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Making Edtech a Key Part of Your School Construction Plan

Technology brings with it exciting innovations and even though products get smarter and smaller; our classrooms are changing very little. The construction of new schools is not meeting the needs of modern students, and future students are bound to suffer too.  If we are pushing edtech as the future of education, architects and school boards need to be creating spaces that are conducive to blended learning, technology and the explosion that is happening across the edtech market. One problem that many schools suffer from is bad Wi-Fi. This is not always due to their own fault but rather due to …

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EdTech Should Change the Way Teachers Teach

For a long time, teaching was teacher-centered: the teacher dispensed information through lecture, handouts, or presentations; the students absorbed the information by listening and taking notes. It was repetitive, could become monotonous, and left little room for student exploration or creativity. It was also detrimental to students who couldn’t keep pace with the teacher’s lessons or students who learned in way different from the teacher’s presentation The past ten years have seen a surge in student-centered learning, and the integration of technology into the classroom makes it increasingly easy to create engaging lessons that reach a variety of learners in …

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10 Habits of Tech-Savvy Teachers

The start of each new school year brings a barrage of new apps and skills for educators to master. Keeping up with it can feel very overwhelming! But it’s not the apps you use or the skills you’ve mastered that make you truly “tech-savvy.” Rather, it’s a whole attitude of mind. Here are the 10 most essential habits of tech-savvy teachers. They are flexible. Technology is constantly changing and evolving. Tech-savvy teachers are able to roll with the punches and adapt as needed. They always have a “Plan B” and even a “Plan C” when things don’t go quite the …

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3 Ways That Technology Can Boost Campus Security

The need for increased security on college campuses is a growing concern for parents, family members, and loved ones. In the news and media online, you can hear or read about incidents, accidents, and even violent crimes that are taking place on US college campuses. Technology can offer increased security, regardless of the reason for the apparent increase in crime on university campuses. An increase in security on our college campuses should be one benefit of living in the age of growing technology. So, how can we use technology to keep our students safe? Security Alerts Delivered by Text Messages …

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Can Coding Improve Your Child’s Writing Skills?

There’s a big push in education right now to teach kids how to code. Coding is undoubtedly an important skill that will help students in the job marketplace. It’s an in-demand skill and a useful one. But can coding help students in other areas? Some are now suggesting that coding can help improve students’ writing skills. Telling a story through code In many ways, coding is like writing a story. Programmers must go in a sequential order, just like storytellers. Just like writers, programmers first sit down and plan out the story they will tell. What will happen in the …

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The Power and Promise of Game-Based Learning

From young learners to adults, games can be used to increase learning. Games have been used by teachers for centuries, and probably thousands of years as a way to engage students in learning. Who doesn’t like games? Perhaps a few people don’t like games. However, games are an excellent way to capture the attention of your students and encourage learning. Why are games beneficial in the learning process, and why do we love them? They Help the Brain Understand New Ideas Whether kids or adults are playing a game, we play because we want to learn and understand a new …

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Are Teachers Ready for Virtual Reality in the Classroom?

Virtual Reality (VR) has become a hot topic in education as of late with the arrival of many options for the technology in the video game world. Whether or not video games can teach children has been a long debate, but the addition of VR has possibly complicated or alleviated the situation further. According to a survey completed by GFK, 85 percent of teachers are ready to include VR in their classrooms. At the same time, 84 percent of teachers believe using VR could enhance the one thing that has seemed to be lost in classrooms in recent years: student …

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Stretching Your School’s EdTech Budget

Every school wants to offer its students the best, most current, most meaningful opportunities.  In the modern era, this means providing its learners with appropriate and useful technology.  Unfortunately, technology can also be very expensive. With school budgets ever tightening, being fiscally responsible and taking advantage of cost saving measures is paramount in making sure that students are best taken care of and given the best opportunities. Here are nine tips for making your dollars count in integrating technology in educational settings. Take advantage of group rates There is power in numbers.  A single iPad is expensive, for sure, and …

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3D Printing Activities to Try in Your Classroom

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Making shoebox dioramas for history or egg drop containers for physics is quickly becoming a thing of the past. There is a new fad making its way through schools: using 3D printers in the classrooms. This is a new technology that makes solid 3D objects out of light plastic, layer by layer, from a single digital file. The process is started by designing an object with a 3D modeling program, downloading a template from a website, or using a 3D scanner to measure and recreate a tangible object. 3D printers are an average of $300, making them affordable to public …

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Five Ways to Leverage Wearable Technology in the Classroom

There is no doubt that technology both improves and complicates education.  Technology can turn education into a more interactive, global experience, though it also raises new issues regarding classroom management and student misuse of class time.  However, with guidance and dedication, teachers can implement wearable technology to help students engage with lessons on a deeper, more intrinsic level.  Here are 5 ways educators can leverage wearable technology to enhance student engagement. 1.      Fitness Trackers Fitness trackers, like FitBit or the Adidas Zone, can help students take ownership of their physical education and health classes.  Instead of running a mile only …

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