Getting A Return on Our investment (ROI)                  

Welcome back to the new school year. At some point in every presentation/training that I do, I introduce my favorite educational research study, Project RED. School districts have spent great amounts of their budgets on technology in the last decade. Is it making a difference? Are we getting a return for our investment (ROI)? Any teacher who has experienced the engagement level of their students using mobile devices, computers for writing, reading, researching and more know that even the most reluctant learner is more apt to come to the table of learning when technology is involved. Our students are hungry for more technology in the classroom because it truly is their world. Most teachers are not as technologically savvy as the students today, but the truth is that although our students may be clever on devices, most do not have the wisdom and desire to utilize these devices for their life-long learning. So teachers, don't be concerned that the students may know more about how to use a device or software more than you. Remember that you are the content expert.

Not only are students hungry for transformation, our teachers are too. Teachers know that a digital transformation of our classrooms is vital because it's what engages our students. I just want to encourage you to try something new this year. Put it in your educational plan. Commit to it out loud to someone else so that you have accountability and ask the question, "How is this helping the students? What are the students doing with this new technology I've learned?" If the technology is only teacher driven, then we haven't made great gains. However, when the students are using the technology to consume, collaborate and create - now we have a chance to transform our schools just as technology has transformed our homes and businesses.

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Transforming our students into consumers of knowledge is immediately enhanced with technology. Give them many different options to read, research and gather information. The next C is key. Have them collaborate about what they are learning. Be sure they can partner and team with other students to explain content they have just learned. You don't know it, until you can teach it! Next, the critical difference in schools that are properly implementing technology is to have students create with this new knowledge. Students who design, script and create a digital project are more likely to remember what they have learned and better equipped to explain the concept. Without any authority on my part, my opinion is that there needs to be a 4th C - communicate. Give the students a wider audience for their creations and the quality of their work increases significantly. How do we reach the reluctant learner? Turn their savvy devices into lifelong learning tools and even the reluctant learners become engaged.

"Individually we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean".

Ryunosuke Satoro

to produce a clay animation

video by Joseph.

ipadio   

LiveBinders 

Doceri 

NASA's Image Gallery 

Popplet 

Zoey's Room
Finance in the Classroom
Fotopedia 

The Common Good Forecaster  

Google Earth 

UJAM 

Symbaloo.edu 

Google Science Fair 

Stossel in the Classroom
Word Sift 

Lee Kolbert