Check out the latest trends!

So what are the hot tech trends in education today? There seem to be so many that it's difficult to wade through the sea of what is hot and new. When I recently discussed the issue with my very fabulous friend Brooke Brown, a teacherpreneur who always seems to know what is the latest and hottest thing going on in the world of education, we talked about the trends of communication and individualized learning. If there are two things I really see transforming education, it is the ability for teachers to communicate quickly and efficiently with students and parents, and it is a teacher's or school's ability to truly give students an individualized education. No more teaching to the middle. 

Class Dojo and similar apps are becoming extremely popular. And as we learned in our class, with a click of a button, a teacher can send a parent a notification that little Suzie has received a gold star for being a good sharer, or that she forgot to turn in her permission slip for the big zoo trip. Just like that -- with one click. It is this technology and cultural norm that I have really watched change over the last decade. I remember printing off 20 D and F letters, hand addressing them, and sticking them in the mail tray at work. Hand addressing, people!!! And I remember trying to make phone calls to parents and struggling to find a home phone number that wasn't disconnected or no longer connected to my student. My, times have changed. If anything, communication can now feel overwhelming. I now have to make sure to reply back to the fifteen parents who have emailed me in a day. The world seems much more connected, and our technology is undoubtably building this bridge between families and schools. Edmodo, Remind 101, Showbie, Class Dojo, they all make communication smoother and easier for teachers and families. 

Individualized education is also what I see making great strides. And, as a teacher, I believe that it is technology that is going to allow teachers to develop better and more personalized instruction for students. As a parent and a teacher, I think that this is an incredible and wonderful shift. We all know that individualized instruction is what is best for students, but there has been no way to actually do that until now. When I was a kid, some kids were reading the blue level SRA's and some were on the orange, and that was about it for individualized instruction and then it was time to get back to the math worksheet.  But now, there are all kinds of apps and instructional tech companies that gauge student learning and allow students to practice and grow at their own pace. Language Arts Friendzy and other apps allow students to practice ELA or math individually. It gives them feedback as they go, and such apps will keep targeting certain skills it sees a student struggling with. A new edtech company, Knewton, claims that it assesses student learning and will even reteach core knowledge issues that it sees lacking in students, meaning that Knewton is able to "see" that Bobby is struggling with understanding Active voice because Bobby doesn't really have a good grasp of subject-verb agreement. Knewton will reteach those core skills Bobby is having trouble with. 

Communication and individualized instruction are both key to bettering education. I'm excited to see what the future brings. I fear that this teach may put me right out of a job, but, as usual, I'm hoping for a world and future where there is room for very flawed humans and our perfect computers ( who want to secretly destroy us!!) to exist together in harmony. 

ISTE rules!

If there is one thing I'm learning this year, it is that our world is changing at a break neck pace. And that change is also affecting our educational institutions and our classrooms. It feels impossible to stay ahead of the curve, and it feels overwhelming to project what tech is going to take off and be truly useful and what tech is just going to be the gadget of the week. 

Even this morning, I heard about a new edtech company called Knewton. As students answer questions related to just about any curriculum, Knewton uses the student's right or wrong answers to project at which level the student is working and how to keep pushing them forward. If the student is not understanding the concept, Knewton keeps lowering the skill level and eventually starts looking at what key concepts the student may be lacking and reteaches those missing key concepts that are keeping the student from moving forward. Sounds great, right?! Knewton promises to give every student individualized instruction. No more teaching to the middle. But as soon as the Knewton founder was finished talking, another edtech intellectual questioned the very idea of such technology and pointed out the flawed logic behind all of it. My point is -- it's hard to know what is going to be truly useful to us as educators. That's where ISTE comes into play. Using a set of international standards to help us evaluate tech in the classrooms is incredibly vital in a time when it's difficult to gauge what is the best tech to help our "students be prepared to succeed in an ever changing world," if you will. 

When considering the presentations from class and looking at the ISTE standards, there are a few presentations that stand out to me. 

Tammy McManis's 30 Hands fits just about every ISTE standard. Through making videos, it allows students to be "creative and innovative." It also is a great medium to help students "collaborate and communicate." Making videos is inherently communicative in that students are communicating a message. There are multiple ways a teacher could use 30 Hands collaboratively. "Critical thinking" also plays a role with the 30 Hands app. Students are making a video to meet an educational goal. They are answering questions and solving problems as they create. 30 Hands also promotes "digital citizenry" in that it is creating a safe and positive way for students to interact, teach, learn, and share. Finally, "technology operations" also plays a role in this edtech as students must figure out how to use the app to produce a product. 

Using ISTE to evaluate Language Arts Friendzy gives us a way to view how useful this edtech on the classroom. I don't really see how LAF is meeting the "creative and innovative" requirement in that it doesn't really require students to create anything. However, LAF does a great job of helping students develop "digital citizenry" in that it gives students a safe environment to communicate and play against other students across the world. The best thing about the LAF is that it meets the "critical thinking" standard. Students are forced to think on their feet and solve problems as they play learning games. Finally, LAF does a good job of fitting the "technology operations" standard in that kids must apply prior knowledge of other technology to use technology effectively and productively. 

ISTE is a great way to take a closer look at all of the tech that is available to us. In a sea of new tech, how do we responsibly make choices that will give us the most bang for our very limited bucks? ISTE is one way to do just that. 

I'm really sorry if this blog post sucks!

Well, it's almost midnight, and I'm at the ER with my husband. I'll try to hit 500 words, but I can't make any promises. Right now, he is having a nice morphine snooze, so I have a few minutes to write my technology blog. Possible bowel obstruction, if you're curious. 

Anyhoo, let's talk technology. It was another night full of amazing and interesting presentations. And, again, I'm feeling so lucky to have this opportunity to learn about these amazing resources. This class is having a very positive impact on my teaching. I have created an Emaze for my presentation on Wednesday and one for my classes over our Puritan related literature. I used the very cool Halloween theme with bats and witches, which is very apropos of Puritan related literature. I mean, those people were really obsessed with the devil!  And  I'm interested in hearing what my students have to say about it. Emaze is very easy to use, but you have to use chrome to make it work smoothly. 

You know what's really cool? Telling your students about technology they haven't heard of!! Do you know how rare that is for me? As an English teacher, I was completely enthralled by Scott Goodrich's Google Add On Essay Reviser! This is the kind of stuff that an English nerd such as myself just completely freaks out about. I was showing some of my students how to use it on Friday. These very awesome young English nerds said to me, "How did I not know about this?" That was a terrific moment for me. I actually beat these savvy kids to the tech! I plan on doing a lesson over Google Docs and the Reviser as we turn a timed writing into a formal essay. It's a beautiful way to make kids look at their work with new eyes...Googly eyes, that is. 

The other tech that really stood out to me was the comic creator. I thought that was so neat, and I can see so many applications that could be used in a variety of learning environments. That could be used with a variety of grade levels and across the curriculum. Kids would be inventing and creating, so they are at the top of Bloom's. The MoMA App was also a really great way to get kids learning about different artists, art movements while creating at the same time. 

I really enjoyed the presentations this week, and I really hope mine isn't a big snooze inducer next week.  I typed this on pages on my phone in an ER. That's pretty great tech. 

Ok, we are off for a CT scan. Good night! I'm really sorry if this blog post sucks!