ASSESSING CANVAS ASSESSMENT TOOLS

Canvas is perhaps one of the most popular and quickly rising stars among the online learning platforms being used by colleges and K-12 schools. The company prides itself on being composed of former teachers who know education and know first hand what teaching and running a classroom is like. They claim that this is what […]

Killing Confirmation Bias in Ed Tech and Personalized Learning

Like most in this social media and smartphone age, I get a lot of my information—either news or stories—through Facebook and Twitter. Indeed, I don’t read the paper nor do I even go to a news website. Instead, I follow news agencies and “talking head” political analysts on social media. I must make a public […]

COOKING WITH TPACK

Few technological tools were designed specifically for education. Indeed, most tools were created for entertainment or the business world. The task of the teacher is to use the tools available to them to help improve student learning. The teacher in today’s classroom needs to be creative in repurposing existing technologies to instruct better and enhance […]

Vetting “Fake News” with Flipboard and Flipgrid

21st-century technology demands a 21st-century approach to teaching and learning. The ways things worked in the past will no longer work. It is not so much that students have changed (as the disgruntled teacher down the hall complains. Our society has transformed thanks to the internet and compact computing devices, like smartphones. How we consume […]

USING PHOTOSHOP TO CREATE A FUN SYLLABUS: PART 3

Over the last several weeks, I’ve set out to learn some basics of Photoshop (Check out Part 1 and Part 2 Here). I’m no graphic artist, nor do I desire to make a career shift from education. Instead, I see this—and Adobe’s suite of tools in general—as incredibly useful technologies that can be effectively utilized […]

TRADE ROUTES and TECHNOLOGY: AN EDTECH AND MAKER LESSON PLAN

Students need to engage with the profound topics of the past in new and fresh ways. Gone are the days of dusty old tomes and boring old lectures. Thus, it is no mystery that many students hate History and think it is so dull. I want to be part of a movement that makes history […]

CREATING CREATORS: PERSONALIZED LEARNING AND TECHNOLOGY

Personalized learning and technology create creators. A personalized approach to learning dictates less and provides space for the authentic voices and choices of students. Moreover, this approach naturally lends itself to making. Richard Culatta argues that technology affords this possibility in the education system. If used correctly, technology can create a learning environment where students […]

Ed Tech Can be a Firehose! This will help.

Just a year ago the President of the Catholic High School at which I work suggested that another colleague and I attend CUE Conference in Palm Springs. He was an old school advocate for technology, working with Apple to bring computers into the classroom in the late 80s and 90s. While the tech has changed, […]

EdTech PLN Popplet

PLNs—Professional (Personal) Learning Networks catalyze broader development, education, and growth in all aspects of society. Whether personal or professional, developing a set of thoughts and skills in a community allows for more faster developments and breakthroughs in research, growth, and practice. Before the digital age, people would either learn in isolation—recreating the wheel as it […]

TRANSFORMING THAT DUSTY OLD MAP: CHIBITRONICS, PAPER CIRCUITS, AND INTERACTIVE MAPS

At Aquinas High School (the school at which I teach) has a saying: “turning today’s students into tomorrow’s leaders.” Yet I wonder, what world are our students stepping into? It seems like something out of a sci-fi flick, but this year’s freshman will graduate High School in 2022. Of that group, the four-year college-student will […]