using technology to deliver content and collect data rather than cultivate learning and stimulate cognitive development.Using education technology isn’t so much about students mastering a device or procedure so much as it is about mastering themselves first.
I’ve seen assessment tools used by teachers in the belief that the tools are an instructional tool. Just because you can get pretty graphs out of a piece of software does not mean it can be used as an instructional replacement. Assessment tools have taken over a lot of edtech, because they are easy to use to generate pretty graphs under the guise that student use of the tool is teaching students. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Internet Travels Of bits and bytes is my weekly round up of interesting links and ideas I discovered on the internet. It is published on Mondays for the previous week Learn21 is a proud sponsor of Eduk8me and the Of Bits and Bytes newsletter. Read more about their mission at Learn21. Apps Puzzmo is currently…
This is the inaugural year for SocialStar Creator Camp, an offshoot of an actor camp that takes place every summer near LA. It’s three days of intensive influencer workshops focusing on monetization, branding, and the basics of shooting and editing video, all aimed at kids in their early teens to mid-20s. At first, the idea…
This is part 9 of 13 things to do before the first day of school. I don’t store things in a lot of folders, I try to use search as much as possible. But, I do like storing the files and folders for the current year in a named folder. So, at the start of…
As a professional corporate trainer, I take the same care and attention when I prepare the room for a train-the-trainer workshop. I want my participants to feel welcome, comfortable and relaxed—just as if I were welcoming them into my own home. Depending on the workshop I’m delivering, we may be spending anywhere from one to five days together,…
Sometimes when placing text on a slide in a presentation, the background image can make it hard to read the text. Other times you’d like your text to stand out a little bit from the document. This is where drop shadows come in handy. Basically this trick relies on two text boxes, each with the…
