March 2013 | Volume 70 | Number 6

Technology-Rich Learning

Playing Catch Up with Kids

Marge Scherer

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Students First, Not Stuff

Will Richardson

What do we do when the web, which has upended just about every other traditional institution, sets its sights squarely on schooling? According to Will Richardson, it changes everything; it obliterates the classroom walls. Students can drive their own learning and connect with other learners outside school walls to converse, create, and share authentic, meaningful work. Up until now, educators have focused on asking questions about the tools: Should we get iPads or laptops? Does every classroom need an interactive whiteboard? But now the web requires us to reconsider the ecology of schools, not just the technologies we use in them. And then our questions change: What do we mean by learning? What does it mean to be literate in a networked, connected world? What does it mean to be educated? What do students need to know? Pondering questions such as these will help educators make wiser decisions about technology and change.

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Flip Your Students' Learning

Aaron Sams and Jonathan Bergmann

When educators hear the terms flipped classroom and flipped learning, typically the first thing they think of is that teacher-created video that students watch at home, as though that were the essential ingredient. It's not. Flipped learning is not about how you can use videos in your lessons. It's about how you can best use your in-class time with students. By shifting direct instruction onto a teacher-created video and having students watch the lecture at home, teachers free up their time in class to assist students one-on-one or in small groups, help those who struggle, and challenge those who have mastered the content. Three approaches naturally lend themselves to flipped learning: Bloom's mastery learning, universal design learning, and project-based learning. Flipped learning enables teachers to move away from direct instruction as their primary teaching tool toward a more student-centered approach.

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Our Brains Extended

Marc Prensky

Too many educators still look at technology from an outdated perspective, Marc Prensky says. Technology isn't about new stuff; rather, it's an extension of our brains, a totally new way of thinking. More important even than reading, it's the number one thing students need to take from school to succeed. Educators should focus on three areas that can reap real benefits for students: test prep, databases, and technology as a learning tool. More than that, we need to rebuild the curriculum from the ground up. It should be an interdisciplinary curriculum—not divided into separate subjects—that focuses on the important skill sets of thinking, action, relationships, and accomplishment.

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A Bold New Math Class

Salman Khan and Elizabeth Slavitt

Salman Khan, founder of Khan Academy, draws on two case studies of schools that have piloted his model to show how teachers can use Khan Academy to promote personalized, self-paced learning. Teachers in the pilots have developed a range of ways to use Khan Academy. For example, students use the math exercises, a series of practice problems that range from basic arithmetic to calculus, to refine their math skills, remediate, or race ahead. While working on math exercises, students can use step-by-step hints, watch related videos, and find out immediately if they answered a question correctly. Using the knowledge map, a hierarchy of concepts proceeding from more basic to more complex, students can also see what they might work on next. The two schools' intense focus on the needs of each individual student, on their openness to new ways of organizing class time and physical space, and on their passion for meaningful projects and real-world experiences offers great promise for constructing the bold, creative learning environments that our 21st century students deserve.

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Virtual Schools: Where's the Evidence?

Patte Barth

In 2011–12, virtual schools enrolled an estimated 275,000 K-12 students. A wide range of advocates–from technology pioneers, to think tanks, to for-profit corporations, to parents–are clamoring for continued growth in this education sector. The expansion of virtual schooling is inevitable, and the potential of virtual education to promote student learning is unquestioned. Yet a word of caution is in order. A comprehensive research review by Patte Barth and her colleagues at the Center for Public Education found little hard evidence of virtual education's benefits in terms of student achievement. Writes Barth, "We were alarmed by the paucity of data, especially given the heightened activity in state legislatures to expand these opportunities." Her article recommends that, to make the most of the opportunities virtual schooling offers, states and districts must provide a strong infrastructure, hold virtual schools responsible, and support virtual learning with positive student-teacher relationships.

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New Literacies and the Common Core

William Kist

In his observations of classrooms around the world over the last 15 years, William Kist has seen teachers introducing their students to new ways of reading and writing using a variety of new media. More recently, Kist has become aware of how strongly the Common Core State Standards align with instruction in these new literacies. In this article, Kist describes four strategies for ensuring that students are able to navigate new ways of reading and writing. He gives examples of how schools can give students practice in reading closely with screen-based texts, digital writing, collaborative writing, and working with informational texts. Each of these strategies, he points out, are directly aligned with specific Common Core standards.

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Navigating Social Networks

DeAnna Hamblin and Marilyn J. Bartlett

Should students who use inappropriate language or call their teachers names on social networking sites be disciplined by their school? How about students who use such sites to harass or bully other students? In this review, Hamblin and Bartlett show that the courts have tended to protect students' free speech rights as long as that speech does not disrupt the schools' learning environment, but that the expansion of technology may change the way this legal precedent is applied in the future. Teachers are already being held to a higher standard; because online comments are never truly "private," their online posts may make them vulnerable to charges of unprofessional behavior. As the rapid growth in social networking continues to blur the line between individual rights and school rules, educators should proceed with caution.

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Technology-Rich Schools Up Close

Barbara B. Levin and Lynne Schrum

What can schools that are trying practices like 1:1 laptop programs or flipped classes learn from districts that have long implemented such practices? Barbara B. Levin and Lynne Schrum, who recently studied eight secondary school districts found that these schools and districts went beyond adding technology to their mix. Two commonalities among these institutions were a reliance on project-based learning and school leadership that was 100 percent behind the infusion of technology. The authors describe exemplary practices in drawing on technology to support project-based learning in three settings: Mooresville Graded School District in North Carolina; Inver Grove Heights Community School District in Minnesota; and the flagship school of the New Tech High Schools network, New Tech High in Napa, California.

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The Basics of Blended Instruction

Catlin R. Tucker

"We're being asked to integrate technology. I'm overwhelmed by the prospect!" This is typical of the comments–cries for help, really–that teachers are increasingly voicing, many of them veteran teachers with years of classroom experience. But blending technology with traditional face-to-face instruction—an approach known as blended learning–may not be as daunting as it seems. The author shares five tips that will help teachers navigate the process: Start small; understand you'll make mistakes—and learn from them–along the way; use technology to replace and improve what you already do; weave together the classroom and virtual educational mediums; and create student awareness about the availability of Internet access, such as by publicizing the location of computers in the community with public access.

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Saving Time with Technology

Kristine Gullen and Holly Zimmerman

It's ironic. Many teachers, the authors find, enjoy using tools like smartphones or computer games in their personal lives, but view technology as an invasion in their classrooms. Yet when teachers apply tools like classroom polling software or Google Docs in their lessons–especially for imparting facts or fundamental concepts–it often frees up more time for learning activities that deepen students' thinking. Gullen and Zimmerman give three examples of how actual teachers (in social studies, geometry, and in Zimmerman's own English class) draw on tech tools to use class time more efficiently and create more hours for "thinker" activities.

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Making Best Practices Better

Mike Dappolone

Using technology for the sake of using technology can create unnecessary burdens on teachers who feel a need to create entirely new lessons when what they are doing is already effective. Mike Dappolone suggests that instead of seeing the use of technology as a best practice in itself, teachers should see it as a way to make their best practices better. In this article, he shares some of the strategies he has used to integrate technology into his day-to-day practice in a way that enhances lessons he was already using. Although some of these strategies take some time to initially set up, the resources remain available and require minimal time to maintain. The strategies are

Creating and maintaining a class website with resources, handouts, and announcements.

Reducing paper use by placing some documents on the web and creating e-reader-friendly versions of reading material.

Using QR codes to direct students to additional information, answers to problems, and online versions of documents.

Having students use online resources to gather basic information on relevant content.

Using screencasts to differentiate instruction and increase contact time in class.

Building students' writing skills by having them write blog posts about their schoolwork.

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More Than Comic Books

Bill Boerman-Cornell

Graphic novels (book-length fiction or nonfiction narratives told using the conventions of a comic book) bring together text and image in a way that seems to capture students' imaginations. Their use of text and images provide scaffolding for students who struggle with reading text by giving them some visual information while requiring them to visualize for themselves what happens between panels. Graphic novels cross genres and can cover almost any topic, but not all graphic novels are of equally high quality In this article, Bill Boerman-Cornell shares the titles of good graphic novels that might be suitable for math, social studies, science, language arts, and more. He encourages teachers who use graphic novels to become familiar with the conventions of the form, including the arrangement of panels and speech bubbles.

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Double Take

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Ask Yourself: Are Students Engaged?

Robert J. Marzano

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Technology Skills Every Teacher Needs

Doug Johnson

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Evidence on Flipped Classrooms Is Still Coming In

Bryan Goodwin and Kirsten Miller

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Principal as Mirror

Thomas R. Hoerr

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From Gadget to Gift

Carol Ann Tomlinson

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How Technology Enriched Your Students' Learning

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ASCD Community in Action

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Reader Response

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EL Takeaways

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Index to Advertisers

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Technology: Moving from No to Yes

Larry Ferlazzo

Larry Ferlazzo, a high school teacher, popular blogger, and advocate for using technology in teaching, shares a list (with hyperlinks) of online learning resources, tech tools, and education-related websites that can help teachers integrate technology into teaching. School leaders who want to persuade reluctant teachers to use more technology should share some of these resources with teachers and suggest a few first steps. Ferlazzo's list includes tech resources connected to teaching writing, social studies, and reading –and resources geared toward English language learners and learners with special needs.

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Before You Buy Those iPads

Sally Read

As iPads gain popularity, more schools are considering adopting 1:1 iPad programs. Sally Read summarizes some of the benefits and challenges of bringing iPads into the classroom and offers a list of question that district leaders should consider before launching an iPad initiative. iPads offer the benefit of being easy to carry and use, and their design can make especially useful for young students and students with special needs. Students can use iPads to gain access to content that is customized for their learning needs. But large-scale implementation of any new technology brings challenges that schools need to be ready to address. For example, schools need to decide whether the opportunity to extend student learning beyond school hours by letting them take iPads home outweighs the risk of loss, theft, or damage. Teachers might also find it difficult to manage the work of selecting and downloading suitable apps and making sure all student iPads are up-to-date. Education leaders will need to consider how well an iPad initiative fits in with the goals for their district and what tasks the technology is most suitable for. Teachers, students, and parents will need preparation and guidance throughout the initiative if they are to make the best use of the technology.

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Civic Education in the Online Space

Justin Reich

When Justin Reich started teaching, he was presented with a cart full of laptops and told to use them with his students daily. As a social studies teacher, Reich felt his mission was to prepare students to participate in a democratic society, not to become facile with technology. How could he use technology to achieve his larger goal. One way is to use online communities to promote civil discourse. As schools and communities become increasingly segregated, students have fewer opportunities to interact with peers from different backgrounds from their own. Projects like Facing History's Digital Media Innovation Network provide those opportunities. This project brought together students from around the world to discuss issues raised in Reporter, a documentary about Nicolas Kristof's journalism work in central Africa. Examination of the project reveals five principles that educators can follow to create similar communities.

Use compelling content to explore differences.

Build educator relations first.

Create spaces for sharing.

Allow students to express themselves.

Intentionally solicit diverse participants.

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The Kindle Goes to High School

Lynn L. Rudd

If 21st century teens are used to reading online–and used to accessing many texts whose titles interest them quickly on e-readers–would providing Kindle e-readers in high school encourage students to try out more books? Sixteen teachers and a literacy coach—the author, Lynn Rudd—who tried using Kindles in different content area high school classes throughout the 2011–12 school year found that it did. Rudd describes both advantages and hurdles connected to integrating Kindles into high school classes that she and her colleagues at Canton McKinley discovered. The Kindles clearly encouraged some struggling and disenchanted readers to read much more within school. Certain features of the Kindle, such as a built-in dictionary, aided comprehension. Obstacles teachers faced included a lack of technology support that meant students couldn't go online with their Kindles in school; problems with storage, downloading materials, and training; and the need to find engaging, appropriate texts to download onto the Kindles with little money.

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Skyping Their Way

Douglas Elmendorf and Shannon Harzarik

Believing it's never too early to prepare children to be at ease interacting with diverse people and cultures, kindergartners at Chase Elementary School in Baltimore, Maryland, partnered with those at Kula Ka'aha'a Elementary School in Hawaii for an intercultural exchange. Both classes used the picture book The Mitten, in which various animals take shelter in a lost mitten, as a starting point for sharing. The Baltimore kids and their Hawaiian counterparts each created a digital story taking off from The Mitten: At Chase Elementary, student writers substituted a traditional Baltimore boat for the mitten, and in the Hawaiian school, the kids used a boogie board as a mitten stand-in and had native Hawaiian animals on board. The kindergartners shared their digital stories with one another, sang songs from their respective cultures, and chatted together through Skype.

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Tech Leaders Speak Up About Learning

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EL Study Guide

Naomi Thiers

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Inservice Guest Blogger: Will Richardson http://inservice.ascd.org/category/educational-leadership/

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Watch This Spot!

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