Professor Gura's Digest (of articles of high relelvance to School EdTech Leaders)

Getting caught up on sharing with students items from my burgeoning In Box - things that have high relevance for EdTech Leadership! Below some of what I saved this morning from the too much good stuff category! :)
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- from Common Sense Education Top Apps and Websites for School Libraries and Media Centers

Check out our editors' top picks for your school. See the list https://www.commonsense.org/education/top-picks/digital-tools-for-school-libraries-and-media-centers?utm_source=04092019%2BEdu&utm_medium=email

- Digital Tools Boost Reading Comprehension
Students who struggle with reading comprehension need more opportunities to engage with content. Digital tools can personalize reading -- boosting the chances of students learning to read for enjoyment. Download this SmartFocus on leveraging digital tools to improve reading comprehension.

- Can students learn by planning social impact events?

When students are responsible for managing an event that has a social impact, they learn to develop their creative and critical capacity to propose imaginative and original solutions. This article shares how interdisciplinary and multicultural projects provide students with an excellent learning experience.

-  Increase Screen Time to Increase Literacy Proficiency

By Lisa Nielsen 18 days ago T&L Advisor Blog 

While click-bate headlines love to scare parents and educators about the risks of screen time, it’s not that simple.
|https://www.techlearning.com/news/increase-screen-time-to-increase-literacy-proficiency?utm_source=Selligent&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2767&utm_content=Tech%26Learning_eNews_4%2F3%2F19+&utm_term=&m_i=8UYReMqVH7ssShFA2NZA3RC21mxw9dhipDzfseYbDaAbCvbei4_nslghNXIyclfrgvJYxCiCNV5Y0Z%2BufY1
Yq9pEA_74pa088qM_BT=810043649812 

- Report from ASCD, Part 2: Next Wave of EdTech Resources

https://www.techlearning.com/news/report-from-ascd-part-2-next-wave-of-edtech-resources?utm_source=Selligent&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2767&utm_content=Tech%26Learning_eNews_4%2F3%2F19+&utm_term 

Get to know these education technology tools because they will help your instruction, student learning, and growth.

The Expo Hall showcased even more edtech tools that are changing and enhancing today’s learning. When you walk on to a vendor floor at a large national convention two things happen:

-Study considers cost-savings of OER materials

A study of community colleges using open educational resources found that the practice can increase student engagement with course material and help low-income students save money. The data show 52% of students from underrepresented groups and 48% of those receiving Pell Grants say using OERs have a significant effect on their ability to afford college.

eCampus News (4/4)  

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- Can AI improve learning for all students?

Some colleges and universities are using artificial intelligence to make education more accessible for all students. Among the high-profile uses has been speech-to-text software, which helps students with disabilities access materials.

Education Dive (4/4)  

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https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1621206?utm_campaign=sales-newsletter&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=71503116&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8wymrpZrmY-jchnKwIlExh6JXqCXyevXJmdjsVeHH4yQ5v1me1VTYSSYZEhaADgsBQJTOoGj9CRIubjmYcklpWbXZVtw&_hsmi=71503116

- Verizon to launch phone plan for children

The "Just Kids" smartphone plan will be available today from Verizon to give parents an option when buying their child a cellphone. The plan allows 5GB of high-speed data plus unlimited calls and texts to 20 predetermined contacts, and while pricing varies, adding a "Kids" line to an existing family plan of three costs $5 extra each month.

USA Today (4/2) 

- Survey: Children use tablets, watch YouTube

Researchers for Dubit, BBC Children's and the University of Sheffield's School of Education in England surveyed the viewing habits of 3,154 children from birth to 16 regarding social media and television. The survey found that 91% of children have access to tablets and that YouTube was watched on a tablet by 58% of children.

KidScreen (4/2) 

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- Report: K-12 tech leaders mostly male, white

There is a lack of diversity among K-12 technology leadership, according to a report released this week by the Consortium for School Networking that found the vast majority of such leaders are white and male. Data show that 1% of IT leaders in K-12 schools are black and 2% are Hispanic.

T.H.E. Journal (4/3)

- The Silver Lining of Computer Science Teacher Shortages
These days it seems that everyone wants to learn computer science. Computer science (CS) jobs are the number one source of new wages. Over 90% ...
Christensen Institute

Research shows workforce development programs can help narrow the gap between labor shortages and the skills needed for highly skilled positions.
READ ARTICLE

School, Amazon launch computer science pathway

(Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

A high school in Kentucky plans to unveil a computer science pathway as part of the national Amazon Future Engineer program. Monica Rice, the school's college- and career-readiness coach, says the program is designed to help prepare students for their futures.

Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer (Ky.) (3/31) 

   

How blockchain could affect education

Some experts say that blockchain could be a game-changer for K-12 schools and in higher education, but it appears that few schools are using the technology. Tom Ryan, chief information and strategy officer for Santa Fe Public Schools, says the district is exploring blockchain to help protect students' data and improve acquisitions.

T.H.E. Journal (3/28) 

 

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Virtual Reality Matures in the K-12 Classroom

So far this school year, students in Schaumburg School District 54 have visited the Great Hall at Ellis Island, walked on the moon and experienced trench ...
EdTech Magazine

- School libraries offer audiobook option

Students at some Massachusetts schools can check out audiobooks at their school's library through the mobile app OverDrive. Linda Redding, a high-school librarian, says the audiobooks help make challenging text more accessible to students, and at another school, students have checked out 462 audiobooks so far this year -- up from 170 last year.

The Patriot Ledger (Quincy, Mass.) (4/1) 

- How to use data for predictive analysis

Schools and school districts considering leveraging data for predictive analysis should consider three key strategies, educators and experts say. Robert Craven of Tustin Unified School District in California suggests districts start small, with clear goals, and let growth happen from there.

Education Dive (4/1

- EdSurge Podcast

Why Students Can’t Write — And Why Tech Is Part of the Problem
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-04-02-why-students-can-t-write-and-why-tech-is-part-of-the-problem?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Issue:%202019-04-03%20K-12%20Education%20Dive%20Newsletter%20%5Bissue:20192%5D&utm_term=Education%20Dive:%20K12

- Survey: Challenges remain to K-12 tech adoption

Budget constraints and lack of professional development are among the key issues impeding technology implementation in K-12 schools, according to a survey released this week by the Consortium for School Networking. The survey also found that priorities among technology leaders have shifted, with data security becoming the top priority.

T.H.E. Journal (4/2) 

Recommended "EXTRA Antricles, ETC. " EdTech Leadership Courses / Spring Semester 2019

In addition to regular course content I recommend you wrap your heads around the following items and reflect on their relevance and potential impact on the State of Education now and in the impending future!

February 12, 2019

District taps virtual reality for CTE expo

(Pixabay)

Middle-school students in a Texas district recently used virtual-reality technology to explore potential career paths as part of the Career and Technical Education Expo. Officials said the technology allowed them to provide simulations of careers in areas such as law enforcement, construction and health care.

Victoria Advocate (Texas) (2/5) 

Demonstrating Student Mastery with Digital Badges and Portfolios, David Niguidula shows how students can meet standards and express their individuality through digital badges and portfolios.

Building off an essential question—What do schools want their students to know and be able to do?—he then shows how schools can implement a proficiency-based approach to student learning that has been successfully field-tested in districts across the United States. While social and emotional learning (SEL) is most familiar as compartmentalized programs separate from academics, the truth is, all learning is social and emotional.

What teachers say, the values we express, the materials and activities we choose, and the skills we prioritize all influence how students think, see themselves, and interact with content and with others.

Browse the Table of Contents.

Read Chapter One for free.

District uses tech to improve literacy

A North Carolina school district has focused on improving literacy scores as part of an overall effort to turn around its low performance, writes Julie Morrow, the district's assistant superintendent. In this commentary, she describes how students used the Achieve3000 platform, which focuses on personalized learning, leading to substantial gains.

eSchool News (2/5) 

"FETC 2019: The Right Stuff for the Future of Education"

From EdTech Digest: https://edtechdigest.com/2019/02/12/fetc-2019-the-right-stuff-for-the-future-of-education/ 

February 12, 2019

Highlights and insights from my personal adventures at the epicenter of edtech.

UNPACKING EDTECH | by Mark Gura

I’m back from this year’s FETC in Orlando, just a few miles from Florida’s Space Coast.


While my colleagues back in the trenches in many parts of the country were shivering and hunkering down to weather a soul chilling Polar Vortex, I was basking in the warmth of some of the very best of my chosen field at the annual Future of Education Technology in sunny Florida.



The conference website proudly sang “For nearly 40 years, the Future of Education Technology Conference has gathered the most dynamic and creative education professionals from around the world for an intensive, highly collaborative exploration of new technologies, best practices and pressing issues…“
And for two inspiring days, I danced to that tune.
Sitting down now, I’m pumped and ready to share the highlights of my experience.

Education Reimagined

In the VIP Lounge a few minutes before he delivered the opening keynote, I found myself chatting with Salman Khan, now famous founder of the Khan Academy. I put him on the spot asking him to give some advice to of my students; I teach graduate, Educational Technology Leadership courses for a few universities.


To his credit, his diligently wrapped his brain around the question, offering that they really need to find people in the field doing good work and ask them lots of good questions. And I’ll hold up my end of the bargain and pass that along to young teachers who, as they become more and more tech savvy, very often find themselves, often unexpectedly, guiding and leading their own colleagues who need authentic, relevant information and advice. In fact, that kind of sums up much of the activity and worth I observed throughout the conference....

Read the rest of the article at its source: https://edtechdigest.com/2019/02/12/fetc-2019-the-right-stuff-for-the-future-of-education/

What’s Education’s Next Move?

 653 Students... This article and the one titled "Guess What (Tech Savvy Teacher)… You’re a Leader now!" may function together I think, as a pair of prompts to powerfully frame your contemplating EdTech Leadership and your involvement in it... Whether this becomes your career destination or not, the understandings involved, in my opinion, actually have everything to do with what every teacher will be doing in the general field of Education, one that is undergoing a redefinition currently, a deep one....

The following content is reposted from:
https://edtechdigest.com/2019/02/06/bringing-the-biggest-big-picture-into-focus/

New post on EdTech Digest

Bringing the Biggest Big-Picture Into Focus by Victor Rivero STATE OF EDTECH 2019 What’s Edtech’s Next More? That depends on understanding where it’s at right now! REPORT PREVIEW | by Mark Gura Summing up and taking stock of where we’re at, at the end of one year and readying ourselves to take on the coming one; it’s a ritual, a strategy, a gathering of energy in preparation for taking new next steps. After all, it’s a rapidly changing landscape that we educators now tread and we understand that those steps need to be well planted and wisely chosen—and they depend on having observed and interpreted well what’s now in the rearview mirror. One pitfall for today’s watchers and strategists to be wary of is a condition that might best be described as “20/20 Education Myopia” or, seeing clearly what’s happening in schools, but only that less-than-total portion of it that the viewer’s narrow range of vision easily takes in. It’s a common condition because one can only see what’s in front of one’s eyes. But what if that there’s more out there beyond that slice of the map whose boundaries are defined by one’s own experiences and orbit? In the Universe of Education Apparent or not, the universe of education is so vast that we all live and work in a silo of some sort. Teachers whose classrooms feature one to one access to tablets may be aware of a very different set of practices and possibilities than those whose engagement of students is centered on a single interactive whiteboard. Fueling instruction with traditional texts supplemented with episodic tech use may have a very different understanding of edtech than those who’ve substituted fully interactive cloud-based content series; and those who have students creating their own content, a far different understanding of what’s possible and important as well. Growth, though, often depends on seeing beyond what one experiences at the moment, on envisioning other, next-level possibilities.  Needing a Map The down side to this is that there are things going on, lessons being learned, discoveries being made and integrated into the lives of people with similar needs and goals that we are unaware of and that might be of great benefit. Robotics integrated into math class, Virtual Reality simulations used to bring the physics of sub atomic particles to life, students creating code for original games to share with peers; no school is aware of it all and what it all means, although the very things that might support it best may be in full implementation in a neighboring town. Even those whose job is to explore on the behalf of those fully busy with students need a map to decide on where to look—and why. Separate Realities, Connected Ecosystem Importantly, those silo-like slices of reality that we inhabit are actually connected, even if the connections are unseen and unknown; in the aggregate our separate realities form a vast ecosystem in which things influence one another. It may be debatable whether or not the flapping of the proverbial butterfly’s wings causes a hurricane in a place far away and at later time. However, over the years we have seen simple, but brilliant breakthrough ideas of practice deeply impact the entire field. A few that come to mind are the Web Quest, Project Based Learning, the Flipped Classroom, Universal Design for Learning, the Chrome Book (and its long line of low cost, one laptop per child progenitors), the Classroom Blog—these were all small scale efforts with potential that eventually were broadly adopted. One can see them as a list of individual, worthwhile items that may contribute to making the classroom experience a little better or one can see them as interrelated, all contributing to an improved instructional reality that offers the potential for a fully transformed variety of learning. Knowing the pieces, seeing how they relate to one another and fit together, and above all, see the significance of each and of the whole, that real understanding of 21st Century Education. A Meteor-Shower of New Ideas On the other hand, it is also true that we are living and teaching and learning in an absolute meteor shower of new ideas, resources and practices. And so many of them, while traveling at high velocity burn brightly, if only for a short while, screaming for our attention; bright blips on a radar screen over full with bright blips. Developing a filter for what’s important and what history will prove only looked briefly to be important—that’s also crucial. The reflections shared above were running in the strongly in the background as I worked on the 2019 edition of EdTech Digest’s annual State of EdTech Report. CLICK HERE to pre-order your copy of our brand-new State of EdTech 2019 report. — Mark Gura is a contributing editor for EdTech Digest and author of Getting Started With LEGO Robotics (ISTE). He is a co-author of State of EdTech 2018: The Minds Behind What’s Now and What’s Next. He taught at New York City public schools in East Harlem for two decades. He spent five years as a curriculum developer for the central office and was eventually tapped to be the New York City Department of Education’s director of the Office of Instructional Technology, assisting over 1,700 schools serving 1.1 million students in America’s largest school system. Victor Rivero | February 6, 2019 at 10:25 am | Categories: trends | URL: https://wp.me/p9zNfG-8Xh Comment    See all comments

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Guess What (Tech Savvy Teacher)… You’re a Leader now!

Beware, educators who learn how to use technology and apply it to improving teaching and learning. Beware colleagues who inform themselves about 21^st Century Learning, who become comfortable with Chrome Books, LEGO Robotics kits, Interactive Whiteboards, 3D Printers, and the like. You are acquiring a body of vital knowledge and understanding that has high value in today’s schools: even more so for schools of the near future. Beware, you are putting yourself at risk of taking on a new role, tech leader and guide for your colleagues.

The Coming Digital Shift in Schools...  (Or Are We Already In It?)
More on this theme at https://professorgura.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-coming-change-to-digital-platform.html

Currently, a very large and growing portion of best instructional practice relies on technology; traditional instructional content is morphing from traditional hard copy text to things that are cloud-based, interactive, media-rich  and capable of providing a very personalized learner experience; essential items to support instruction – everything from  student record keeping, to communications with parents, to school calendars and schedules, is becoming easier, better, and more cost effective by being used in digital format. We are heading rapidly toward a state in which the majority of things done in our schools will be done digitally.

A Tale of 2 School Realities
More on this theme at: https://professorgura.blogspot.com/2018/10/a-tale-of-two-schools-ii.html

When I share an understanding of the state of EdTech in American schools with colleagues from around the country, something I often do through teaching online and attending conferences, I tend to get very different understandings from teachers, coaches, and administrators in large urban districts and from those in smaller, often suburban ones.

From the latter, I get a picture of schools well along the way toward making that digital shift: access to small notebook-like connected devices, often in one to one configurations, active, dynamic school and classroom websites, laden with resources, community-building materials, and samples of student work… but from their urban colleagues a sense that this is all some sort of “Educational Science Fiction”, that anything but separate technology programs that are not integrated across the n general instructional program, and anecdotal pockets of frequent use, is still the stuff of far off dreams.

Does Putting togeterh 1 + 1 = You and/or Your School Are On Track?

When we consider 1) that the majority of instructional practices and activities, and the materials needed to implement them, as well as the many support items needed to allow them to happen, all are becoming digital, and better, more effective, and cheaper because of it…

And consider 2) that a large percentage of schools are already part of the way toward participating fully in the digital shift... or are laying sufficient groundwork so that the ongoing and increasingly rapid paced transformation won’t overwhelm them, we also have to consider what will happen in those schools who are not on track, at least to a credible degree.

Digital Catchup

Well, certainly those schools will not disappear; will not cease to satisfy their mandates, putting everything else aside as they struggle with a great degree of 'digital catchup'. A variety of strategies will emerge; chief among these will have to be approaches to guiding non-technology savvy colleagues in (re)making a very large part of what they do digital. There will have to be hand holding types of support and guidance as well as a large body of opportunity for teachers and others to receive professional development.

Alas, the human capacity to accomplish this is another area of neglect that is about to catch up with /overtake schools and districts... big time! Not only do many teachers not have the knowledge, confidence, and comfort needed, but schools and districts don’t have the capacity to provide the support and instruction needed to get them there.

There is one approach that will make a great difference, an approach that is already researched and written on and field tested and proven: Teacher Leadership.

Teacher Leadership

In the book The EdTech Advocates Guide to Leading School Change (ISTE 2018) I detail the now appreciable history, acceptance of the legitimacy and benefits of, and growth of Teacher Leadership in general and how it fits perfectly into the significant support gap in the adoption of technology in schools. The book details the various organizational roles that teachers may hold as they take on that of EdTech Leader; as well as the many roles they may assume in providing that service to their colleagues and community.

Further, not only does Teacher Leadership serve the school educator community, but the reverse is true, too. Teacher Leadership is a phenomenon that has grown across the full body of needs of schools. However, it has an especially important role for EdTech,  an area in which is growing strongly and rapidly.

If you think about it, if you are a teacher who has learned to use technology and who understands how technology expands and improves the profession and the learning experience it provides students... and if you are surrounded by colleagues who must somehow follow you in getting up to speed on technology use, but for whom the support to do so is otherwise not fully available, taking on the role of EdTech Leader is a natural way for your activities to develop.