Eclectic Technology

"Animoto is an excellent tool for creating audio slideshows. But there are some limitations to it that some teachers don't like. Most notable of those limitations is the time limit (30 seconds unless you get an Animoto for Education account), lack of space for text, and that students have to remember a username and password to use it. The YouTube slideshow tool provides a tool for creating audio slideshows without those three limitations of Animoto."

"Slate magazine has been running several articles on education this week, including two today that are of interest. This one by Konstantin Kakaes is worth looking at more closely, if only because it somehow manages to gather almost every wrong idea about technology in education in existence into a single, compact article."

Talbert critiques the article 'Why Johnny Can't Add Without a Calculator' making the point "Technology neither improves or diminishes learning. It’s the instructional design choices made and instructional practices used by individual teachers with individual students that do this."

Can technology transform education? Read on to learn more.

"Try Engineering is a site that hosts lesson plans and games designed to get students interested in engineering. The lesson plans, 114 in all, are arranged according age and engineering topic. The lesson plans can be downloaded as PDFs."

Have you heard of Project RED (hint - RED stands for revolutionizing education)? They have "conducted a national survey of educational technology that focused on student achievement and financial implications." 

There are seven key findings. These are listed below and additional information on each is in the post.

1. Nine key implementation factors [that] are linked most strongly to education success. 

2. Properly implemented technology saves money.

3. 1:1 schools employing key implementation factors outperform all schools and all other 1:1 schools.

4. The principal's ability to lead change is critical. Change must be modeled and championed at the principal level.

5. Technology-transformed intervention improves learning.

6. Online collaboration increases learning productivity and student engagement.

7. Daily use of technology delivers the best return on investment (ROI).

To go directly to the report where these findings are detailed: 

http://www.projectred.org/about/research-overview.html.

"Overall, educators need to understand some basics about technology and that it is not a be-all-end-all solution to everything in a classroom. Technology can help teachers differentiate and provide new experiences for their students. Technology can also help students better understand a concept and provide extra help for them. Educators need to start with good pedagogy and lesson objectives and activities and then look for technology that can enhance those lessons, improve teaching and learning, and help students learn."
So what do you need? As well as listing ten specific skills links are included to help you learn/refresh the skills as well as a link to an article published earlier this year on "The How's, Why's and Value of Educational Technology. Below are three of the items listed...check out the article for the complete list.
* Internet Search and Research
* Hardware Basics and Troubleshooting
* Finding Apps and Software

This post is written by a student who chose to drop out of school. Quoting from the article:

"The good news is that it worked. I’ve developed a wide range of interests and skills, with my lifelong field of choice being software. I have a software development job that I love, I have no student debt, and I feel secure about my long-term future...

The bad news is that along the way, I discovered that public schools are not prepared to fairly compete for their students’ attention. This has resulted in a long series of slightly traumatizing events. From the prescription drugging, to the humiliation of being singled out from the rest of my peers, to the threats of litigation, it’s been a long road..."

Read on and allow this article to challenge some notions you may have.

With a little planning, many of these potential technology roll out and adoption issues can be avoided.

Failed or troubled implementations of instructional technologies can give the whole idea of ‘ed tech’ a bit of a black eye and result in bad experiences that may take years to forget and move on from. The fact is, technology implementations struggle or flat out fail every day, but the good news is that many of the shortcomings that lead to problems can be foreseen and circumvented.