The Future of Classroom Education

Cross Posted on edtechdigest

by Greg Limperis
Instead of reviewing The Year in EdTech, instead of giving you the Best 100 Education Apps, let’s do something different: let’s look forward. We all have some idea of what’s out there. Here are my predictions for the next few years in edtech. What will the classroom of the future look like? What’s the Next Big Thing in education? Have a look at what classrooms currently look like, where technology currently stands, and you’ll get a better idea of what could easily be adapted to help make such a class of the future a reality.
Chipping In
First, let’s look at how we’ll track our most valuable resources. Students and their equipment will soon be tracked with RFID (Radio Frequency Identification). According to AT&T, schools are already doing it. One obstacle: reducing costs. As soon as we can find a way to easily replace stolen or lost RFID’s with our students, I can see it being used on a daily basis to help track students from their attendance in school to their multiple trips out of the classroom or across the open classroom. Knowing when and where our students are at any given time will help to minimize lost instructional time.
Many will say they don’t want their child’s every move tracked at any given moment, but safety has to be something we all support. I cannot tell you how many fire drills I have participated in in the past where a student in my class potentially was not in the class and I honestly would have no idea where he or she would actually be during that drill. In modern, 1,000-plus-student schools, locating one missing student during a crisis could become something very scary. An RFID indicating their last check-in point would be something very useful. Embedded in costly equipment, it could also keep tabs on what goes where, and if it leaves school grounds, it could even sound an alarm.
Interactive Groups
Once the child was in the classroom for the day, I could see them still sitting in groups. The trend in education today is collaborative, group learning. But in this group learning model, we don’t work in isolation; this mirrors conditions in today’s workplace. Why, then, are we talking about giving every student a PC, or 1:1 learning environments? What if the desk they sat together at was itself a PC? Imagine if that group, working together, could work on a multi-touch desktop that really was a computer. Couldn’t they collaborate better? Wouldn’t they all interact better, surf together, participate and collaborate together on a multi-touch surface? Samsung’s SUR40 for Microsoft Surface2.0 already exists. It may be costly now—but Moore’s law will eventually kick in.
Also, later in 2012, the EXOdesk is slated to change that as well. Couple this technology with that of SmartEd Services and their TAP-it multi-touch technology and you have one very powerful collaboration tool. Throw in a Student Response System and now you have students collaborating and giving individual input. Integrate that into the interactive desk, and well…
Mobile Kids
Now if you want to give every student some tech to go, nothing beats the iPad. Cost and size have been formidable barriers, but watch for the release of the smaller, 7.85-inch iPad. Imagine an e-reader with tablet power at lower cost—in student hands. It’s coming.
White Boards
A major problem on the horizon: retrofitting older school buildings. But there is hope. Our district already started seeing how interactive whiteboard equipment, student response systems, document cameras and tablet technology can all be integrated together and fit into any existing building space by making any flat surface an interactive surface. Mimio has come out with a whole suite of technology that, price-wise, is very friendly—and so is the business model. They’ll soon take by storm those schools that haven’t been able to afford to jump on the interactive whiteboard bandwagon.
Professional Development
Teachers, however, will need training and support to ensure that this new technology can be integrated properly. They’ll need on-demand, anywhere, everywhere personalized, customized training. Websites such as Technology Integration in Education will start to offer free classes that can be quickly and easily created and available. Thanks to eLearninginnovation and Educrates courses can quickly and easily be created and uploaded for consumption by educators.
Soon, you’ll see sites offering courses to meet teacher needs daily offered free of charge thanks to collaboration by edtech companies willing to offset the cost of these courses through advertisement in the course promoting training in the use of their software or hardware.  Stay tuned for this because hopefully there will be more to come from me in regards to this one.
Final Thoughts
For now, I’m eager about the future. I wonder just what else we can do with all of this newly-available technology—and just how much of it we’re willing to invest in to make sure we produce the best possible education for our students.

What the Future of Education Depends On

Cross posted on Edtech Digest| by Greg Limperis

So here it is. I sit here tonight typing this blog post on my new iPad 2 plus 3G. I’ve downloaded the “Pages” app that I am using to type this. I love this tablet! It allows me to do many of the things I could have been doing on my desktop or laptop, but now I can do these things just about anywhere at any time in a very portable format. The real future, though, isn’t in this device itself.
You see, this device was bought for me but it really isn’t mine. It’s become my kids favorite tool. Forget the netbook I bought my daughter—she hates it.
Yeah, they’ll still use my desktop with its large-screen monitor, or my wife’s nice laptop—but this tablet wins out every time. It can do pretty much anything they want it to.
Ours is loaded with apps and games either I or they have downloaded. They love using them, but their favorite is an app that came with it: FaceTime. Their friend who lives up the street came over a few weeks ago with her iPod touch.
On her iPod was the app, one my kids had never seen before. I knew of it but hadn’t had a chance to use it yet. After a little arm twisting by them and an uncertain feeling in me, I helped them set up their FaceTime using my email and their friend’s parent’s email so they could talk with each other.
Now, thanks to the WiFi on this tablet, my girls are facetiming with their friend up the street all the time.
Just last weekend, my youngest daughter was facetiming with this friend, basically live video conferencing with her, all the way to our destination while she rode in the car.  She was holding the camera out to the road and showing her friend where she was and where she was going. She was recording messages and pictures when they could not talk live and they were sharing them with each other when they could be on.
There were a few days where they actually just played with their dolls as the FaceTime ran, keeping them connected live, even though hundreds of miles separated them.
They’re growing up with this technology and know no other life then one with technology in it. They aren’t amazed at what they can do with it. Instead, they just think they should be able to do these things. My youngest son, 5, is learning how to use it, too. They fight over the device and I can hardly ever get my hands on it.
Are they learning something from using it? Sure.
Will it help them score better on a standardized test? Maybe.
The real questions are:
-Will the person using it with them know how best to integrate this technology in order to maximize its potential and help them to reach their educational goals? 
-Will educators know how best to integrate this technology regardless of the form factor, to best prepare them for a future that is both unclear and uncertain?
There will always be a new latest and greatest gadget. There will always be some piece of software that will allow them to connect and learn from others in ways we have never though about before.
Problem is, how do we get educators to be ahead of the curve? How do we get them to know more about these devices and how best to use them than the kids who are growing up with them in their daily lives?
Too often in my teaching career I’ve seen some latest and greatest piece of technology bought for teachers, yet they were never properly shown how to use it or how to maximize its potential. Inevitably and unfortunately—due to fear and or uncertainty of how to use the device properly or insufficient time to work it into their lesson—the device is thrown in a corner and seldom used.
Many of them will simply use only the equipment that is safe and comfortable for them and try to figure out the rest if there is time and someone around willing to muddle through it with them. Often, they’ll be years behind their students who use this equipment at home and who know no other world then the one that uses these devices to collaborate and learn from each other, yet they will come to school and have educators who will have no idea how best to maximize its potential.
I ask you, what kind of education do you wish for your children?
Do you want them to be able to collaborate in this ever shrinking global market? Or, do you want them to continue to do work in this ever change world they way we did it when we grew up? How much are we willing to transform their education and prepare them for the 21st century? Will we have the knowledge and skills to give them the support they need?
I argue you this point: it will not matter what tools we put in their hands.
Yes, they will need tools—but what those tools might be will not matter as much as will the teachers who are trained to use these tools.
Mark my words: we will be debating the next best technological tool for education for years to come, but the only true impact will come by those who invest in getting our teachers and students the trained educators who can help them to find things they can use, and know how to use those things so that our teachers can best teach our students 21st-century skills through the use of whatever equipment they might have.
The real thing that we need to invest in as leaders is not iPads, iPods, laptops, IWBs or any other form of equipment. The real next big thing will be learning centers that can produce tech-savvy leaders who can in turn go out and train our teachers and students in the best ways to use these tools—ways that are both effective and inexpensive.
The human support will be what matters most.
Teachers need to know they have someone readily available who can help them and who can answer their questions and needs in a timely manner, especially in these days, where time is a commodity that most do not have.
They will not have the ability to always get help from their peers.
They’ll need someone who can give them both online and personal training as needed.
I challenge you to invest what you planned to invest in technology, but instead of that investment being all on the equipment itself, cut that number in half. Invest that other half on the training, support and time for the teacher.
In other words, invest in the human factor and you will see true transformative change.
The best tools are ones we know how to use.

YouTube Blog: Opening up a world of educational content with You...

YouTube Blog: Opening up a world of educational content with You...: When I was in school during the 90s, watching videos in the classroom was a highlight of any week. The teacher would roll in a television on...

Tools for the Interactive Teacher

Originally Posted on October 17, 2011 by Greg Limperis

This year, my district in Lawrence, Mass., has made a huge effort to supply our teachers with the tools that will not only make their lives easier but their teaching more dynamic. That’s right—we’ve finally purchased interactive whiteboard equipment. The equipment of choice for our large inner-city school district was offered by Mimio, which we chose for many reasons. Many schools within our district are old buildings as are the classrooms they house, so we had to find a solution that best fit our needs. Our goal was to give as many teachers as much equipment as possible with minimal retrofitting. Due to the high expense of rewiring classrooms and the mounting of equipment, we found it best to go with Mimio.
You see, Mimio allows you to attach the interactive equipment right to existing hardware. Most of our schools already had a lot of whiteboards, open wall space or places where inexpensive new whiteboards could be easily hung. Because we did not need to purchase expensive whiteboard equipment, Mimio allowed us to attach an interactive bar directly to existing whiteboards or wall space and project from a cart within the room. This cart acts as a storage space where all of the equipment can easily be packed up and stored each night. The equipment easily sets up every day and, thanks to the money we were able to save by going with Mimio, we were able to supply every teacher with a document camera from Mimio and a tablet that allows them to interact with their board from anywhere within their classroom.
Besides all of this equipment, we were also able to supply each school with a few student response systems as well. All of this hardware is Mimio-produced and integrates nicely with their studio software. The Teach Bar, View, Tablet and Vote system all interact or can be used separately.
But we didn’t stop there. Every teacher within the district has access to Power Teacher within their classroom. They’re able to access all data related to their students instantaneously, add in grades and share with other staff and parents simultaneously.  Thanks to Power School and its Power Teacher App, teachers are now starting to bring in their own iPads and they are accessing Power Teacher through the new free iPad app.
The project-based lessons they are creating use resources provided through Discovery Education and the treasure trove of resources offered on that site. They are downloading video, audio, articles, lessons, activities and much more from the site. They are sharing the resources through online interactive websites where students can display their learning through sites such as Glogster EDU or Prezi. They are creating interactive stories through sites such as GoAnimate, Storybird, or even ZimmerTwins.
We are using websites such as Compass Learning’s Odyssey Math to help better address the needs of all of our students. We track how they are doing, what they know and what they still need to learn through the use of NWEA testing. That testing is then instantaneously within 24-48 hours aligned to the lessons they will see in their customized learning plan set up for them through Compass Learning. All lessons in Odyssey are aligned to their results on their MAP testing.
While they are in the lab setting, we are able to monitor, assist and teach all students all from the teacher work station thanks to the use of Faronic’s Insight Teacher. Teachers and students are surfing the Internet in safe, controlled searches thanks to Nettrekker, a search engine. Nettrekker is also supplying the teacher with a readability level of every website listed in a search in an effort to differentiate instruction for each and every student’s needs.
Thanks to the use of our new Student Response Systems supplied to us through the Mimio Vote system—teachers are performing on-the-spot formative assessments that they can later export from the Mimio Vote Grade Book and import into Pearson’s Power Teacher Grade Book. They are creating their own test questions, downloading others created by other teacher s who have shared their lessons on Mimio Connect, or are testing directly on the Internet as they review past state tests posted on our Department of Elementary and Secondary Schools website.
Students are sharing work and collaborating together through the use of the document camera, but now they are doing so much more. They are video conferencing, and taking virtual field trips with CILCthanks to the built in webcam that the document camera now supplies.
The classrooms have come alive and students are engaged. The lessons are dynamic and the teaching and learning is real and authentic. Students are engaged, and this is making teaching all that much easier.
The situation is not the best. There are only a few computers per classroom and the computer lab is often booked, but the dynamic of learning in our schools is changing.
Resources such as Scholastic’s Read180, FastMath and System 44 are helping our students get over the hump. NWEAs Map Test allows us to have data to track student growth and use that data to inform us on how we can reach the individual needs of all of our students. The options are now endless and the learning is limitless.
I really can’t wait to see how all of this technology will change learning and teaching for the better in Lawrence, Mass.  My students and their teacher will be that much more thankful for the technology that has made their day so much more engaging.

As Originally Posted on EdTech Digest

By; Greg Limperis

Ever wanted a way to expand learning outside of your four walls of your classroom without having to pay big bucks for great tools and resources? Well, along comes CourseSites, a free, hosted online course creation and facilitation service from Blackboard where educators get use of many tools for free.
This service allows teachers to add a web–based component to their courses, or even host an entire course on the Internet. Looking for a safe way to create a blended learning classroom or even host a whole class online in a free environment? This tool allows you to host up to 5 courses online, and all for free.
To begin with, when you create your own course in their platform, you get to choose your own URL making it easy for your students to find your course even when you are not around.
Now, schooling does not have to end when the school bell ends. With this tool, teachers are able to post and update course material, interact with students, promote collaboration anytime, anywhere, 24/7. Not only can you create the material and promote the learning, educators can assess the learning and use that data to guide their teaching in order to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of every student.
The best thing is you can depend on this product. It’s powered by Blackboard, including Blackboard Learn™, Release 9.1, and Blackboard Collaborate™. Not like most startup companies, it doesn’t leave you wondering if you’ll still be able to rely on them a year or two down the road. It’s an established company, one of the leaders in online learning, and now they’re offering some of their product for free.
Here’s how it works: As an instructor, you simply create your own webpage, with a personalized public URL, so students and guests can quickly access your courses, links, and blog posts by logging in as an instructor. While building your courses, the site provides you with excellent tools to make your teaching come alive. Engage learners like never before through the use of multi-media! It allows you to easily integrate Web 2.0 resources from youtube.com, slideshare.com and flickr.com. The YouTube player has built in accessible controls. The site offers you the ability to integrated McGraw Hill’s Connect and Create services into your course allowing you to pull content, assignments and assessments from McGraw-Hill’s proven learning object repositories—including e-texts, video, and interactive exercises. Through the use of some html text editor boxes, educators can quickly and easily embed content created on other sites such as Glogster, GoAnimate, Storybird and more by simply copying the embedded code and including it into that assignment. Students will stay actively engaged with the media-rich, high quality content found in this seamlessly integrated, total course solution.
Want to take your lessons to the next level? Easily promote collaboration amongst your learners around course content and or group projects all while supporting social learning through the integrated wiki feature built into the platform.
Looking to assess your student knowledge gained? Try out the built in assessment feature where you can quickly and easily create questions and update them. Educators can efficiently manage grading from one location while using in-line grading forms and rubrics, as well as smart filters allowing you to view and grade only those things that need your attention.
Be home at night and schedule a time when you can be online for a few minutes to answer your student’s questions on the day’s assignments. By adding the instant message feature, collaboration amongst peers and teacher to student allow educators to promote some of the vital 21st century skills so needed by young adults entering the workforce today. Not only can students and teachers chat, but the site offers a way for educators to collaborate with students in a live, online classroom featuring text chat, two-way audio, video, interactive whiteboard, application and desktop sharing and breakout rooms all through a free use of the user-friendly Blackboard Collaborate software.
Have you ever needed a way to help keep your students on task? With this site, you can send notifications to students via email, or publish to central notification dashboard to keep them on task and accountable. Let them know you are there as help but also let them know when there is something that they need to be mindful of.
The best part of this service is that not only is it an interactive, engaging way to reach your students any time but now you can reach them in any place Using Blackboard Mobile Learn, you can now reach your students where they live, on their mobile devices giving students and teachers instant access to their CourseSites—wherever, whenever. Imagine if you will a classroom with no walls and no time barriers, a place where true learning exists outside of the standard classroom setting.
Are you being asked to align your teaching to your state standards? This service makes it easy to build your lesson plans and align them to the K-12 state standards. Through the use of K-12 State Standards Alignment and coverage reports, you can now easily deliver standards-based instruction in just a few clicks.
Ever worry (like I have) whether or not what you were creating online met the needs of all students? This service is accessible to all students with a platform that has been Gold Level certified by the National Federation of the Blind for Non-Visual Accessibility. Here is a way to truly differentiate your instruction to meet the needs for all members of your classroom.
They now provide you and your students access to over 10,000 current and historical news clips and documentaries produced by NBC. Through this integration, you can weave regularly updated video clips into your courses on your course home page or in lesson areas. Students also can search for and embed videos to support their discussion, journal, blog, and wiki entries or other activities.
All of this can be accomplished through something like Moodle, but here is an opportunity to have it exist on a server that you do not have to maintain and one that is hosted and provided to you for free. I know, I sound like a salesman for CoureSites from Blackboard, but I am not. I truly believe in the opportunity provided here and can’t help but imagine what learning could look like.

Teaching to the Common Core Standards

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Greg Limperis on Edtech Digest

 

CLASSROOM 21 | by Greg Limperis
Working for the past 15 years in an underperforming inner city school district, I have become intimately familiar with the need to align all lessons to the state—and now federal—standards. This year, our district will be making an extra effort to ensure that teacher lessons are better aligned to the Common Core Standards.
My new role as the Supervisor of Instructional Technology within my district will have me walking through classrooms twice a week in order to see how teachers are teaching within our district and to give feedback on ways that we are using 21st-century skills well and ways we are aligning our teaching to the Common Core Standards. Part of what we have been asked to do is to ensure that teacher lesson books have lesson plans in them that align to these standards. As I have always done, I have begun to ask myself: how we can make this job easier for our teachers?
Knowing that my Andorid will be my lifeblood as I do these walkthroughs, I decided to look up some resources to help me make sure that I have a better grasp of all of the Common Core Standards for all grade levels—as I move through various grade level classrooms this year throughout the district. The first thing I came across is the app Common Core Standards by Master Connect.  This app allows the user to pull up the Common Core Standard in both Math and Language Arts in grades K-12. The Standards are nicely arranged in categories where each standard can be selected to read a detailed description of that standard.
Thanks to a little help while searching online for additional resources, I came across a post by tech4ed that directed me to the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Standards Aligned System’s website. This site was great because it offered lesson plans already aligned to the Common Core Standards. Each lesson is broken down by grade level and content area. When the lesson is selected, you then can see what Common Core Standard that lesson is aligned to. I will share this with my teachers. They will need a way to help quickly align lessons they plan to teach to the Common Core Standards and this site will help them do just that.
I then started to wonder if there was a lesson plan book my teachers could access from anywhere that would allow them to create lessons and then allow them to choose which Common Core Standards the lessons was aligned to. While once again doing a little searching, I came across LearnBoost, an online website offering a free online grade book that allows me to do just that.  This tool will allow my teachers to easily create lessons, store them on the cloud and with a click of the button, align them to the Common Core Standards.
As a way to have the Common Core Standards in print, I came across this PDF that would help to give me one file listing all the Common Core Standards. Little did I know that this document would be such a great resource. While I was looking for a PDF to follow along with, I came across an article written for school CIO which reminded me of the product TestWiz by DataMetrics and the great job it’s doing with aligning to the Common Core Standards.
Now, it’s back to work for another school year where we work towards ensuring that all students are taught the Common Core Standards—and what better way to do that than through the integration of technology in our educator’s day.
——-
Greg Limperis, now Supervisor of Instructional Technology for his district, was recently the Middle School Technology Facilitator in Lawrence, Mass., and founded the very popular Technology Integration in Education professional learning network, reaching thousands of educators worldwide. He has shared with others what he knows and they have joined him in sharing their insights as well. Join them in bringing about change using your 21st century skills.
Visit: http://www.technologyintegrationineducation.com

Integrating Technology on a Limited Budget with Little Support

  Originally Posted on June 15, 2011 on Edtech Digest

CLASSROOM 21 | by Greg Limperis
Ever asked yourself, “How am I supposed to integrate technology into my lessons without having any?” or, “How am I supposed to integrate technology when I do not even know where to start and no one is even helping me?” Well, you’re certainly not alone. Budgets are tight for everyone. There’s a good chance that, if you don’t have some of the latest and greatest technology out there right now, then you might not be getting it—but don’t give up hope. With a little effort and some minor expense, use these tips to take matters into your own hands.
LITTLE OR NO COMPUTERS, NO PROJECTOR
Like many educators, you probably don’t have very many computers in your classroom. Before you cycle the students through on those you do have, or fret over not having a projector to show them all something at the same time—you may actually have a “projector” right under your nose.
Got a TV in your classroom? See if it has video inputs on it. If not, the right TV shouldn’t be hard to find. In fact, people are throwing them out left and right for newer flat-screens and they’d rather donate one to spare themselves the $15 or more it may take in dump fees. Still no luck? Post an ad on craigslist (http://www.craigslist.org) and simply ask for one. Or even better, request a new one on Donors Choose, a site where educators can post requests for classroom items: http://www.donorschoose.org.
Alright—so now you’ve got the right TV. See if your computer has a video card on it that will allow video output. No luck? For a couple of dollars on Amazon, get one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Video-Card-TV-Adapter-Cable/dp/B000BSLSYI). Not the perfect solution, it’s workable, not a big hit on your pocket book, and easy enough for a novice to install. Unplug your monitor, plug in this device to where the monitor was plugged in. Now you’re hooked up—and technically speaking, you’re outputting your computer in “RCA” or “S-Video” format. Nicely done! As long as your TV has a video input, you should be good to go. Adjust your desktop resolution for easier reading.
For a bit more money and expertise, purchase a video card with the appropriate output and install that card in your PC. It’ll give you a clearer picture on your TV screen and allow you to simultaneously view the image in both places. As needed, buy the appropriate video wire to link the computer and TV (this is why I never throw out the wires that go along with old DVD players, VCRs and such; I always seem to have one laying around—and so might you).
Now, you’re able to share your computer with your students.
TECH INTEGRATION MADE SIMPLE
What’s next? Start integrating technology into your lessons, of course! A great way to start is through a little digital storytelling, which amounts to taking a few pictures and integrating them into a writing assignment.
Everyone these days has some kind of camera. Encourage students to bring in theirs. Make it into a field trip. Walk around your neighborhood and have your students take pictures of things that represent themselves. A single digital camera goes a long way. A lot of the newer cell phones have excellent cameras. Try putting them to good use for a change. They may even have video. Ensure you have a wire to connect them to the computer, or email the photos or video to someone. Get a decent card reader on Amazon for under $10 and you can easily transfer pictures taken from multiple devices.
Alright—now that you’ve got pictures, make a slideshow or even a movie.
It’s easier than you would think. Most Windows-based PCs already have Windows Movie Maker. With a little practice, you can fairly quickly make a decent movie. Don’t know where to start? Tutorials on YouTube will move you forward. Microsoft offers Photo Story a bit easier to use that Windows Movie Maker as well.  There are a ton of websites such as Animoto where educators and students can build digital stories online using pictures and video.
Once the video is created, share it using a site such as Glogster — a website that allows educators and students to create GLOGS, which are essentially online multimedia posters with text, photos, videos, graphics, sounds, drawings, data attachments and more. There’s a free and premium version. The video could also be included in a presentation with Power Point. No PowerPoint? No worries. Use Prezi to make great online presentations for free.
Extend a story you are reading. Have students tell what would come next if they were writing it using an online comic strip editor such as ToonDoo or Pixton — or even make an animation using something like GoAnimate or ZimmerTwins.
In fact, I could go on for hours. How did I learn of all of these websites? I joined a social bookmarking website such as Diigo, where groups can be formed and where I learned what other educators were sharing as well.
But let’s go back to that cell phone for a second.
CELLING IT
How about asking your students to take out that technology they carry around with them daily and ask them to use it in the classroom?
If they have a smart phone, encourage them to use one of the many great apps for education that are out there. No smartphone? Ask them to call someone. For example, teach about weather by asking your students to call someone in another state and ask them what the weather is there right now. What will it be later on today? Couldn’t this also be an excellent lesson in time zones? How about an educational scavenger hunt like this using cell phones? Collaborate with other schools and text for academic purposes. Remember when we were little and did “pen pals”? Isn’t text the new way to do that instantly? Try using Cel.ly or Pulse.to as a way to get started.
FURTHER THOUGHTS
So what if right about now, all of this is overwhelming you or you simply don’t know where to start? Well, let me ask you: Have you joined a Professional Learning Network (PLN)? Have you reached out to your peers for help?
So many of us are in the same boat as you are. We have limited resources and no one to help train us on how to use them. This is where you need to take matters into your own hands. Join PLNs on Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook or even start you own using Ning or any other site out there. Once you join one of these PLNs, don’t be afraid to post and ask questions.
Remember, there is strength in numbers: so many educators out there are just like you. They don’t know where to start. There’s no help. They don’t have all the tools. But you can reach out. You can ask others for ideas. Share some great ones that have worked for you. Become active. Sit in on webinars, listen to podcasts; before you know it, you’ll be an edtech guru blogging like I am, sharing what you know that works, and helping others get a hold of how to best integrate technology into education for themselves.
Let me be the first to invite you to join me and thousands of fellow educators out there as we look for ways to best integrate technology in education. Join us today and help us grow together as we learn together on Technology Integration in Education.
——-
Greg Limperis is a Middle School Technology Facilitator in Lawrence, Mass., who founded the very popular Technology Integration in Education professional learning network, reaching thousands of educators worldwide. He has shared with others what he knows and they have joined him in sharing their insights as well. Join them in bringing about change using your 21st century skills.

Visit: http://www.technologyintegrationineducation.com

Assessment Tools Needed in Every Classroom

 As Originally Posted On edtechdigest.com on May 15, 2011 by Greg Limperis

 
 I wonder what the classroom of tomorrow would look like if budget were not an issue, if teachers had more say—and if tools and training were provided at an equal rate. Here’s my view:

I’m a very busy teacher. Assessment is something I need to be better at, but I find that doing it well often falls through the cracks, thanks to lack of technological tools to help this happen.
An ideal classroom to me would be one where teachers were all given tablets in a wi-fi or, ideally, a satellite-based classroom where that tablet was connected to the school intranet and Internet.
From there, an app would connect me to the school’s Student Management System (SMS) where I could see vital student info—parent’s names, contact info and Individual Education Programs as well. This would all link to a teacher planning book allowing me to lay out my classroom however I saw fit, not just in rows or square groups—but however I wanted to place desks within my classroom.
Click on a ‘desk’ and a student photo pops up with parent contact info. Instantly click to email or text that parent. Double-click on the student and enter grades directly into the electronic gradebook. Once there, I could enter comments, store tablet-taken photos—and comment on those as well. I could then share it all through email attachments or links to SMS members.
The SMS shows student performance in my class and in others. I’d also see a history of all previously taken standardized tests and their scores and a listing of all difficult subject matter for that student. Graphically, I would see how a student is performing based on grades, test scores and how those scores compare to other students within the school and across the state.
Now, these tablets would be set up with a blue tooth earpiece I can wear around the classroom and, given a school-provided gmail account, the ability to call no matter where I might be. If satellite-capable, the tablet would work off campus, on field trips and minimally, in the schoolyard. This would enhance campus security as well. I could post who left my room and why simply by clicking on a seating chart and choosing a link, e.g., generating a school pass.
This link would then store data on how often the child is leaving a classroom and when, creating tracking patterns for bathroom or nurse visits in order to limit wasted time on task. The data could then be made available to all teachers using the SMS so that a child’s whereabouts would be known at all times.
This digital grade book would be connected to a Learning Management System (LMS) that instantly imported, as set up, the grades for various assignments into the grade book for instant view by the student or parent. This LMS would be extremely customizable by the teacher, allowing them to scale and weigh assignments as needed.
Students viewing grades would only see their own grade in the system. Parents could also tap in at any given point to know if homework wasn’t passed in for a student on that day.
The SMS would be one that was both accessible at school on the tablet and at home by the teacher later that evening if they needed to input grades on their personal computer. This SMS would allow a teacher to photograph student work and save it as a picture or PDF that could then be stored with the student profile for later viewing.
As an additional nice feature: schools would have digital signage in all hallways connected wirelessly, allowing them to send any student work instantly to the digital signage, part of a classroom display that cycled through as people traveled through the school hallways. This software would allow for teachers to make comments on all imported student work directly through the use of a stylus that allowed for writing directly on the imported document or that provided the ability to click and place digital notes directly on the document.
The tablet would be equipped with two HD webcams that allowed for video recording and video conferencing. Instantly, through gtalk or Skype, educators could be collaborating with other educators next door or around the globe.
The tablet would come with a charging base that could stand on the teacher desk or hang on a wall.  This tablet could also broadcast at designated times news of school happenings. Emergency notices, office contacts for requests of students or information could instantly be sent to the tablet much the same as pings are sent to someone on a chat session with an audible notice announcing the incoming information.
As for training, the tablet would arrive pre-loaded with training videos or flash demonstrations. It could also be set up to instantly connect to a live troubleshooting service rep, either onsite or within the district, remotely. To begin with, schools might need to implement a dedicated technology facilitator in order to help ensure this can happen, but with time this could change.
As you can see, the amount of technology needed is actually very limited—though the productivity afforded by these tools could potentially be limitless.
What I talk about is not science fiction. I could mention countless products that do at least one part of what I have described. The technology exists today for all of this to become a reality. We can make it a reality—we only need more educators involved in productive discussions stating what they really need, and helping those in industry to create these products for us.
Keeping track of data and sharing it with others should not be such a tedious task. Let us together build the next big learning management system, assessment tool, data dashboard and performance indicator all in one. We’re closer to achieving that reality than you might think.

Funding Technology in the 21st Century

As first posted on edtechdigest


Okay, so let’s face it. The current
Currently, districts find it hard just to put a few computers in a classroom, let alone one in every child’s hand. Yes, it can be done—and some districts are making it happen—but in this day of ever-shrinking budgets and more of a focus of passing standardized tests—money, rightfully so or not—is often funneled toward that cause.
This leaves school and district budgets looking for ways to be creative in order to make up shortfalls. E-rate funding and grant writing these days is just not enough. We, as leaders, have to start to think outside of the box. We have to get creative in order to help generate revenue to offset some of these added burdens to our district or school’s pocketbook.
So, here I go. I will attempt to share some ideas and options we can try to help raise revenue and offset costs.
First of all, I never really understood why schools do not take more advantage of the opportunity to generate revenue within their school or district through advertising. Let’s face it: the advertisements are already there at baseball games on scoreboards, outfield walls and much more. They are also at basketball tournaments, sponsored by companies such as Coke or Pepsi. They can be found in many places in our school if we really look for them.
Let us be real folks. The technology is readily there for us to take advantage of a tremendous opportunity that passes us by daily. Don’t tell me that you don’t want your child inundated with advertisement daily while learning. Do you take them to the mall? Have you ever been to a professional sports game? Do they watch TV? Advertisements are everywhere.
The best part is, our children have also become pros in tuning them out.
Have you ever watched a child when a commercial comes on? They stop watching the TV and their mind wanders. They often are not focused on the ads. Why not do as malls do?
Schools should purchase digital signage and advertise what is going on in their school on a daily basis. They could also replace hallway peg boards with these signs as well, scanning in and showing off student work.
Periodically, these displays could be replaced with advertisements appropriate for students and learning. What advertisements they were and how they were determined could all be worked out. In time, these ads would pay for the initial cost in equipment and setup and more. The additional revenue generated could go directly towards the technology budget.
Think about it: digital signs in hallways with schedules, alerts, directions, student work, calendars, videos and much more occasionally interrupted by brief ads by manufacturers of products children were interested in.
How about advertisement on devices children were given as well? Let’s say we give them each a tablet computer or cell phone controlled by the school or district. This device obviously could be controlled by the district and filtered for appropriate content. It could also send occasional advertisements to the user to see. The ads would be brief and interrupt learning very little. We could set guidelines on noise, length and more for these devices.
If manufacturers were in on reaching this demographic, they would gladly comply to our requests. The revenue generated from this could help pay for the devise itself and more. Think about it: not only will the student have this device in school and be seeing these ads, but they will also take the devise home and see ads all evening and all weekend as well. This is a win-win situation for schools and companies.
How about the idea of having real school stores?
As an educator, I am aware of many discounts manufacturers offer to teachers and students. I also know that many other students and educators do not know they exist or if they do know they exist, they have no idea where to go to get the discount. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could go to your child’s school and shop in a mini store there, right inside the school, that offered student discounted software, computers, books and more as examples? Discounts could be offered on many products and the revenue generated from their sale could go directly back into the school’s budget for things such as technology.
More and more, schools across the globe have been talking about putting course and class work online for their students to do. These sites created by schools and districts could also house advertisements for revenue generation. Sites such as Facebook generate revenue from advertising, so why shouldn’t we?
How about the opportunity to generate revenue in the form of things we produce? There used to be bake sales, craft sales and much more that would show off what a student made and therefore be for sale for family or friends to buy from the students and the school. How about if we had classes or lessons that produced things we could sell on a regular basis?
We could make podcasts, blogs or apps available for subscription or purchase. We could feed video or audio out on a per purchase or monthly rate. The opportunities are endless. The justification for the cost of the product could be that all profits went right back into the hardware or software used to make these products.
These are just some of the many ways we as educators can start to get creative about generating revenue to supplement the ever rising cost of outfitting schools for the 21st century. We need to start the conversation now—or we will miss this opportunity right in front of us.
If society wants us to start operating schools more like businesses with a focus on ROI and pay for performance, and if they want to look at test scores as a way to show adequate yearly progress and data to ensure we meet our goals—then we need every aspect of teaching to be more like industry as well.
We need to be able to generate our own revenue. We need to be able to compete. We need to rely on those very same companies that are offering to help us solve our problems, to also provide us with the revenue to do so. formula for funding technology in education just does not work. Daily, we talk about the need to get technology in the hands of every child. With new and up-and-coming advancements in technology, there will be more of a need to improve infrastructure, bandwidth, servers, wiring, wireless technology and much more if we are to remain current and on the cutting edge. This will all cost money—and lots of it.

“Houston, We Have a Problem”

As originally posted on edtech digest

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Greg Limperis

 

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” —John F. Kennedy
Have you ever heard the saying “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink”? Well, what if a horse could lead itself to water but when it got there, it’s not allowed to drink? I don’t understand why there’s so much scrutiny today on the teacher and teacher unions here in the U.S., without just as much scrutiny of the leaders of those teachers and their unions.
Can one blame a teacher for not doing their job without first ensuring they were provided the tools they need to get it done? What if a teacher knows students need a more engaging curriculum, technology, and more teachers training, but their administrators-even when asked and encouraged to do so-fail to provide it? Is the teacher still to blame?
Studies show technology is a tool that increases student engagement, but students need 24/7 access. Every student needs a technology device in their hands. Teachers require training on how to use such technology. More importantly, they need to be supported daily with good guidance on proper use that will support what they’re teaching.
And so it follows, then: What the world of education needs now is great leadership. Let’s face it, there are great teachers out there, but some aren’t working up to their potential, thanks to the system. Great leadership can quickly change all this, and with proper use of technology, a great leader can do far more than any education reform that unions could ever do.
We need edtech leaders willing to think outside the box, leaders who aren’t afraid to make tough decisions, who will look at education reform head on and offer options that will meet our goals no matter how unpopular those options may be. And they need to find ways to get technology into the hands of every child, every day.
Can anyone here think of a technology that most students already hold in their hand each and every day? I sure can. Not a day goes by that I don’t see a student holding an MP3 player or cell phone. Look at the amount of cell phones in student hands. Compare this to what schools allow. It’s downright sad.
I know, we could debate the reasons why not-for hours. Number one amongst them? It’s out of control. There’s no good way to monitor how or what that cell phone is being used for at any given moment. But that’s easy to solve. What if a good leader put them in every child’s hand? I’m sure we could find ways to do it. As a supplier, do we not also control how and when they can be used? Couldn’t we get some parental support? They’re paying for them alreday, anyway.
We need leaders who will look for unique ways to defray costs of such an endeavor.
Consider this: How about, instead of giving students a cell phone, we give them a tablet with Skype or GoogleTalk instead-a 3G or 4G tablet? They could make calls. It would be loaded with educational software. We could force them to conform with our guidelines and we could even fit them with web cams for video conferencing. Managing something like this? It could all very well be worked out, but only if we have great edtech leaders who are willing to pursue it.
I know, I know. How do we fund it? Well, how about through sponsorship in education? Would anyone be that upset if a few corporate entities placed occassional ads on these tablets in order to defray costs? Or digital signage in school halls to share events and messages in a school, but also allow for a sponsored company to place an ad or logo? Think of shopping malls. I’m sure this could all be figured out, too, if we had edtech leaders willing to look outside the box, and to lead.
With tablets in the hands of every child, wouldn’t we then be able to find ways to cut back on other expenses? A great leader would entertain options such as that offered by ebookfling (http://www.ebookfling.com), options that would allow the sharing of books and texts in school, therefore decreasing the need to purchase so many textbooks. A good leader could work this out.
We could also reduce software costs. Cloud computing via Google docs or Micrsoft Live’s new offerings would greatly reduce licensing fees. Pushing school email and software out to the cloud has been shown to greatly reduce software overhead in schools.
Network maintenance and computer infrastructure costs could also go to the cloud. We could find companies willing to take responsibility for maintaining our networks, especially if the numbers warranted it. I’m sure security issues could be worked out.
Now, without constant support and excellent training, it’s all useless. So, understandably, we need leaders who can show teachers how technology as a tool can enhance their curriculum, leaders who ensure 24/7 help and support for our educators.
We need to create great trainers available to help teachers integrate technology into their teaching. Specialists who can help bring about the use of technology in the daily curriculum of our students. We need to look closer at the use of video conferencing, webinars and cloud computing to bring about better collaboration on a daily basis.
We need leaders who are connected, leaders who can bring together corporations and education and find ways that we can help each other out. We need leaders who put to use web 2.0 and sites such as Linkedin in order to develop connections that bring together some of the best minds in order to solve some of these tough issues.
We need great edtech leaders who are blogging, discussing, maintaining a digital presence in the digital world. We need great leaders coming together in groups, leaders looking not backward to the past, but ahead to the future. We need leaders unafraid to pose ideas such as these, to work toward solutions that will support these ideas.
I’m not saying that my ideas are perfect, but I am willing to talk about them, to bring them up. I’m willing to lead. Are there others out there willing to look past blaming unions or bad teachers? Are there others willing to look at leading?
As Gene Kranz said in Apollo 13, “I don’t care about what anything was designed to do, I care about what it can do.” We need great leaders who will look outside of the box and not look at what technology was designed to do for education, but instead look at what it can do for education.

Innovation, Change—and Gadgets!

Posted on February 3, 2011 at EdTech Digest by Greg Limperis

CLASSROOM 21 | by Greg Limperis
The time has come for change in our schools. How can it not? What will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back and allows for innovation within our school system? Lord knows we have enough gadgets already to support such change. The atmosphere in education is ripe for a revolution. Never before in the life of the educational system has there been such a Perfect Storm for change. All we need is a few studies to prove that innovation and change can actually save money and improve student engagement therefore leading to better test scores. As soon as that happens, the change will be swift and broad reaching.
Believe me—this will be easier than most people think. With districts such as those in California going paperless, universities doing studies of the use of iPads in their colleges, and the sudden proliferation of smartphones in the hands of cell phone users everywhere—it’s only a matter of time.
Now, let’s add the fact that the current atmosphere in education is calling for change in the way that we as teachers teach, and in the results that we as teachers get from our teaching. Anywhere you go in education these days, talk is of students falling increasingly further behind, that they are more disengaged than ever, and that data is the key tool to monitor student progress to get us back on track.
Lastly, there’s the current economic outlook. With so many school districts currently strained to their limits, the next few years promise to be difficult. Out of necessity, educational systems everywhere will be looking for ways to squeeze every penny from wherever they can. Looming mass layoffs in education, cutbacks in supplies, buildings in need of major repairs would all beg the question: where are we going to find the money to bring about change?
Consider this possibility. How many students do you know who already have their own phone? Of those, how many phones are smartphones? Let’s harness this opportunity. Problem is, how do we center education around unreliable, non district-owned technology?
Here’s my proposition: Someone is currently paying for use of these student smartphones, correct? Sure, not much, but what’s an extra ten or fifteen dollars per month for me to add an extra phone to my plan-so that my child can have one? And what if that money was paid directly to the schools?
The schools would supply the phones instead. How about if school districts promised to purchase so many phones and to use so many plans? What provider would step up? How about making the smarphone a tablet smartphone?
I know what you’re thinking: Isn’t there already a boatload of problems around the idea of giving every student their own smartphone? Possibly. I’m sure much of these problems could be easily resolved with a little bit of ingenuity and manufacturer support.
Now, if we did this, and we could do away with most computers currently in schools—although you’d still need a few for certain projects, although not that many-then we could severely limit the type of required networks for our schools.
Paper, ink and material costs would drop dramatically. Savings in textbooks alone in the transition to e-books and web-based texts would be tremendous. And oh, the apps we would have—useful, extremely inexpensive and very attractive to the students. They’d be asking to buy them for a couple of bucks or less.
According to one recent study by a private liberal arts college in Ohio (Evaluating the iPad for Education), students using the iPad tablet were actually more engaged and less distracted:
“Pupils were less apt to be using e-mail, instant messaging, or social networking sites while sitting in class with a tablet computer. … Tablets don’t have the same form factor, so you can’t hide behind them.”
In another recent article, “Will Smart Phone Eliminate the Digital Divide?”, Elliot Soloway, a professor at the University of Michigan, offers many reasons why the cell phone will out-service a laptop for students:
“The small size matches the small size of the kids: Kids are small; their technology complements their size. Hulking, 7-pound laptops are seen as old technology, not interesting, by the mobile generation: They want to use their technology literally on the go. Can’t do that with a laptop.
“Laptops are way too expensive to maintain: Drop a laptop, kiss it goodbye; drop a smart phone, and there is a very good chance it will be fine.
“You can do everything on a smart phone that you can do on a laptop, except maybe for high school geometry and except for a few scientific visualizations. But for 90 percent of what a student has to do, the smart phone can do it.”
Ultimately, these tablets will not even need a phone plan if they can be outfitted with Skype or Google’s Gtalk. Outfitted with a webcam and soon to be on a 4G network everywhere, these small devices will allow student to call and talk to their parents in order to let them know they have arrived somewhere safely.
Ultimately, isn’t it our responsibility to teach these students how to be responsible citizens? This means we may need to teach them to be responsible digital citizens, too. Yes, we’ll be giving them a tremendous amount of power in their hands daily-but can’t this be a good thing? Isn’t this engagement? Isn’t this savings for education?
I’m sure there’s a lot to figure out yet. Change won’t happen overnight, but shouldn’t we be having a serious conversation about ways this should be happening now?
Before each school year gets underway, my children’s teacher gives me a list of all the materials I must supply them with to get them started. I’d much rather simply hand over the money, get a smart tablet into their hands-and then let the learning really begin. How about you?

Learning Platforms: The Next Big Deal

As Originally Posted on EdTechDigest

Posted on January 5, 2011 by Victor Rivero

CLASSROOM 21 | by Greg Limperis

Learning Platforms are increasingly prevalent in education. From Blackboard, Moodle, and Edmodo to Ning and others, schools are dabbling in the use of learning platforms—but when will it become the Next Big Deal? In edtech forums across the internet, discussions center on how to integrate Facebook and Twitter into everyday teaching.

So what will the Next Big Deal in learning platforms look like? As an educator who teaches on a daily basis, I can tell you that nothing will ever remove the need for one-to-one interaction with a real human being. As we’re beginning to see, universities are finding that students most enjoy blended learning classrooms.

Question is, Can we produce a learning platform that gives a student the ability to feel like they are in a blended learning classroom without actually having to attend the classroom?

Furthermore: Can we extend the classroom day outside of the classroom and still have teaching and learning occur naturally? And while we’re on it: Is there a way to integrate some of the cutting edge technology and ideas out there into a world class learning platform that schools and students will flock to?

With the advent of new technology currently available—or soon to hit the market in full scale—the learning platform teachers are looking for is right around the corner.

Imagine the learning platform of the near future: a combination of Facebook, Skype, Pearson’s Power School and YouTube. Planned correctly, this learning platform could solve some of the problems of soon-to-be-felt budget cuts across educational institutions everywhere. It’ll work like this:

The learning platform exists in the cloud as a secured site. Schools and school districts log in to create their own site much the same as Facebook allows you to create your own group or page. The school sets up teachers who then create and share content on the learning platform. Students create their own accounts on the site and are dropped into a pool of students for teachers to choose from.

Groups or classes are assigned codes much as Edmodo does. Only welcomed members are able to join. This code could then be emailed out to all members who request to join. Class offerings are listed on the school or school district site, posted for the group to see.

Students would have the ability to choose how much and what is shared with others. Everything posted by that student is set up to be completely monitored by that teacher and or school. A student flagged too often risks removal from the site; the student’s home school or teacher is notified.

Logistics of how everything would be set up could be discussed later. For now, let’s talk further about how it would work.

The teacher from the LP creates classes and content to share locally within the school, or open for anyone to attend. Teachers press a button to activitate their webcam and create video to share with their students; the video is automatically added to a video library for other users much like on YouTube. Teachers then search through a teacher-created video repository to use for their lessons. Videos could then be assigned to students to read and comment on. Students logging in would see if any other members were also on, and they could not only instant message chat, but video chat with them as well—even using a desktop-sharing feature much like that available on Skype. Even this conference call with desktop sharing could be captured in videos and shared.

Through the use of an app that could be easily created, any student with a 4G phone on a 4G network could video chat with other members in their class on the LP from anywhere at any time. No 4G phone? No problem. They could still be set up to chat with them much the same as you can now using a smartphone now.

Discussions, blogs and more could be shared much as it is on Moodle, Ning or other platforms. All student work could then be graded. Any classs assignment or student assignment could then be graded much as you currently can do in Edmodo.

Textboxes for all entries would be HTML editors where embedded code could be added, integrating rich content such as Glogs from Glogster, animations from GoAnimate or presentations from Prezi, for example.

All graded information could then be stored in a secured database much as you currently get from Pearson’s Power School software and a PDF file of a report card could then be emailed out.

As part of this offering, live help would be provided 24 hours a day. Someone could be available should someone need help with accessing content, planning lessons or such. Webinars would be offered periodically each week where trainings could be offered and teachers and/or students could log in to learn technical aspects of using the software. Teachers could also host their own webinars on topics that could be offered to either all members or just to their school only.

As you can see, the options are endless. How the Next Big Deal will look is only limited by our imaginations. It’s not a matter of if—but just a matter of when. Learning Platforms are the way of the future. Students need and want a different way of learning. Our world is changing and so should how we teach those who live in it.

So I bring this challenge to you: Let’s talk about what the perfect learning platform will look like. Let’s start planning for it. And let’s make the Next Big Deal be something created that isn’t just created for teachers, but created by teachers.

——-

Greg Limperis is a Middle School Technology Facilitator in Lawrence, Mass., who founded the very popular Technology Integration in Education professional learning network, reaching thousands of educators worldwide. He has shared with others what he knows and they have joined him in sharing their insights as well. Join them in bringing about change using your 21st century skills.

Visit: http://www.technologyintegrationineducation.com