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TCEA Board Sets Legislative Priorities

by Jennifer Bergland
written by Jennifer Bergland

Every two years, the TCEA Board of Directors adopts their legislative priorities. In order to arrive at these priorities, they survey the members, look at relevant research, and review what other states are doing. These priorities are designed to help school districts provide a more personalized education for their students by enabling teachers to customize the content, timing, location, and delivery of instruction that best meets each student’s instructional needs. This goal has been a laudable goal of educators for years, but the ability to differentiate instruction for each student has been difficult to achieve. Technology has advanced to the point where this is now possible.

Every industry and economic enterprise in the world has used technology to completely transform the way they conduct business. The TCEA board’s priorities address six core areas we feel can assist school districts to leverage technology in the same way.

An overview of the recommended strategies are listed below. You can find a detailed list of the board’s priorities on the TCEA website.

Leadership and Planning

Leadership is critical to enacting a change of this magnitude. This will require a well-thought-out plan that includes student outcomes, professional learning, curriculum and instructional materials, digital devices, broadband, and policies that enable a district to allow students to move at their own pace.

Recommendations:

  • Create a Digital Learning Task Force that will help implement the Long-Range Plan for Technology.
  • Establish a grant program to enable districts to reach the goals in the state’s LRPT.

Professional Learning

priorities In order to accomplish the goals established in our priorities, it  is imperative that teachers have a supportive environment in which to adapt their teaching strategies to take advantage of empowering technologies. Teachers recognize the benefits of the use of technology, but don’t always know how and when to use the different technologies that are available. This is why TCEA believes strongly that teachers need ongoing, job-embedded professional learning opportunities that empower them to use appropriate

technology tools to meet various educational needs.

Recommendations:

  • Support educators with ongoing, job-embedded professional development on the use of technology to enhance instruction.
  • Ensure that teachers who receive micro-credentials for skills that meet the demands of the digital classroom are recognized as continuing professional education requirements by SBEC.

Technology and Instructional Materials Allotment

In 2011, the state legislature created an allotment that provides funding for both instructional materials and technology. This dual purpose fund was designed to help districts transition to an increased use of digital instructional materials. Since the inception of the TIMA, only 13 percent of the allotment has been used to purchase technology (TIMA Expenditure Report). This has made It difficult for districts to initiate and sustain broad-based technology implementations. TCEA is firmly supportive of local-control, which is why our approach has been to provide districts with more information about available instructional materials, support the use of Open Education Resources, and work with the SBOE in limiting the size of the instructional materials proclamations.

Recommendations:

  • Provide districts with more guidance on the merits of Open Education Resources and continue to allocate funding for OER aligned to state curriculum standards.
  • Track a district’s expenditures on technology/digital content and tools to identify trends.
  • The SBOE should evaluate a school district’s needs for instructional content and technology and ensure that any proclamation not exceed 75 percent of the TIMA.

priorities

Technology Proficiency

TCEA was founded in 1980 by teachers who were interested in teaching students how to use a computer. Equipping students with the necessary skills to function in the e-economy is central to our mission. This is why we are alarmed that Texas eighth grader’s technology proficiency has declined by ten percent between 2013-2018 (source: Learning.com Texas – TCEA 8th Grade TA-TEKS Assessment).

There is a false belief that today’s students know how to use technology because they are able to connect with their peers via Snap Chat and Instagram. Students may know how to take a pic and send it to their friends, but may not be able to leverage technology to help them analyze and evaluate information in order to create and produce something new. TCEA believes that all Texas students should have computational thinking skills that will enable them to be both users and creators of computing technology.

Recommendations

  • Move the high school Technology Application courses into the CTE curriculum, aligning and removing similar courses.
  • Update the K-8 Technology TEKS to include computational thinking and coding skills.
  • Increase the number of students taking a course that exposes them to computer science or computer programming.
  • Provide additional funding for professional development to increase the number of teachers who can teach computer science courses.

Broadband

Texas has come a long way in meeting the FCC’s minimum goal of 100 kbs per student and access to fiber. The average cost of broadband has also dropped in recent years. However, we have not fully reached the goal of having scalable and affordable broadband for all students both at school and home. Students in districts without adequate broadband capacity or who have limited access to digital devices and tools are at a distinct disadvantage today. Not only do they have fewer options in terms of access to content, they are unable to develop the technical skills associated with navigating the internet and creating knowledge online.

Recommendations

  • Designate a state entity that will identify existing barriers to providing scalable broadband access both at school and in students’ homes and administer a plan to address these barriers.
  • Provide funding for the state E-rate match and for WiFi access within school classrooms.
  • Maximize the Technology Lending Grants in order to assist with home access.

Personalized Learning 

priorities Every student has distinct learning needs, interests, and aspirations. Up until recently, it was extremely difficult to tailor the instructional strategies to meet each student’s needs. Technology can be an enabler of this type of educational model. It allows students to guide their inquiry as they decide how they will interact with the content, including the time and location. This type of learning requires a major shift in the delivery of instruction and involves teacher professional learning, a robust technical infrastructure, the selection of appropriate content, and strong leaders who know how to manage this type of change. Many of the strategies listed above support the goal of personalized learning; however, there are a few that have not yet been addressed.

Recommendations

  • Allow students to receive credit based on the mastery of the content, not seat time.
  • Provide additional funding for blended learning initiatives such as the Math Innovation Zone.
  • Increase the number of students taking TxVSN courses.

Conclusion

The legislative priorities are designed to give TCEA staff guidance on what legislation the association should pursue. If you are interested in finding out more and you are a member, make sure you join the Advocacy group in our social community. If you aren’t a member, consider joining so that you can get involved and help advocate for our teachers and students.

Credits

Photos of the Texas Capitol by Spencer Selvidge

Computer code photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Student smiling photo by Oluwakemi Solaja on Unsplash

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iPads
iOS Tips and Tricks

TCEA Responds: Beginner’s Guide to Classroom iPads

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Dear TCEA Responds:

Before the school year ended, I found out the district’s foundation had awarded a grant to my classroom. Our proposal included a set of twelve iPads. No training or apps were approved. Since I’ve never used iPads before or attended any training, what ideas do you have for how I might better use iPads in my second grade classroom? The grant proposal said iPads would be used to support testing. I know iPads can do much more. iPads will arrive in September. What could I do to get ready for their arrival? Any help would be welcome.

-Irma

Dear Irma:

beginnerWhat a wonderful opportunity you have for enhancing your classroom’s teaching and learning environment. iPads are powerful enablers. While you can use them for testing, they can also amplify student voices and their creativity. As you look forward, I urge you to consider your iPads as more than diagnostic tools. In this response, I’ll share what steps I would take were I in your situation. My perspective is informed from overseeing a one-to-one iPad deployment in elementary and middle school classrooms as a district technology director.

Step #1 – iPad Care

Drop an iPad on the ground, even from a second grader’s height, and the device may suffer damage. You will want to ensure you have a case and screen protector for each device. As a technology director, I would not put these fragile devices in the hands of students unless you first had protections in place. Those protections include, at minimum, the following:

  • Clear screen protectors: iPads are touch devices. This means children who may not know to clean their hands prior to iPad use will be tracking germs, dirt, and oil across screens. They may also use their pencils, scissors, and other sharp objects as impromptu styluses. You can and should prevent screen issues with a screen protector. While there are many types of screen protectors, the one linked offers one alternative.
  • iPad cases: Without a case, iPads easily slip from hands. For second graders, consider getting one of the following cases to better assure a comfortable grip and prevent damage when dropped. While a traditional folio case may work for adults, classroom environments can be rough on technology. Opt for a more durable case that fits in your iPad cart. Make sure you order from an approved district re-seller since they may offer better pricing.
    • i-Blason iPad Case ($18.99): This protective cover includes a built-in kickstand that converts into a handle for easy carrying.
    • Gumdrop ($40-$60): This case adds a bit of heft to ephemeral iPad tablets, features a ridged grip, and offers complete protection in the case of a drop.
    • Find a selection of more iPad cases online. Check with your school district to see if they have a standard iPad case.

These protections will prolong the life of your iPads in a classroom situation.

Step #2 – iPad Management

One of the key challenges for iPads involves management. Management includes operating system updates, addition, removal, and updating of apps, controlling email addresses assigned to each, connecting each device to a WiFi network, and limiting usage. Many school districts take advantage of mobile device management (MDM) solutions, such as Apple Configurator, JAMF’s Casper, Airwatch, ZuluDesk, etc. These MDM solutions can ease the management tasks associated with multiple iPads. Though you may only have twelve, loading each device with a set of apps can become a chore.

When loading apps on iPads, be aware that each device must have an iCloud and email account associated with it. Both accounts must be managed and under the control of the school organization. When you want to buy apps for student use, if you fail to take the critical management step, you will find yourself struggling to keep track of every device. Your best bet is to work with district technology staff to address this step.

Step #3 – Classroom Management

Ready to put iPads in the hands of students? You need to establish expectations for care and use of the iPad. Enlist your students’ support.

  • Clarify behaviors around these activities involving the iPad: carrying, sharing, tapping and interacting with the screen, moving around the room, storage and charging.
  • Use strategies such as “Ask three before me” to encourage students to become reliant on each other for getting answers to iPad use questions.
  • Communicate appropriate use to students. This will help you avoid issues with students searching on inappropriate content
  • Use consistent key phrases to control usage. Use phrases such as “face down and hands on your heads,” “shut down,” “five minute warning,” and/or “all eyes on me.”
  • Make posters that summarize guidelines for iPad use. You can find a variety of examples online

As you begin your journey with iPads in your classroom, remember to avoid being overly restrictive. Create a culture of care and learning. Remind students that taking care of classroom resources makes learning more fun and interactive.

Step #4 – Focus on Projects, not Tutorial or Drill-and-Practice

“Avoid focusing on apps…focus on what students can create using iPads,” says Tom Daccord. “If [teachers] keep an open mind and look past subject-specific apps and integrate other apps with potential.” Many new iPad programs start with an app gold rush. Hoping to get apps that can provide tutorial services for young learners, new-to-iPad teachers will install apps that purport to teach children. No device can replace a teacher, no matter the cleverness of the app. Avoid the app gold rush. Instead, focus on projects that deepen reading and writing using blended media (e.g. video/audio). One way to accomplish that includes changing the way you teach to present students with projects and problems that require collaboration, communication, and problem-solving. Apps below, unless otherwise indicated, are free.

Some apps and activities that lend themselves to that include:

  • Paper slides and Shadow Puppet EDU: Show students how to use paper slides. Paper slides are a simple series of colored pieces of white paper or construction paper organized to convey an idea, story, or set of instructions. Using the iPad with the free Shadow Puppet EDU, film a presentation of your second graders.
  • Idea Summaries: Have students record summaries of books, concepts. Record those as audio only (to minimize stage fright) via Voxer app, then setup QR code for each recording. Print the QR code and then place it on the book cover or on a wall. Students can scan the book to get a summary of the idea or book from others. Do the same with Seesaw (more about it in the next step).
  • Concept Mapping: Create simple concept maps using a mostly free app, Doodle Buddy. Concept maps include concepts, usually enclosed in circles or boxes. Connecting lines indicate relationships between ideas. Use Doodle Buddy to create a concept map for stories or situations students are reading about or real life. Explore even more ideas with Doodle Buddy.
  • Learn Vocabulary: Use a simple app like ABC Magnetic Alphabet Lite for Kids. One activity uber-iPad maven, Peggy Reimers, suggests includes a large group activity. Give everyone a letter and assign them a number, then ask each to write a word with that particular letter. The group organizes themselves into alphabetical order.

These are simple, powerful ways to engage students. Use them for everything to get students thinking and making their thinking visible. Looking for more ideas? When you are ready, explore Dr. Wesley Fryer’s iPad Media Camp, Playing with Media video collection, Greg Kulowiec’s app smashing concept, and Lisa Johnson’s (@techchef4u) website. Kathy Schrock has a few resources for you, too. When you’re ready to buy apps, let me know. Green screen is one area you need to investigate more.

Step #5 – Tools for Teachers

As an educator, the iPad apps seeking to make your job easier are legion. May I offer a suggestion? Focus on one or two apps to begin with. Learn to use these well before embracing the many other tools. Which one or two could you start with? The indispensable ones, of course. No teacher should begin teaching in an iPad empowered classroom without the following.

  • Seesaw (Free): This is the TOP, must-have app to have in your classroom. It makes collecting student work easy, allowing you to compile work for each student and then share it online via a classroom blog. Students can work independently on projects, then turn them in using Seesaw’s easy to manage process. It comes in three versions. The free version should meet all your needs. You can see what the Seesaw Plus ($120 per year) and Seesaw for Schools versions offer using the linked chart. Want to get started with Seesaw? Take advantage of their online tutorials. Two video tutorials: Overview and Seesaw in the Primary Classroom. Here’s a padlet sharing why third graders find Seesaw helpful. You may find elementary teacher Shelly Fryer’s video on building a classroom community with Seesaw helpful.
  • Nearpod: This is an interactive presentation and assessment tool that can be used to amazing effect in the classroom. The app’s concept is simple. A teacher can create presentations that can contain quizzes, polls, videos, images, drawing boards, web content, and so on. The children can access a teacher’s presentation through a code. It is up to the teacher to then move the class through the presentation and let them interact with the media as they go.

Which should you start with? Learn Seesaw first as a tool to facilitate creation and collection of content for students. Then, as you want to create more interactive learning opportunities, use the iPad for teaching and bring in Nearpod.

You may wish to share your iPad’s screen with students to model a new workflow or creation. Here are several ways to accomplish that.

Step #6 – Professional Learning

Looking to learn more about iPads in the Classroom? There are many resources available to support your learning. Here are a few to get you started.

  • TCEA’s iPad Certification (Level 1) ($99): Want to learn what you need to get started with iPads in your classroom? Complete this 100% online course that walks you through the basics. The purpose of the TCEA iPad Certification program is to help classroom teachers build foundation level skills in using the iPad as an effective instructional tool with their students. This program is completely online and self-paced, making it convenient for educators with busy schedules. Educators completing iPad Certification (Level 1) will have the knowledge and understanding to effectively integrate the iPad into their content and use it for a variety of engaging and meaningful instructional activities. TCEA also maintains a list of iOS apps you may want to carefully explore. Be sure to read the TCEA TechNotes blog entries focused on iPads.
  • Check out the daily list of educational apps gone free in TCEA’s Community.  Free to members, this site will help you discover more amazing apps for your students to use for learning.
  • Sophia.org’s iPad in the Classroom courses: This is an assortment of free courses you can review. You will find a wide variety of uses for the iPad in classrooms. These courses feature some of those uses.
  • Georgetown ISD’s iPads for Teaching (Free): This resource, designed for Georgetown ISD teachers, covers topics such as iPad Basic Training. You can explore basic operations, email, calendar, web browsing, app management, and more. You can also find district-specific tutorials, some of which may be helpful to you. When reviewing resources from another district, it is important to know how your district’s policies and procedures differ.

Beginner’s Guide to iPads in the Classroom

Feeling a bit overwhelmed? Remember to build your own learning, allowing yourself time to discover and grow. Implement fresh activities that rely on familiar apps and tools. Keep it simple the first few weeks. Over time, you can blend in more apps that support communication, collaboration, and creation.

 

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5E model
Digital LiteracyGood Teaching

5E Modeling: Engage with Google’s Applied Digital Skills Lessons

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Have you had the opportunity to see and view Google’s free Applied Digital Skills curriculum? This curriculum provides you with videos that focus on building students’ project-based problem-solving skills. Targeted at middle and high school students and open to adult learners, the curriculum follows a simple format. Let’s walk through the format together before we adapt it to a 5E Model lesson plan format. You will see different technology tools and apps to facilitate the creation of engagement artifacts.

Explore this lesson further

Exploring Applied Digital Skills Curriculum

As can be seen from the screenshot above, each lesson displays a time for completion, skills covered, and target level. For example, in Research and Develop a Topic, the goal is to “identify credible online sources and make interactive research document with basic coding.” The Unit Introduction presents learners with a video walkthrough. Learners work through a variety of activities, such as “writing a fake news article to trick readers into thinking it is true,” that will result in a deeper understanding. These videos are engaging and provide learners with an exploration of key concepts or lessons. Lessons include the following:

These are wonderful resources organized (searchable per Google app and audience) to allow students to use Google tools. The engagement aspect, however, is lacking. Let’s take a closer look.

Focusing on Engagement

One challenge well-constructed resources like these present is that they fail to engage students. They are too pretty, well-organized, and structured situations. This reflects well on Google. That aside, learning is messy, as is life. Placing students into a well-structured learning situation can have the opposite effect of what is intended. Instead of being engaged, students disconnect. One way to avoid that involves crafting an ill-structured problem. Let’s take a look at the 5E Model as a way to bring more inquiry into these beautiful, well-designed Applied Digital Skills lessons. To get you started, let’s re-imagine the Research and Develop a Topic lesson through the 5E Model. It shouldn’t take too long to gain a deeper appreciation for the differences possible.

Did You Know about This Storyboarding Tool?

Milanote is a tool for organizing creative projects into beautiful visual boards. By design, it feels a lot like working on the wall in a creative studio – visual, tactile and sometimes a bit messy.   Some of its key features include being able to:
– Write notes & to-do lists, upload images & files and save things you find on the web
– Organize visually using the flexible drag and drop interface.
– Boards by default are a private place to think, but with a single click you can create a shared workspace for collaboration with your team
– Milanote is filled with hundreds of built-in templates to help you get started with a variety of different projects, from creating a mood board to writing that perfect creative brief.

5E Modeling Google’s Applied Digital Skills Lessons

When beginning with a 5E Model, it’s important to allow students the opportunity to design their own learning. That process begins with Engage and continues through the other 5Es (Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate). To better explore Engagement, this blog entry focuses on only this first stage. It is the most critical since, without engagement, students seldom see the value of the subsequent steps.

The Purpose of Engage

The purpose of this initial stage is simple and has powerful consequences.

Engage students’ problem-solving, thinking efforts geared towards exploring a concept, process or skill. Any of the following efforts shown below are desirable:

  • Generating interest: Learners may often be dis-interested in school curriculum. Engaging students means being aware of what they know and care about and then creating a customized hook that piques their interest.
  • Accessing prior knowledge: The power of reflection means that we come to a fresh understanding of an old idea, experience, or bit of information. Attitudes and beliefs play a part in filtering incoming information. Making connections between a current event and a past one, seen from a fresh point of view, can assist students with the real question of “Why does this matter to me?”
  • Connecting to past knowledge: Placing past knowledge in our personal theory of how the world works, our “schema,” as Frank Smith characterized it in “Understanding Reading.”
  • Focusing students on particular areas of study: Given the breadth of human knowledge, time and resource constraints limit exploration of all areas of study. The goal in Engage is to provide focus. The right problem presentation blends elements that pique student interest while dissuading them from other areas.
  • Framing the idea: When you create a frame, you are providing a perspective from which to explore a situation. Framing the idea sets up future learning and inquiry.

There are several ways to engage students, including ill-structured problems in the form of videos, written narratives, or role-play. Students develop questions they do not know the answers to, and begin to identify areas of interest. Let’s take a look at how Engage might be adapted for the Research and Develop a Topic curriculum.

Engage: Adapting a Lesson

Are you ready for conflict? If not, you may be missing out on a key aspect of the Engage stage of the 5E Model. In my own classroom, I prefer to drop learners into a controversial situation that challenges their thinking. One approach is to rely on controversy. This type of scenario or problem is about providing push back on the children’s theories of the world (e.g. schema). Building schema is a way that humans have come to understand and explain how things work. Cognitive dissonance is desirable. Consider Rodger Bybee’s points below:

In the natural world, having an earthquake occur would be a teachable moment, and that’s natural phenomena; having the teacher do something that causes cognitive conflict, that’s a more complex term, for it’s unexpected. If I drop something, and it goes up, the student is going to go, “what is that?”, and you then should have a teachable moment (Source).

Bybee says that the Engage activity may result in some unexpected consequence or result. What does cognitive conflict look like, though, when you’re teaching how to use search and boolean operators?

online newsaper generator
An example of Fake Newspaper. The image above is a portion of content generated as a PDF document you can get onsite. Created with Online Newspaper Generator.

Three Tips to Create Cognitive Conflict

In Research and Develop a Topic, the concept of “fake news” has long been a problem in the media. Here are several approaches to engage students:

1 – Scenario

Provide students with a fake news article about local events that they know about. Fake news should report the local event, perhaps a campus pep rally, that alleges and challenges actions or words spoken at the event. Portray the event as local news, or arrange for a campus website to display the “fake news.” Analyze the fake news article for grammar and spelling mistakes, then watch the fun ensue. Here’s one sample:

“Banning the national anthem has allowed for a more inclusive learning environment,” stated the Student Council President at a California high school. “The National Anthem’s third stanza contains racially offensive content.” To ensure a more inclusive environment for students, the Student Council did away with playing the national anthem. Parents and community members are angry about the Student Council’s decision (adapted from Source).

A few tools to use to enhance the impact of a scenario include:

What’s more, apps like Touchcast (see example | slide deck) make it easy to make your own newscast. Tutorials available.

2 – Propaganda

A popular type of fake news, teaching about propaganda is appropriate for middle school students. We often see propaganda in various situations. It has been defined in the following way:

“Propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist” (Source)

There are many tools you can use to create propaganda and images that send a particular message. Consider Storyboard That as one example, as you can see below:

Image Source

Storyboard That offers features for teachers, including suggestions for use with students. “Propaganda relies mostly on the emotional responses of its audience to generate agreement and action.” See more examples of propaganda online in this slide deck. Note that you can use many tools to create propaganda, including Google Slides/Drawing, and PowerPoint.

3 – Manipulate Images/Video

Distort images or videos to portray a different message than intended. Use real photos or videos to tell a fake story. One example is the animated GIF of the Parkland shooting. In it, the survivor, Emma Gonzalez, appears to be tearing up the Constitution. The reality involved tearing up a poster of a gun target (Source). Why not manipulate images to send a different message? Some tools that can make this easier include Google Slides/PowerPoint and Book Creator’s Comic book feature. You can also rely on movie effects to add impact to a message manipulation.

A bonus tip: Get students sharing what they think via a poll and then display results in real time. You can use Google/Microsoft Forms to gather information and then view graphs in real time. Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams make this possible, too.  See other approaches online.

Ready to Engage?

Engage with questions, problems, or by highlighting discrepancies between cause and unintended effects. Get them thinking with questions they discover and want to explore. Use Engagement to focus students on an instructional task. Engagement involves asking a question, defining a problem, showing a discrepant event, and acting out a problematic situation.  All are ways to engage learners and focus them on the instructional task. When the engagement stage is over, students are motivated to continue. They pursue their areas of interest in a topic the teacher has framed.

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Photo by Arthur Lambillotte on Unsplash
Content AreasEducational TrendsGood Teaching

Five Ways to Succeed with Personalized Learning

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Ready to bring about transformation in your school district? As principal or department head, you’ve embraced personalized learning (PL). But now, you need to learn how to speed up its adoption and full integration. In this blog entry, we’ll revisit personalized learning. You will see successful strategies aligned to the research and best practices. See how technology can make adoption of PL faster.

Defining Personalized Learning

PL is not one-size-fits-all learning. It represents a diverse program encompassing a wide variety of instructional approaches. The strategies seek to address students’ individual needs. All educational programs, learning experiences, instructional approaches ,and academic support strategies are available. It’s all about whatever works best for enhancing student-centered learning.

What Is Best for You?

The role of educators in personalized learning environment has shifted (Source: iNACOL). The shift puts educators in the roles of mentors, coaches, and learning facilitators. More to the point, students take ownership and assume control of their learning, which means that learning becomes grounded in students’ interests and passions. Approaches like differentiated instruction and personalized learning plans become critical. What’s more, project-based learning and eportfolios aligned to standards-based knowledge and skills predominate.

A Splash of Cold Water: New Research Findings

However, a new research report reveals challenges about making personalized learning a reality. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded a study via CRPE. The results splash cold water on successful adoption of personalized learning in schools. The study focused on two questions:

  • How do teachers and principals go about designing and implementing personalized learning approaches?
  • How does the organization’s environment support or impede school-level innovation and its spread?

In the report, the authors assert:

  • Personalized learning implementation efforts were not systemic or systematic. These efforts were not blended into the existing system.
  • Teachers and principals lacked what they needed to install PL-motivated classroom practices.
  • Principals failed to provide coordination to convert teacher innovations into replicable, campus practices.

Cooperation stimulates the human brain. (Source). “Human beings have evolved to get pleasure from cooperation,” says Dr. Robert Sussman. Achieving personalized learning, therefore, must involve cooperation.

Make PL a Reality

Are you ready to make personalized learning a reality? Take these report recommendations to heart. To assist you, find specific tips below. Each will help amplify your awareness of the necessary steps. Follow these steps to make personalized learning a reality on your campus. Let’s get started.

1-Embed Coaching Supports

Read the research on coaching? If you haven’t, you need to move to adopt coaching at your organization. Here are a few TCEA resources to get you started and moving in the right direction.

  • The Power of Video Coaching: Video coaching for professional learning is much easier. Learn how to put in place coaching to transform teaching and learning.
  • Coaching Made Less Difficult: Embrace the power of collegial coaching and set up mentees and coaches for success.
  • Effective Peer Coaching Tips and Resources: Peer coaching is a growing trend. It can help teachers integrate technology to engage students. Take advantage of these tips and resources to get started at your campus.

These three coaching resources provide all you need to embed coaching supports. With these supports in place, you can begin the journey towards personalized learning.

2-Change Management Support

Managing any new system can be dangerous as leaders face tough challenges. Being grounded in change management theory remains critical. Personalized learning represents a destruction of the old system. Here are a few TCEA blog entries to scaffold your change efforts:

3-Adopt Knowledge Management Strategies

Knowledge sharing remains a key tenet of successful organizations. The knowledge management process focuses on creating, sharing, using ,and managing knowledge and information. Often this information and knowledge is only in the heads of one or two people. Externalize that knowledge for longevity.

Most schools lack continuity of purpose. Embrace these simple practices and technologies to make knowledge sharing do-able. Technologies include:

Tools abound. Make the commitment to engage in meta-thinking about school and district practices.

4-Establish Communities of Practice

Creating communities of practice can be easier with today’s tools. Two reliable tools include:

  • Microsoft Teams: This provides one-stop shopping for all your meeting needs from live video/audio chat and text on your computer and smartphone to embedded content. You can even create professional learning communities (PLCs). Combine PLCs based in Teams with a OneNote Staff Notebook.
  • Google Classroom: Use Google Classroom within the Google Suites for Education.

Extra, free tools like Microsoft Forms or Google Forms can make data collection easier.

5-Seek Out Innovation Partners

Ready to expand your personalized learning initiative? Partner with individuals and organizations that are adept at personalized learning. Here are a few to start with:

Embrace Innovative Learning

Be sure to join us at the Innovative Learning Strategies conference for a learning experience focused on the intersection of strong pedagogy and technology integration. Sessions will share the best teaching practices and research-based strategies around innovative technology trends will be elaborated on.

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gaming
Educational TrendsGood Teaching

Battle Royale: Gaming in Schools

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Accidental learning, the kind of informal learning that takes place in online games, is now the rule. The risks of gameplay are low and the opportunities for collaboration high. Why not use online games like Fortnite to teach collaboration in schools? Let’s explore a topic that so often results in a battle royale: gaming in schools.

What is Fortnite?

If you have missed the buzz about this online shooter game, Variety magazine sums it up in this way:

The wildly popular game “Fortnite Battle Royale,” an online shooter in which 100 players fight to the death on a cartoonish island arena, is entering the world of higher education. Ohio’s Ashland University announced this week that it’ll be the first college in the U.S. to offer scholarships specifically for the game.

Academic institutions offering scholarships for virtual skill development (learn more about eSports in Education). Is that the best approach to encouraging learning? Stephen Reid, an advocate of Minecraft: Education Edition for use in schools, says (Source):

  • “Fortnite is not the kind of game we should be trying to use in education! I do not advocate Fortnite as #GamesBasedLearning.”
  • “I worry that a lot of parents are letting their children play it because they see cartoon images.”

Reid challenges us all to ask an important question: “Do we want students learning collaboration as they hunt and kill others?” Dr. Harrison McCoy is in agreement with Reid and expressed dismay about promoting the use of Fortnite in school. Read the twitter conversation.

Special Feature: Dr. Harrison McCoy offered more extended reflections. Those will be included as a comment on this blog entry. Thank you, Dr. McCoy!

Meanwhile, others suggest there are real benefits to using games for learning.

Learning from Failure?

In 2006, I blogged about how John Seelye Brown described accidental learning in this way:

It’s learning to be – a natural byproduct of adjusting to a new culture – as opposed to learning about. Where traditional learning is based on the execution of carefully graded challenges, accidental learning relies on failure. Virtual environments are safe platforms for trial and error. The chance of failure is high, but the cost is low and the lessons learned are immediate.

Brown points to the collaboration benefits as well.

When role-playing gamers team up to undertake a quest, they often need to attempt particularly difficult challenges repeatedly until they find a blend of skills, talents, and actions that allows them to succeed. This process brings about a profound shift in how they perceive and react to the world around them. They become more flexible in their thinking and more sensitive to social cues.

Students are often more engaged in online games than at school. Our collective fixation on high stakes assessments has distracted us from engaging learning. Research suggests we should focus on what works.

What Does the Research Say?

The research firm Demos discussed this phenomenon in 2007. The report, entitled “Their Space: Education for a Digital Generation,” remains relevant. The authors suggest that moral panic is normal. We experience it when coming in contact with new technology. Instead of hysteria, however, we should encourage learners to reflect on their burgeoning media literacy. That effort could happen at school. The authors also suggest blending collaborative projects into instruction.

Demos isn’t alone. In a 2018 publication, a leading university drew similar conclusions. Stanford experts suggested that games support robust learning practices. Those include teamwork, strategic thinking, spatial understanding, and imagination (Source: Stanford). A 2018 study asserts the following:

Researchers have found no evidence to support the theory that video games make players more violent.

Science Daily (2015) reported violent video games are not linked to aggression. In 2014, Ohio University found other results. Researchers found gamers, like non-gamers, had the same neural response to provocative images (Source). It is too easy to blame our creations, our tools and instruments, for our own failings. Gun violence has affected more than 187,000 students since Columbine. What steps should we take in schools?

Gaming in School?

Decide first how to best engage your students. Should you rely on gamification of learning? Or game-based learning (GBL)? The former relies on using game design techniques. Gamifying makes the learning process more enjoyable and motivating (e.g. Classcraft).

The latter approach (GBL) relies on students playing games. Some examples include Minecraft: Education Edition and Cignition in class. Rather than adding badges and rewards, GBL uses video games to teach a subject or skill itself. Students learn to think in a critical manner, solving authentic problems for themselves.

Strategies you can adopt include:

  • Align game types with learning outcomes
  • Turn learning and knowledge into the clue
  • Apply proven effective instructional strategies (e.g. Marzano’s Nine Strategies) to game design
  • Guide the gamer to achieve goals
  • Make the game immersive
  • Provide enough challenges

“I’d like to see curriculum that offers a set of problems with a very good mechanic to solve them. [it should be] connected to social activities and participation spaces in and out of school,” says John Paul Gee. This allows students to “be proactive and take it further, learn collaboratively, and even learn to design.”

Ready to Adopt GBL?

Before jumping to adopt game-based learning based on Fortnite, first inventory your biases. Mine are easy. I’ve been a gamer since age thirteen. My son plays Fortnite, narrowcasting his gameplay via Twitch. I see little evidence of game violence manifesting in our lives. Set boundaries, craft a class contract, and assess participation.

Second, ask yourself, “Is the design of a game easy to adapt to learning objectives?” In the case of Fortnite, game design may not be overcome due to the amount of peer slaying that is central to play. Rely on game engines that can be adapted to learning objectives.

Third, decide “How have you involved stakeholders (parents, administrators) in the curriculum development process?” Without their involvement and their support, you are setting yourself up for failure. Brave educators have adopted game-based learning before, but society often expresses itself in schools. For some communities, game-based learning has arrived. For others, not so much. Make sure your enthusiasm doesn’t result in a battle royale in your school.

Have an Opinion?

I would love to hear other opinions on this issue. Share your professional remarks in the comments or link to your blogged remarks.

 

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kindling stem
Microsoft Tips and TricksSTEM/STEAM

Kindling STEM Learning in Your Classroom

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

At Houston Baptist University’s 10th Annual Teaching and Learning Symposium on Saturday, April 14, 2018, the keynote focused on Making Fire: Kindling STEM Learning in Your Classroom. The presentation focused on introducing STEM teaching and learning strategies that work. Allow me to share with you three of the five tips presented. As you read this blog entry, ask yourself which ones of these have you employed successfully in your classroom?

Why STEM?

Educating students in STEM subjects (if taught correctly) prepares students for life. Those subjects teach students how to think critically, how to solve problems. These skills can be used in life. Source: Adapted from Why STEM?

What’s your child learning in middle school? Does it include Python? I wish I had found a way to introduce my daughter to Python. It would have prepared her for the future. If she had learned Python in middle school, she would have had an easier time in college. Neither of us could predict that she would need it as part of her career in digital mapmaking with ArcGIS.  We must encourage all our children to begin with coding.

Tip #1 – Encourage students to engage in solving real-life problems

Problem-Based Learning (PBL) helps students foster team-building and solve real life problems. Ninety-three percent of Generation Z students prefer real life problem solving. A PBL activity presents a real life problem that captures students’ imagination. It engages them emotionally and intellectually. Over time, they learn to see this problem through the eyes of all stakeholders and develop a multi-faceted solution.

STEM Problem Design

Anne Jolly suggests some criteria for selecting STEM problems. Those criteria, quoted below, include:

  • Real: The problem must be real. It must involve an authentic engineering challenge grounded in compelling societal, economic, and environmental issues that affect people’s lives and communities.
  • Relate-able: Students must be able to relate to the problem. This needs to be a significant challenge students care about.
  • Do-Able: The problem should be “doable.” For a STEM project to be successful, students should have access to the resources, knowledge, and skills they need to solve the problem—and the scope of the problem should be manageable.
  • Parallel Problem-Solving: The problem must allow for multiple acceptable approaches and solutions…each team of students might choose a different approach for solving the problem, and several different solutions may work.
  • Divergent Solutions-Oriented Process: Students should use an engineering design process—drawing on science, mathematics, and technology skills and concepts—to solve the problem.
  • Standards Aligned: The problem should align with grade-level standards for science and mathematics.

Examples

Consider these three examples of student robotics projects that caught my eye at the TCEA 2018 State Robotics Competition. Can you identify how each meets the criteria shown above with the information provided in the photo?

Remember, begin with an engaging problem that invites parallel problem-solving. Students will work hard to solve it. They may work even harder if you empower them to develop the problem.

Tip #2 – Promote intercultural learning, real-world opportunities for students

With quick access to various communication technologies, why not provide meaningful, relevant, inter-cultural, real-world opportunities for students?

  • Create a school hashtag to build a global presence and organize activities (#stemeachday)
  • Create a global conversation around student work
  • Enable students to research wonders or problems in their community and post their solutions on YouTube

One successful strategy involves virtual field trips. Curious about how to take your students on virtual field trips? Be sure to review the Skype in the Classroom Getting Started Guide or connect with others using Google Hangouts in Education.

Digital Connections Made Possible

There are many types of connections possible. Explore a few listed below.

As you might imagine, the possibilities are endless for connecting with educators passionate to unite globally, and what a great opportunity for your students.

Tip #3 – Invite young people to become virtual architects

In a previous blog entry, I pointed out how Minecraft: Education Edition can be used as a virtual construction space.  For the folks at Block by Block, this is a real-life exercise in improving common spaces. The work taps into young women from slums who work as design architects and urban planners. Their workspace is Minecraft’s virtual space.

The Block by Block project is the work of UN-Habitat – the United Nations agency for sustainable urban development – together with the makers of the hugely popular world-building computer game Minecraft, Mojang. (Source: Dezeen, 3/7/2017) | Watch the video

Minecraft facilitates communication about re-designing public spaces (see examples). Students go from physical space to virtual to redesigned space. Students are able to work to solve real problems in virtual space. Officials match funding to student-created solutions. Once funded, designs are implemented in physical space. Amazing. Students learn computational thinking as part of their STEM problem solution development.

Ready to Create Fire in Your STEM Classroom?

Get started with do-it-yourself STEM learning in your classroom. Sign up for one of the upcoming learning opportunities at the 2018 TCEA Microsoft Academy or a professional learning opportunity near you.

 

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listen
Leadership

A Challenge to Leaders to Listen

by Dr. Bruce Ellis
written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

The other day, I was talking with my wife. She had just come home from work and was sharing a frustration of her day. Before she was able to complete two sentences, I was ready to provide a solution that only included three easy steps. As I interrupted with what I thought was going to be received as a caring gesture, she looked at me and said “I’m not looking for a solution. I know what to do. I just needed someone that I can share my frustration with.” Ouch! While I didn’t gain any Husband of the Year votes from that encounter, it did get me to thinking about how many times I assume everyone is needing a solution when they talk with me…or at least before they get two sentences out.

As a leader at work we have a lot of people that share information with us. Some sharing is just to inform us, while other sharing may have a bigger need behind it. That bigger need could be “I need feedback,” “I need to hear myself think aloud with someone so I can decide the best solution,” or even “I need you to recommend a solution.” Sometimes I have asked at the beginning of a conversation, “How do I need to listen?” if it isn’t obvious or if I’m not sure. By interrupting with my solution, I have found that I break a connection and reduce their likelihood to share with me – neither of which I want to do.

The Seven Habits Include Listening

In his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey had it correct when he said, “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” That is so true. Even when I don’t blurt out a solution, it is likely that the voice in my head is formulating a solution even as the other person is sharing. Doing this robs me of being in the moment and hearing, I mean really hearing what is being communicated. As a leader, when we do really listen, we might be amazed at the insight of the one sharing, touched by their transparency, or even inspired by their perception or thought process. These are definitely traits I want my staff to emulate and share. In response, I find that I reciprocate by esteeming, having more respect for, and even wanting to know more of what they are thinking.

How Best to Listen

My challenge to you as a leader is to hold off on blurting out a solution so you can move on to the next problem that needs solving or the next item on your to-do list. Instead, take time to be in the moment and really listen to what is being said. Just like teachers give wait time after asking a question, give yourself wait time to hear what is being said. If you need more concrete steps, consider the following:

  1. Keep your mind from wandering – Learn to stay focused on what the other person is saying. Don’t let your mind wander to other tasks you have waiting or what you might rather be doing.
  2. Practice mirroring the speaker – Body language can go a long way in letting someone know that we are not only listening to what they are saying, but are interested in what they say. For more information, consider reading Todd A. Fonseca’s post The Power of Mirroring.
  3. Summarize – Summarize back to the person what you think you heard. Sometimes it is easy to miss an important part or overlook something that the speaker was trying to emphasize. And doing this also tells the speaker that you value them enough to pay great attention to their words.
  4. Ask open-ended questions – If you need clarification or more information, ask open-ended questions. This will encourage the speaker to elaborate and fill in those missing details while also letting them feel acknowledged and listened to.

I challenge each of you for two weeks to really focus on listening – whether at work, home, or play. Let me know how it goes. I’d love to have a conversation with you; you can email me at bellis@tcea.org or post your comment below. Either way, you’ve got my ear.

 

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customer service
CTO/CIOLeadership

TCEA Responds: Tracking Digital Coaches and Technicians

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Dear TCEA Responds:

I am a new CTO/Tech Director and love this article at TCEA’s Technotes blog (First Things First). I need to better understand how my staff works. A part of that involves tracking their work to better understand the organization as you recommend. We have the break fix tracking software. I’m thinking more of something project oriented and time tracking. My concern is my coaches are spending too much time on fixing broken equipment and not enough on curriculum support. My network and hardware specialists may be spending too much time waiting for things to go down, if that makes sense. Do you have any software recommendations for doing that?

Thanks, Mike

Dear Mike:

Thanks for the wonderful feedback about the First Things First blog entry. Now, on to your question, What’s the best way to track your staff’s work?  Several approaches can work. Before we jump into those, it’s worth asking the question, “What will you do with the data you gather about your staff’s work tasks?” You  need to ask that question. You can’t tell your end users (e.g. teachers, principals, central office staff) that your team needs to focus only on completing work orders. That would send the wrong message about your department’s customer service. You can provide valuable data and information to your stakeholders. Valuable information about their own practices can help them make connections about their own needs. It will also make it easier for your to provide informed customer service.

Providing the Best Customer Service

As a new CTO, put the following strategies in place. The strategies may better address the needs of those you serve. These strategies are multi-faceted and can help you overcome the challenges of a beginning CTO.

Strategy #1 – Implement a Single Point of Contact

tcea respondsEstablishing a single point of contact, such as an online system, eliminates the confusion that results from incoming phone calls or in-the-hallway interruptions. The main benefit is that it ensures prompt access for the end user, anytime and anywhere. This solution should meet the following criteria:

  • Work on a variety of devices, including iOS/Android devices
  • Allow for the end user to check the status of their problem
  • Email-to-ticket conversion
  • Active Directory and LDAP authentication
  • Auto ticket routing
  • Parent/child ticket mapping
  • Balancing/re-assigning tickets
  • Graphs and reporting
  • Ability to rank the importance of incoming calls
  • Make it easy to set up types or categories of work orders that are understandable to end users

A few possible solutions widely used in Texas school districts include:

Of course, you can also take advantage of free solutions, such as Google Forms and/or Microsoft Forms.

Strategy #2 – Differentiate Between Jobs

If your instructional technologists, a.k.a. digital coaches, are performing technical support, why are technicians needed? Or if technicians are serving as digital coaches impacting instruction, the district is wasting critical funding. While it’s nice to have a jack-of-all trades staff member, you need to remember that the more specialized your team members are, the better it is for your district. Instructional technologists and technicians should train together, learn new technologies, and be able to solve problems. When you do this, you are growing future CTOs. But if a significant amount of time is spent with crossover duties, then you are under or over paying someone.

Here is one example document aligned to Texas objectives:

tcea responds

Below is another example from Beaverton Public Schools (Oregon-based):

tcea responds

These charts establish a clear separation of the work to be done and better define the job roles. Communicate this information to all stakeholders. Sharing this information on social media, at superintendent’s cabinet and principals’ meetings, can speed this process.

Strategy #3 – Clarify Expectations for Response Times

Defining job roles is insufficient. In addition, you need to set up a service level agreement (SLA). This agreement lets everyone know what is critical and what is not.  Without an SLA in place, you will have technicians running from one campus to district office, then back again. Is a computer lab top priority at the high school or is the superintendent’s locked iPad top priority?

tcea responds

Get a copy (requires Google login)

Final Thoughts

As you plan, remember the cardinal principle of your work: relationships matter. Move forward with care, building and deepening relationships as you go. Cut loose those on your team who refuse to embrace better customer service for those you serve. Be transparent about what you do, and revisit those SLAs. Be fearless in holding yourself accountable and make it safe for your team to hold themselves accountable.

 

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STEM coder
Coding/Computer ScienceSTEM/STEAM

STEM Coder: Future Ready Learning

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Are you ready for a STEM future? This morning as I listened to the local news, KSAT12 in San Antonio, Texas, the newscast highlighted the importance of STEM.  Texas school districts like Bryan ISD, Crosby ISD, Killeen ISD, and Little Elm ISD are embracing STEM programs in their districts. In addition, there are female-friendly programs for enhancing learning through the STEM subjects, such as Women in Science Endeavors (WISE) in Amarillo. Let’s take a closer look why STEM learning is important and what we can do about it as educators.

The Stats

No matter where you look, blending STEM into classrooms is critical. Consider these sources:

In 2015, there were nearly 8.6 million STEM jobs in the United States. That number is growing every year. In fact, STEM job growth in the past 10 years is three times that of any other field; but by 2018, it is projected that 2.4 million STEM jobs will go unfilled. (Source: eSchool News)

Or, as quoted in this STEM guidebook, The Big Guide to STEM, compiling multiple data points:

  • STEM professions earn 26% more than non-STEM professions.
  • There are 26 million STEM jobs in the United States.
  • Twenty percent of all US jobs are STEM-based jobs.
  • STEM occupations are projected to grow faster than the average for all occupations and wages in these occupations were generally higher than the median for all occupations.

As amazing as those statistics are, the statistics relevant to girls/women in STEM are even more so:

  • Women make up less than 25% of the workforce in STEM professions.
  • Seventy-four percent of middle school girls express interest in STEM yet…
  • Only 0.4% of high school girls choose to pursue STEM in college.

These numbers mask an unsettling truth. Growth in STEM is primarily in the technology sector, focused on programming (a.k.a. coding).

 

STEM Coder

As cited by the New York Times, “In the decade ending in 2024, seventy three percent of STEM job growth will be in computer occupations,” such as coding, cloud computing, data mining, statistical analysis, and writing smartphone applications.

Becoming a STEM Coder

What does it take to become a STEM coder? If you examine the numerous Hour of Code resources and tutorials, it will take introducing students at an early age to coding tools. You can find a list of TCEA Hour of Code resources. To reach a more diverse set of potential coders, you will need to embrace more than just math and science.

STEM skills development needs to be introduced and encouraged earlier in children’s education, the panelists agreed. However, success in the digital economy requires more than ramping up STEM capabilities — it requires participation from people with a variety of backgrounds, skillsets, and perspectives…Rather than confine innovation the way it has always been, “what you really need to do is get people with diverse opinions in a room with diverse education and skills in a room to brainstorm, and figure out how to best solve the problem and be creative,” said Abrams. “If you’re gonna get diverse skills and interests and backgrounds that ultimately means diverse people need to be in that room. That’s a key challenge.”(source)

Specific observations from research for helping students, including girls, become coders include the following:

  1. Make coding a creative and collaborative activity: Some suggestions for making this happen include having students using Minecraft: Education Edition’s built-in coding tools, working together to control drones using the iOS Tynker app, or introducing them to coding with Hopscotch.
  2. Teach computational thinking: This is a future-ready skill. Learn more about computational thinking and teaching algorithms; you may know more than you think.
  3. Add real-world problem solving: Check out project-based or problem-based learning resources available.

STEM Improves Test Grades

If STEM was not a worthy goal in and of itself, rest assured that it also improves performance on high stakes tests. “Standardized assessments revealed that students who used PBL by Defined STEM outperformed their peers by over +5 points,” reports MIDA Learning Technologies.

I Want to Help Students Become STEM Coders

If you want to assist students of all ages become STEM coders, then I invite you to attend the 2019 TCEA STEM Academy. Indicate your interest with this online form. This learning event will maximize STEM results for your students.

 

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Speakup
CTO/CIOLeadership

SpeakUp Survey Opens October 16

by Jennifer Bergland
written by Jennifer Bergland

If you knew that 55 percent of your district’s parents thought their children would thrive in a blended learning classroom, would it impact your strategic planning for your school or district? Would it help your planning if you knew the five essential elements your teachers felt they needed to effectively and efficiently integrate digital content, tools, and resources into their daily instruction? Would it surprise you if you found that 53 percent of your middle and high school students felt they needed the Internet at home to do their homework, but only 13 percent of your teachers were assigning homework that needed the Internet? All of this information and so much more can easily be obtained by your district’s participation in the SpeakUp Survey. And by the way, these statistics are from the surveys completed by Texans in 2016.

Project Tomorrow is a national education nonprofit group whose mission is to “ensure that today’s students are well SpeakUpprepared to be tomorrow’s innovators, leaders, and engaged citizens of the world.” The SpeakUp Research Project for Digital Learning is a national research project and a free service to schools and districts to gather survey data from students, teachers, librarians, campus and district administrators, parents, and community members. It is designed to help education leaders as they create and implement their vision of the next generation learning model. And it is completely free to school districts.

You are probably thinking this sounds like way too much work, that you simply don’t have time to distribute all of these surveys and make sure they are completed. The good news is that they have made this process super easy. They have everything you need.

SpeakUP Support Materials

Some of the items you can find on their website to help you organize and promote the survey are listed below.

  • Welcome Packet – gives you enough information to get started
  • Flyers – to help promote the survey
  • Information Material – to help answer all your questions (timeline, testimonials, introduction letters to give to principals, etc.)
  • Social Media – suggested messages for the different social media outlets
  • Sample Emails – help you get the word out
  • Instructions – for each group you are targeting
  • Lesson Plans – in case you want your teachers to build this activity into a learning experience
  • Press Release – to communicate to your community that you want their input

speakupYou have complete flexibility with the implementation of the survey. If this is your first time, you could start small by targeting one school or one grade level. You could decide to only survey students and staff this year and add parents and community members the following year. Just remember, the more data collected, the more information you will have for your strategic planning. This brings us to the best part. After the data is collected, Project Tomorrow analyzes it and provides you with your own data in an extremely easy format to read and manipulate. They even have a PowerPoint template that you can use to easily import your district’s data.

Important Details

  • Register your district so all further communications from Project Tomorrow will get to the right person.
  • Promote the survey using all of their free materials.
  • Determine the time frame to conduct the survey. Project Tomorrow opens the survey on October 16 and closes it on January 19.

Information is power. Knowing what key stakeholders value and their opinions on certain issues can assist school district administrators when implementing new programs and adjusting current ones. This is especially important when the district is transitioning from a print-based instructional model to one that relies on the use of digital materials and technologies. The SpeakUp Survey provides your district an excellent opportunity to help gather the data you need to monitor and adjust during this transition. Gaining this information has never been so easy! What are you waiting for? Register now! 

 

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