Educational Technology at IU13

In today’s educational atmosphere, we hear educators talking about blended, hybrid, flipped, project-based, challenged-based, and inquiry-based learning just to name a few.  When on Twitter, Google+, Scoop.it, LinkedIn etc., I am constantly coming across new tools and ideas of how to implement them in the classroom.

When doing workshops for teachers, the most common question I receive is, “How do I keep up with everything that is out there to use?”  Over and over again, we are inundated with ideas of new instructional strategies and digital media tools we can use in today's classrooms with our students focusing on maximizing student learning. Often times, teachers have difficultly knowing where and how to start asking again, “How do I keep up”?

No doubt that teaching and learning has been greatly changing in today’s 21st century classrooms and that the digital media world has made significant changes to how our students learn and how our teachers teach today. So, how do we continue to implement new strategies and new tools on a daily basis?

My response to this question is quite simple… “Paso por paso” (Step by step)! It is taking one step at a time which translates to one instructional strategy at a time or one tool at a time or one skill at a time. Teachers can get so overwhelmed very quickly when they learn new tools and strategies with how to implement them well in today’s classrooms.  Instead of focusing on trying to keep up, focus on that one skill set you want to work on with your students this week, this month, this marking period, this semester.  Maybe you are considering increasing one of the 4 Cs (Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Critical Thinking Skills).  Take one C at a time giving a new tool a fair chance to see how students respond and learn while implementing it in your classroom.  Don’t focus on the huge lists of items you want to try, instead whittle away at the list paso por paso!