Wisdom: How to tell your classroom technology helps

This is much an encore post from a couple of years ago.

Wise man Alfie Kohn Tweeted a photo of this list by Bill Ferriter. I’d blogged about it before.

It’s still solid, and most school administrators still miss the point. Teachers get sent to courses to “learn to do a PowerPoint,” but rarely can anyone leading those courses tell when to use a PowerPoint, or Keynote, and when a simple list on a chalkboard/whiteboard is more effective, or perhaps when having students copy a list would be more effective, or when students making a poem/song/poster of a point would be more effective.

An international law firm recently directed that it’s army of a couple thousand lawyers would, henceforth, use Prezi instead of PowerPoint.  Nevermind that the lawyers hadn’t mastered PowerPoint and don’t have a clue what to do with Prezi: Some “managing co-partner” was taken in by the swoops of Prezi.  More than four years ago I learned Prezi at a technology course for technologies my district later decided not to support (money, use, lack of internet connections, etc., etc. — I suspected a lack of planning and thinking about how technology could be used).  In the course, I asked the instructor how to tell when to use Prezi instead of PowerPoint — and how to embed YouTube videos for classroom use of a Prezi.  After working for too long, we decided we couldn’t figure out how to embed videos, and so PowerPoint might be more useful.  Then the instructor confessed he didn’t know how to embed videos in PowerPoint, either.

Let alone, when does a video work better than other instructional methods?  Long or short? Notes, quiz, or oral feedback?

Many Texas districts struggle to teach “keyboarding” to students who have difficulty printing notes, letter by letter, because they don’t know cursive writing (and therefore, cannot read their teachers’ comments on their written work).

Is “integrating technology” really the problem?

Anyway, here’s Mr. Ferriter’s list, a checklist to tell whether you’re getting close to actually using technology, or whether you’re just ringing the bells and tooting the whistles of machines on the desks.

Cheat Sheet: What do you want kids to do with technology? By Bill Ferriter The Tempered Radical blog.williamferriter.com @plugusin

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What do you want kids to do with technology?
Wrong answers	Right answers
·         Make Prezis	·         Raise awareness
·         Start blogs	·         Start conversations
·         Create Wordles	·         Find answers
·         Publish Animotos	·         (Answers to THEIR questions)
·         Design flipcharts	·         Join partners
·         Post to EdModo	·         Make a difference
·         Use Whiteboard	·         Take action
·         Develop apps	·         Drive change
Technology is a tool, NOT a learning outcome

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“Technology is a tool, not a learning outcome,” Bill Ferriter says.  He’s right, of course.

Tip of the old scrub brush to April Niemela ‏@AprilJNiemela.

Alfie Kohn’s Tweet:

“What do you want kids to do with technology?” graphic: https://t.co/yFnskJxATN RT @plugusin via @Bgruetzmacher

— Alfie Kohn (@alfiekohn) November 17, 2015

More, generally:

• The Best Advice On Using Education Technology (larryferlazzo.edublogs.org)
• Learning Out Loud Reshared post from Martin Cisneros: (mwacker.wordpress.com)
• Connecting My Classroom (michellelvidotto.wordpress.com)
• The Best Advice On Using Education Technology (teacherlingo.com)
• Several Useful Resources On Implementing Common Core (larryferlazzo.edublogs.org)
• Must Have List of Common core Checklists for Teachers (educatorstechnology.com)

Yes, this is mostly an encore post. Fighting ignorance requires patience.