Ed Tech in Our Classrooms

I get it, you sit here and think to yourself, aren't we trying to get children to move away from social media? I was there too, in fact, it wasn't until very recently I started to reimagine the use of social media as an impactful tool in the classroom. A video published by Edutopia called "Social Media: Making Connections Through Twitter" showed us how important the use of technology is in relation to connections. The education field is an evolving wheel, as new information comes up the old fades out. This is why the use of social media works to the instructor's benefit. Michael Thorton discusses his experience with his classroom. They were experimenting with the 20-paper challenge, he thought it would be fun to post it online and the connections were forming by the minute. Some of the connections were made even cross country. The reason I bring this point up is because, when it comes to the level of education our children have in America, I know it's known th...

This was my 3rd National Technology Leadership Summit. It's one of those groups of people  who actually try to accomplish something at the end of each summit. Here is my writing group focusing on modeling innovative technologies. I co-lead the strand with Yi Jin (white coat) from Georgia.

Let me share Pam's report from the field during her life as a substitute teacher: Here’s a picture of an anxiety source when I walk in to an empty classroom to sub with students coming in and lesson plans that say use something like this. Big screen, computer and whatever is lurking inside. [McVey's note: She is certainly gaining on the challenge and I know you all will encounter something similar during student teaching.]

Watching students play games, such as Blooket and Kahoot! in my practicum classes has taught me how important games are for instructional use and assessment. The students love the games and often do not realize that they are learning the content as well as being assessed. I believe that these games are part of the future for truly assessing what students know because their guards are down, and they are truly using their knowledge and what they understand to win a game. These formative assessments provide teachers with the data that they need to evaluate where their students are at. Are the students understanding the content or does it need to be retaught? The games also allow teachers to see the thinking of the students, which is important, especially when there are common mistakes, so that it can be corrected. The most important part of the games, in my opinion, is that they provide immediate feedback to the students. Did they get the question right or wrong? Where do they need to imp...

Have you ever been extremely bored or distracted when taking an assessment? Your mind is either running rapidly with thoughts that do not pertain to the content of a test or you just can't seem to focus. No worries folks, technology has a solution! I present assessment games through digital resources; it's absolutely life-changing. Now that we live in the modern age, plenty of websites have been formed to aid in typical concerns when taking an assessment. Resources like  Blooket  (Links to an external site.)  and  Quizizz  (Links to an external site.)  are taking classrooms by storm, and it's justified. These websites offer a flexible quizzing process through games and competition, actually motivating the students. Blooket is a quiz-like game that earns you points/coins that you can use on other classmates. Quizizz is a question/answer game, similar to Kahoot!, but in a fun and new digital format.  In my opinion, this is the future of assessment. Altho...

 Over the weekend, I was honored to have been selected as the next Treasurer for the Board of Directors. Lots of work, more meetings, and more responsibilities at ISTE.

 It seems that given the right tool and the opportunity to be creative, my future teachers jump all over it.

 Flip (formerly Flipgrid) is back and proving to be very helpful despite the pandemic not disrupting classes as much as it used to. Thank you to everyone who introduced themselves.