Gadgets and education

Graduation season is upon us, and soon college graduates everywhere will have to face the "real world." These digital skills can help the transition.

The notion that struggling and failing is important to learning runs counter to traditional approaches to U.S. education. In fact, failure and its accompanying “F” grade stigmatizes a student as unprepared or “challenged” and is usually seen as a predictor of failure in future grades.

In the world of gaming, however, the very elements of struggle, challenge, and failure that discourage kids in the classroom become the primary drivers of engagement and achievement.

If you're looking to harness the power of education technology, you should probably know what it means to be a digital teacher in a modern classroom.

When did ICT teachers stop becoming teachers and become ‘facilitators’ instead? I’ve largely managed to ignore this sort of nonsense but now it’s getting out of hand. The other day someone said on Twitter or Facebook that he is an ‘active facilitator’, while someone else shared a sign which read “I am not a teacher; I am an activator.”

Let’s examine these terms.

There are a few snags that can get in the way of implementing BYOD in schools and are worth knowing about before setting out on a BYOD path.

“I don’t know what else I can do to have my teachers integrate technology into classroom instruction,” a frustrated principal shared publicly at a recent conference of education leaders.

His exasperation was echoed by other participants. They shared how their efforts to provide technology training, hire a technology integration specialist and incorporate technology standards into teacher evaluation had not led to greater technology use in their school districts. In the end, no one had an answer.

There's a vast sea of apps, games, and websites out there. Keeping the three "Cs" -- connection, critical thinking and creativity -- in mind can help you find some of the gems.

An online slideshow offers a visual tour of the school technology products and pitches that educators have seen since the 1950s.

Finding the best education technology tools is a time-consuming task. It may even be viewed as a chore (for some). Not with this fabulous list, though!

Last November, Justin Reich, our co-founder at EdTechTeacher, wrote a piece on his Education Week blog, If You Meet an iPad on the Way, Smash It. The piece came out the morning of the first iPad Summit in Boston and put iPad use in schools into perspective. As Justin explained in the piece, “If the nitty-gritty details of iPad use distract us from our larger mission, then we need to smash them. If we get too lost in the “how” of iPads in classrooms, then we need to stop and ask ”why?” Why iPads is a critical question that must be addressed, and the schools that are making the decision to introduce these devices into the classroom are hopefully examining the why before the how

There are more than a dozen unique ways teachers are leveraging the power of iPhones in education. Our partners at Education Dive weigh in.