Technology

Coding Is TOPS in Middle School

Creating learning opportunities that promote problem solving in today’s world. One fine September morning, a class of eighth graders funneled into Angela’s fourth floor classroom expecting a new logic problem, math puzzle, or challenge. But not that day. Instead, the students noticed 12 small, sphere-shaped mechanical robots placed around the classroom. They looked like something

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Making Tough Technology Decisions

Experts weigh in on keys to making effective decisions about technology. No school districts want to be featured on the nightly news because of their poor choices in technology decisions or for implementing technology plans that end up wasting the taxpayers’ dollars. But technology decisions are tough, first, because there are so many options—simple upgrades,

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Creating Online Learning Environments

With a plethora of educational apps, websites, and digital learning tools flooding the educational technology market, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and disoriented. To combat this sensation of drowning, teachers can anchor their classes and create community using a learner management system (LMS)—an online resource to organize and deliver course content digitally. Learner management systems

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Teaming Up for a Technology Boot Camp

In January 2013, educators in Ohio’s Mentor Public Schools decided to align the district’s academic focus to the instructional practices of blended learning. After extensive piloting of a variety of devices, the district chose the iPad for its durability, battery life and, most important, its power to transform instruction. The district embraced a 1:1 structure

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Leveling Up in a Gamified Classroom

Our students, like all students, don’t always do what they are supposed to do. Sometimes they talk when they should be listening. Sometimes they don’t read directions. Sometimes they have trouble working together in a cooperative setting. That being said, sometimes our students do something naughty that most other kids don’t do. Many educators have

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