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In every school community there are a handful of great teachers – the teachers who are passionate about their students, experts in their content, and beloved by the families they have served – who are also kind of scared of technology. Either they have little experience using tech in their personal lives and therefore do not see how it applies to the classroom, or they have been burned by bad technology rollouts and learned to rely on their tried-and-true non-tech strategies. No matter the reason, they are great teachers and there is a way to change their experience with technology to benefit both them and their students. Often it is up to the instructional technology coaching staff to help facilitate the transition. Here are a few tools and strategies that I've seen work, and that might work for you. Traditional Teaching Strategy: Slide Decks Gateway Technology Tool: Pear Deck Especially at the secondary level, teachers have relied on slide decks to structure lesson instructio...

The way we communicate is more instantaneous and media-rich today than ever before in history. But both history and modern times are peppered with testy relationships, varying personalities, and complicated politics. While we sometimes think that life is so different today from the start of U.S. history, we have more in common with the people who lived at the beginning of our nation's story than we think. This also means that we struggle with communication in many of the same ways. Using the lesson and materials below, you can help your students feel more connected with history by talking with them about the ways they connect with one another online. Earlier this week, Safer Internet Day was observed in over 100 countries all over the world including  the United States . This year's theme is Be the change: Unite for a better internet and the event was held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia  and was hosted by ConnectSafely . Throughout the event, the speake...

When we put powerful devices in the hands of adolescents and teenagers, they will make mistakes. There is no doubt about it. Recently, I've been pressed by fellow educators and parents, both in person and via digital communications, as to whether it is truly worthwhile to give children – children with brains that are not fully developed – these powerful tools when we know with confidence that they will make mistakes while using them. They will play games when they should be doing homework. They will get sucked into text messages during class time when they should be taking notes. For many adults, this is new territory. We did not grow up with these powerful devices and an endless internet at our fingertips. How can we possibly set limits to the limitless world that our children now live in? Over the past few years, some research has emerged that can help us explain to our children why they (and we) are so drawn to our screens and to technology. One reason is dopamine. It is a c...

Teaching our children and students how to recognize fake news is a good first step, but it should not be our goal. I wrote about the spread of fake news recently and shared a variety of research, data, and resources for teachers to help students develop media literacy skills. But I think that I – and many of my peers who have written and shared with urgency about fake news – stopped short of what is really needed. We need to go farther. We need to teach our children what to DO once they have determined an article or image is fake news. Here's why we need to take this next step, and how we can do it together. Why? At it's worst, fake news has caused violence – as in the case of the man firing a rifle in a pizza shop  after reading a fake online article that the restaurant was " harboring child sex slaves " inside. Sadly, the man in this situation is not the only adult who has fallen for fake news. Pew's recent research indicates that nearly a quarter of...

I'm an educator in many ways: I'm a learner, a teacher, a parent, and a leader. Each role makes me better informed and better qualified to fulfill the other roles. I value all four of these vantage points, and here's why. 1. Learner Over the past few months, I have developed skills in privacy policy vetting and app deployment for the teachers and students at my school. I've also started to develop a library of openly licensed education resources in content areas and grade levels where I have never taught as a classroom educator. These skills and resources only came with significant research, collegial support, and practice. And these are only my most recent learnings. One of the best parts of my role as an education technologist is that I know the field will continue to develop and change. I'm still learning and exploring the potential of virtual reality thanks to offerings from a few companies my school works with and the free apps available on iOS. I will ...

The fake news phenomenon has been developing alongside the growth of social media for years, but it is getting more attention presently because of the important role accurate and inaccurate information can play in a presidential election. Since 50% of young adults get their news primarily online , and teachers observe their younger students doing the same, many educators have growing concerns about their students' abilities to identify the real from the fake news on the internet. The most alarming statistics came recently from the Stanford Graduate School of Education . As reported by the  Wall Street Journal , 82% of middle schoolers were unable to distinguish between "sponsored content" and a real news story on a website. When these young learners do academic research and find out about the broader world through the internet, are they be able to tell the difference between real and fake? Together with my colleagues at school and my peers in other schools, I am devel...

The advice for the past few years from parents and educators everywhere has been clear: Don't do it.  That advice has been less than effective. So, here we are. Sexting is still going on and may even be " the new first base " for teens. In fact,  80% of adults admit to sexting within the last year . The reasons that adults and teens engage in sexting behavior is often different, and schools and parents are usually rocked by scandal when teen sexting comes to light in their community. In the mean time, many adults are afraid to talk about it because it seems so taboo and uncomfortable. This post is meant to provide enough information to empower educators and parents to start talking to their adolescents and teens about sexting proactively. The discussions need to happen before the scandal breaks and in an effort to prevent it, not in reaction to the scandal. This information should make adults feel empowered, not frightened. Also, as a disclaimer, this ...