Today’s digital world is littered with drill and kill technology, much of it no different than a digital version of the worksheets of years past. Simply digitizing past practice serves little instructional purpose and ultimately leads to low levels of learning. These types of practices have lead to...
According to a report released by the Pew Research Center, approximately 5 of the 29 million households with school-aged children lack access to high quality broadband internet while at home. The research indicates that almost one-third of households whose incomes fall below $50,000 and with childre...
This post is sponsored by Samsung. However, all thoughts and opinions are my own. Over the past decade, most school budgets have remained stagnant, yet spending in educational technology has climbed to record levels, with no sign of slowing in the near future. In a report entitled, “Technology in Ed...
This post is sponsored by Samsung. However, all thoughts and opinions are my own. Having worked with almost 500 school districts and 3,000 school leaders over the past year, I’ve often been asked, “What type of devices should we buy?” The problem with this question, is that quite often this is...
The notion of “effective professional learning” is something that has been discussed for decades. A comparison in the philosophies of today’s school districts yields results that falls across a continuum of who controls the learning. Although recent studies indicate that the top-down, one-size-fits-...
Over the past few years, as most school budgets have remained stagnant, spending in educational technology has continued to climb. In a report entitled, “Technology in Education: Global Trends, Universe Spend and Market Outlook,“ FutureSource consulting projected that edtech spending wor...
The average high school classroom, if drawn on a map, resembles a cemetery. Last summer, I co-authored a piece on “avoiding the cemetery effect” for this exact reason. Spaces are often set with desks in rows, students facing forward, with most of the action taking place in the first one-fifth of the...
Having traveled the nation and spent extensive time in schools throughout 2015, there’s one thing I can say for sure: Many of today’s classrooms have amazing 21st century tools sitting in 20th century learning environments. Quite often, a student’s hard metal desk is separated by a packet of workshe...
