Start School with Digital in Mind

Start School with Digital in Mind

It’s the start of the school year and teachers are busy preparing their classrooms – or should we say their learning environments. Technology should be part of the learning environment in today’s world, but how teachers embrace technology will differ: Will teachers use technology to embellish assignments and create fun ways for students to share new knowledge or will the technology deliver curriculum? Will teachers use technology that calendars and reminds students what is due and when, or will they build an online forum for student discussions, collaboration, assignment submission or take assessments with an embedded classroom calendar? Will teachers use technology to replace a worksheet skill based center in the classroom or will they build an online environment that takes the learning outside the classroom to a different place and time? As a profession, we – educators are all over the board, when it comes to technology use in the classroom. Some are fully embracing hardware, software, production tools, online communication venues and more. For example my daughters, one a freshman in high school, the other in 7th grade started school this week in Las Vegas and as a family have several different places to go – from online textbooks, Remind Me app, Edmodo, Schoology, teacher-made websites, to submitting assignments to teacher email accounts. Yet there was no Google for Education, however both girls have Chromebooks and are avid Google fans. Throw in our soccer team’s group texting and Team Snap app and we’re up to our ears with logins, passwords, and bookmarks. Each teacher moving in a different direction for can be overwhelming for students and parents....