Significant and long‐lasting changes occur when a school’s “policies, practices, culture, and funding” are structured to facilitate the integration of educational technology. The distributed leadership model is a way to continue supporting teacher leaders and implement shifts in teaching strategies. Continue reading PD for Technology Integration: Best Practices
In the Educational Leadership journal of February 2009, Jason Margolis writes about strategies that teacher leaders can embed to engage their colleagues and realize the benefits of instructional changes. While there were a number of presentations reviewed, the strategies below produced “observable teacher engagement”. The one constant in these researches is that teachers value the knowledge, innovation and leadership of their peers. Continue reading Adult Professional Development
Technology can bring benefits to the classroom, and can be used to provide authentic learning activities. One way to help educators is to show them how to effectively use technology in their classroom, in the same way as we would our students, in authentic learning activities that are integrated as part of professional development. Increasing the effectiveness of professional development with authentic learning, integrating technology has the potential of increasing teacher performance. Continue reading Technology embedded Professional Development
Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environments (Moodles) as Personal Learning Networks (PLNs)
What I understand of Moodle’s and their technology infrastructure is minimal, I have interacted mainly as a user through my participation in the Microsoft IT Academy, now known as the Microsoft Imagine Academy. The support provided to the teachers has been through the EdTech Moodle, which consists of curriculum and forums. Continue reading Moodles & PLNs
When reading the NMC Horizon Report form 2014, it is amazing to understand how much of what they talked about is becoming reality. What I found the most striking was when they were writing about Digital Strategies and Enabling Technologies, in which something new, easier to use, meaningful and more capable is used to transform what we expect. Continue reading Modeling digital age learning
When I read that we were to discuss an assessment tool that our district or school uses I immediately thought of MAP testing in math. Many school districts, including Sumner use Measures of Academic Progress® (MAP®)exams which are “computer adaptive interim assessments that provide a personalized assessment experience by adapting to each student’s learning level.” Continue reading Formative Assessment: Measures of Academic Progress (MAP)
Pair programming supports student-centered learning, where they practice incorporating skills in support of important data structures as they are challenged to create a program that solves a problem. Collaboration is required and students generate their own questions and discussion between students on the concepts increase as they become familiar with the process. Continue reading Constructing Learning through Communication and Collaboration using Pair Programming
