Education Technology

Educational Technology

An integrated classroom approach.

Technology Theory & Practice

The International Society for Technology Education (ISTE) is a set of standards outlining learning outcomes in a technology driven culture. The standards are differentiated for various stakeholders in education such as administrators, tech coaches, teachers and students. ISTE represents a, “home to a passionate community of global educators who believe in the power of technology to transform teaching and learning, accelerate innovation and solve tough problems in education,” (About ISTE).

2018 ISTE Standards for Education Leaders

2011 ISTE Standards for Coaches

2018 ISTE Standards for Educators

2011 ISTE Standards for Computer Science Educators

2018 ISTE Standards for Students

SIS & LMS Working Together

Schoology is a learning management system (LMS) designed to complement school information system (SIS) such as Power School.

I am a big fan of running all my classes, assessments, and communication through Schoology. My school is 1:1 with Chromebooks. We use Power School to keep student records, track attendance, and store grades. I use Schoology to create online version of my courses which greatly increases interaction with and among students and reduces the use of paper. Schoology integrates with Powerschool effectively. Graded items in schoology synch over to Powerschool. This allows my students and I to spend our day interacting in Schoology, while student information and grades syncs to Powerschool in the background.

The integrated massager feature in Schoology has greatly increased student communication with teachers. Under the older email system students would rarely if ever check their email.

I also make routine use of Schoology features such as automatically grading, statistical analysis, calendar, integration with the Google Suite, groups, archived resources, and professional learning communities.

Another cool feature of Schoology is the ability to integrate apps so students access the app features without leaving their Schoology accounts. I have integrated Google Drive, Khan Academy, You Tube, and Quizlet among others.

Individual teachers can get a highly featured free Schoology account. However if your district buys Schoology, then all teachers in the district get access to a full featured account with synching to a SIS.

Productivity Suite

Google Apps for Education, (GAFE) is a highly used free cloud based suite of programs in my classroom.

Every student in my school has a google email and drive account set up by the district. In my classes we use Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and Hangouts for a vast variety of applications.

I especially like the cloud based functionality which allows for student collaboration opportunities as well as multiple device accessibility.

The Google programs also integrate well with Schoology for a seamless experience.

Good Source of Ed Tech Ideas

Practical Ed Tech is a PLN developed by Richard Bryne. Mr. Bryne is former social studies teacher. He now focuses his full efforts on the investigation, evaluation, and teaching of practical uses of education technology. Mr. Bryne believes that Ed Tech is designed to fulfill at least 1 of 3 approaches: discovery of information, discussion of information, and/or demonstration of knowledge, (Bryne, Richard. Practical Ed Tech/about.) Mr. Bryne admits that although demonstration of knowledge may be the most fun of the three approaches, all three approaches are a valuable in effectively using education technology in the classroom.

Mr. Bryne's PLN and Blog features numerous updated Ed Tech reviews for the classroom. You can also signup for a weekly email on Sunday nights that highlight 3-5 Ed Tech reviews. This is a great way to get exposure to new Ed Tech ideas without having to do all the research yourself.

Laboratory Equipment & Software

I have written many grants and used much of my school budget over the years to build a solid collection of PASCO Scientific equipment for laboratory experiments in Physics and 8th Grade Science.

Currently I use Sparklinks and 550 Universal Interfaces to connect to the student Chromebooks. Data probes then connect wired or wirelessly to the interfaces. On the Chromebooks the students use the Sparkvue app collect and analyze data. Note, Sparkvue is available on all common platforms including PC, Chrome, IOS, and Android.

This setup allows students to collect and display data in real time as the action in the lab is occurring. I believe science becomes real and tangible to the students as they see multiple representations of action and data in real time. Student motivation is very high using the PASCO equipment. Lastly the PASCO equipment is student tough and lasts many years of high use.