Teaching Ahead: A Roundtable
Teacher blogs > Teaching Ahead: A Roundtable See our Teacher News Coverage

How Has Technology Changed Your Teaching?

How Has Technology Changed Your Teaching?

Many experts believe that advances in information technology have the potential to transform classroom teaching—for example, by providing alternatives to the standard lecture format and by giving students immediate access to a wealth of high-quality interactive resources and tools. But schools have been inconsistent in implementing instructional technology initiatives, evidence of effectiveness has been murky, and some teachers have been resistant to wholesale efforts to re-orient instruction around computers.

In what ways have you found digital technology transformative in your students' learning? What opportunities and challenges do high-tech advances present to schools and teachers today? What advice would you give policymakers or administrators on implementing classroom technology? What role should teachers have in developing classroom technology and apps? What do you think the classrooms of the future will look like?

Roundup Post: Teaching With Technology

By Anthony Rebora March 5, 2012 at 10:26 AM

By guest blogger Leanne Link, communications assistant at the Center for Teaching Quality This month's Roundtable participants shared how new technologies are affecting teaching and learning in their classrooms. While most of the teachers celebrated technology's ability to promote efficiency and creativity, many also stressed the importance of exercising caution through thoughtful and deliberate technology integration. If you're just checking into the conversation now, below is a recap of some of the teachers' reflections: • First Things First: We need to ensure that all classrooms and all students have access to reliable technology, Karl Ochsner and Bill Ferriter emphasize. • A Real-World ...
How Has Technology Changed Your Teaching?

Follow Up: Reflecting on the 'Classroom of the Future'

By Karl Ochsner February 27, 2012 at 9:19 AM

Karl Ochsner My first post included a list of changes that are needed in education today. I wrote that first post in isolation—but was interested to see that others raised similar ideas throughout the week, in posts and in comments. So I thought I'd revisit some of the changes, sharing my Teaching Ahead colleagues' observations: 1) The technical infrastructure must be ready. Bill pointed out that, in order for real change to occur in the use of technology integration, we need to have guaranteed reliability. Nancy agreed on the importance of reliability but also emphasized that back-up plans must...
How Has Technology Changed Your Teaching?

Follow-Up: Leveraging Tech in the Face of High Stakes

By Joel Malley February 23, 2012 at 10:25 AM

Joel Malley "Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information." —Common Core Standards: Writing #6, Grades 11-12 The above standard could refer to any type of digital composition. Blogging. Podcasts. Documentaries. Glogster collages. Google Docs. Powerpoint. Similarly, so could the Common Core's calls for students to make "strategic use of digital media in presentations" (Speaking #5 Grades 11-12) and to "integrate ... sources of information presented in different media or formats" (Reading #7 Grades 11-12). Any use of technology to compose, regardless of complexity,...
How Has Technology Changed Your Teaching?

Follow-Up: Challenge Teachers To Be Tech Pioneers

By Marsha Ratzel February 23, 2012 at 10:14 AM

Marsha Ratzel Walk into my classroom and you'll find us on Twitter checking out the latest volcano eruptions with iTouches through live updates from the U.S. Geological Survey. Or students might be accessing earthquake data on I Felt That, an iPhone app. Both provide immediacy and urgency to my curriculum and are exactly what students crave in lesson design. So why isn't every teacher using these kinds of techniques? It seems to me that to be out there using technology right now requires that you have a pioneering spirit. That you're unafraid to be "wrong" or to have things "go...
How Has Technology Changed Your Teaching?

Follow-Up: A Strengths-Based Approach to Technology Use

By Robert Pronovost February 22, 2012 at 10:11 AM

Robert Pronovost When a Reading Recovery teacher sits with a 1st grader, she is not trying to determine a student's gaps and how she can fill them. Instead, she listens to a child read and analyzes the child's strengths, so she can use those strengths as a foundation in her instruction. Just as a Reading Recovery teacher looks for the strengths within a child, technology coaches and administrators should look for the strengths within a teacher's technology use. This does not mean sitting in a teacher's room for 20 minutes to see if the teacher pulls out an iPad or ...
How Has Technology Changed Your Teaching?

Follow-Up: Making Magic in the Classroom With Tech

By Jennie Magiera February 22, 2012 at 9:23 AM

Jennie Magiera It has been posited that technology doesn't change teaching and learning but enhances it, and I completely agree. And oh, how it enhances it. Video "cloning" a teacher so there are five versions of her giving five interactive lessons at five varied levels simultaneously. Having a student create a screencast of his math problem-solving journey so a teacher can capture his math metacognition and assess progress. Videoconferencing a class from Chicago with an international school in Japan to discuss different views of Pearl Harbor Day. The same skills are being taught as with paper and pencil, and yet ...
How Has Technology Changed Your Teaching?

Follow-Up: Teachers as Tech Coaches

By Nancy S. Gardner February 21, 2012 at 10:34 AM

Nancy Gardner As I read the initial Teaching Ahead posts, I kept thinking of how sports metaphors can help us understand what happens when we integrate technology in our classrooms. Teachers become coaches. In a truly tech-rich environment, teachers provide input, evaluate effort, and encourage critical thinking and creativity. Meanwhile, students can take a more active role than ever in their own learning. They can "write in their books" by making comments beside key words and passages. They can collaborate using Google Docs or Lino.it. Every student can take pictures, create movies and podcasts, and Skype with schools in ...
How Has Technology Changed Your Teaching?

Follow-Up: Our Never-Ending Reliance on Digital Resilience

By Bill Ferriter February 21, 2012 at 9:45 AM

Bill Ferriter Did you get the chance to read Karl Ochsner's bit on building the classroom of the future yet? In it, he outlines a series of steps that we simply have to take if we're ever going to see educational technology efforts take hold in our schools. His first suggestion—guaranteeing that our infrastructure is ready for the changes that we desire—struck me as a simple first step: We do need to ensure that teachers and students have access to working devices and strong Internet connections. That should be an absolute promise that any parent, pundit or policymaker...
How Has Technology Changed Your Teaching?

Technology Doesn't Change Teaching, But Enhances It

By Joel Malley February 17, 2012 at 9:26 AM

Joel Malley When I was a teenager my father was fond of one particular biblical quote. Whether I was coming home past curfew, insisting my homework was done, or spinning a story about why I needed to borrow the car, he would look at me knowingly and say, "Kiddo, there is nothing new under the sun." A quick glance into my classroom might cause one to argue otherwise. My classroom is very different from the traditional English classroom I remember from high school. Circular tables are scattered around the classroom whereas in the 1990s I sat in a desk staring ...
How Has Technology Changed Your Teaching?

Building the 'Classroom of the Future'

By Karl Ochsner February 16, 2012 at 10:10 AM

Karl Ochsner I am an avid adopter of technology in the classroom. I've acquired many tools for my students, often by writing grants, scrounging, begging, and forgoing stipends. But I think that for technology to truly improve classroom practice, we need to undertake some important efforts: 1) The technical infrastructure must be ready. Computers must be fast enough to support the apps that are useful—and there must be enough working machines to support our students. Wireless connections must be steady. 2) Teachers must be supported in our efforts to integrate technology. Ironically, teachers are required to provide individualized instruction...
How Has Technology Changed Your Teaching?

Technology for Technology's Sake

By Robert Pronovost February 16, 2012 at 9:20 AM

Robert Pronovost I recently heard Steven Anderson (@web20classroom) share a comment that I'm sure has been spread around the education circles: "If technology is the focus of your classroom, you're doing it wrong." While most people come into my classroom and see the laptops and iPod touches we have and are very impressed by their use by the second graders, if they stuck around long enough they'd also see we're not using them all the time. We do have leveled-reading time on the computer, but more importantly, we have interest-based reading time around the room. We spend time publishing our ...
How Has Technology Changed Your Teaching?

Ed Tech Integration Is a Low Bar

By Jennie Magiera February 15, 2012 at 9:31 AM

Jennie Magiera Technology has changed my life. If you're reading this, then I'm sure it's changed yours too. Think about how much information you receive via a digital device. How often do you communicate, explore, and pass time with one? When our children grow up, they will need to use word-processing software and email, and create spreadsheets and presentations. So why aren't these skills also an integral part of their foundational education? Why are there still so many classrooms devoid of any technology other than an overhead projector and a handful of aging desktop computers? There are a myriad of ...
How Has Technology Changed Your Teaching?

Technology's Unexpected Results

By Nancy S. Gardner February 15, 2012 at 9:03 AM

Nancy Gardner In 2007, the Mooresville Graded School District began a transformation called Digital Conversion. Five years later, all students in grade 3 through 12 have laptops. Our program garners national attention, and we frequently host visitors who want to see how it works. As a veteran teacher of 27 years, this conversion has involved a learning curve, but at this point, I canʼt imagine teaching without technology. Over the past five years, I have realized that technology is our studentsʼ world. They have facts and figures at their fingertips, they access and use technology with ease, and ...
How Has Technology Changed Your Teaching?

Technology Is About Being Connected

By Marsha Ratzel February 14, 2012 at 10:32 AM

Marsha Ratzel Technology has profoundly changed my teaching. If you were to peek inside my classroom you would see students using computers, capturing data with digital probes and manipulating it with Excel, corresponding via email with experts on the particulars of their projects, and so on. We'd look very techie. But what would be invisible to your eye would be the shift in how I approach learning and how my students use the "world" to learn now. That's where my biggest shifts in thinking and lesson design have occurred. Digital tools have allowed me to gather a geographically wide network ...
How Has Technology Changed Your Teaching?

Technology Is About Efficiency

By Bill Ferriter February 14, 2012 at 9:21 AM

Bill Ferriter I think one of the things that frustrates me the most in conversations about teaching and learning with technology is the assertion that technology should fundamentally change who we are as learners. The truth is, I'm neck deep in the digital soup and my core learning behaviors haven't changed. I'm still seeking out conversations that challenge my thinking—or that allow me to pursue my own passions and interests. I'm still working to judge the reliability of information. I'm still organizing content and looking for trends across sources. I'm still trying to change minds by being persuasive. I'm ...
How Has Technology Changed Your Teaching?
« Career Path Dilemmas | Main Index | Archives | How Would You Change Teacher Prep? »

The opinions expressed in Teaching Ahead: A Roundtable are strictly those of the author and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

Follow This Blog

About the Contributors

  • Jessica Shyu

    Jessica Shyu

    Jessica Shyu is vice president of teacher excellence and leadership at Teach For China where she leads teams to train and develop more than 300 fir...

  • David B. Cohen

    David B. Cohen

    David B. Cohen is associate director of Accomplished California Teachers, and a National Board-certified English teacher at Palo Alto High School (...

  • Patrick Ledesma

    Patrick Ledesma

    Patrick Ledesma is a middle school technology specialist and special education department chair with Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia. A N...

  • Marilyn Rhames

    Marilyn Rhames

    Marilyn Rhames is a middle grades teacher at a charter school in Chicago and runs a nonprofit called Teachers Who Pray. Her Ed Week blog called "Ch...

  • Larry Ferlazzo

    Larry Ferlazzo

    An award-winning English and Social Studies teacher at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, Calif., Larry Ferlazzo is the author of Helping St...

  • Lori Nazareno

    Lori Nazareno

    Lori Nazareno is a dually certified National Board Certified Teacher who is serving as teacher-in residence for the Center for Teaching Quality. A ...

  • Renee Moore

    Renee Moore

    Renee has taught English and journalism for 20 years in the Mississippi Delta region at both high school and community college levels. She is Natio...

  • Carrie Kamm

    Carrie Kamm

    Carrie Kamm is a mentor-resident coach with the Academy for Urban School Leadership's Chicago Teacher Residency Program. She is also a co-author o...

  • Dave Orphal

    Dave Orphal

    Dave Orphal is a teacher and small learning communities coordinator at Skyline High School in Oakland, Calif. In his free time, he serves as a mem...

  • Noah Zeichner

    Noah Zeichner

    Noah Zeichner is a National Board-certified teacher at Chief Sealth International School in Seattle, Wash. He also spends part of his day supportin...

  • Noah Patel

    Noah Patel

    Noah Patel is a 7th-year middle school math teacher in the Boston Public School District and a National Board-certified teacher. He received his ba...

  • Jessica Hahn

    Jessica Hahn

    Jessica Hahn has taught elementary grade children for six years in Phoenix and New York City. She has a master's degree in literacy from Teachers C...

  • Rebecca Schmidt

    Rebecca Schmidt

    Rebecca Schmidt is in her fifth year of teaching in D.C. Public Schools. She is team leader of the 3rd grade at Bancroft Elementary, and also runs ...

  • Bill Farmer

    Bill Farmer

    Bill Farmer has been teaching biology and chemistry for nine years at Evanston Township High School in Evanston, Ill. He is currently serving his t...

  • Ryan Kinser

    Ryan Kinser

    Ryan Kinser is a 2012-13 teacherpreneur at the Center for Teaching Quality. He divides his time between teaching English to sixth graders at Walker...

  • Dan Brown

    Dan Brown

    Dan Brown teaches high school English in Washington, D.C. He is the author of The Great Expectations School: A Rookie Year in the New Blackboard Ju...

  • Sarah Henchey

    Sarah Henchey

    Sarah Henchey is a National Board Certified Teacher and a 2012-13 Teacher in Residence at the Center for Teaching Quality. Sarah has taught middle ...

  • Marsha Ratzel

    Marsha Ratzel

    Marsha Ratzel is a National Board-certified teacher in the Blue Valley School District in Kansas, where she teaches middle school math and science....

  • Jessica Keigan

    Jessica Keigan

    As a teacherpreneur, Jessica divides her time evenly between teaching English at Horizon High School in Denver and supporting results-oriented effo...

  • Michael Moran

    Michael Moran

    Michael Moran is a former sixth grade teacher currently pursuing a Master of Public Administration degree at the University of Washington's Evans S...

  • Ryan Niman

    Ryan Niman

    Ryan Niman teaches English and Social Studies in the Edmonds School District north of Seattle, Washington. Ryan is a member of the Washington New M...

  • Megan Allen

    Megan Allen

    Megan M. Allen is a National Board-certified Teacher in Tampa, Fla. As a 2012-13 teacherpreneur, Megan spends half of her week teaching 5th graders...

  • Ilana Garon

    Ilana Garon

    Ilana Garon has been teaching high school English in the Bronx since she graduated from Barnard College in 2003. Her writing has appeared in The Gu...

  • Anna Martin

    Anna Martin

    Anna L. Martin is the resource teacher at Lee Mathson Middle School, a public school in an urban high-needs district in San Jose, Calif. A National...

  • Kate Mulcahy

    Kate Mulcahy

    Kate Mulcahy, a Boettcher Teachers Program graduate, has taught for five years as an English & English Language Learner teacher at Northglenn High ...

  • Ariel Sacks

    Ariel Sacks

    Ariel Sacks teaches 8th grade English at a middle school in Brooklyn, N.Y. An alumna of Bank Street College of Education, she is a co-author of TEA...

  • Linda Yaron

    Linda Yaron

    As an English teacher in an inner-city high school in Los Angeles, Linda Yaron has spent the last nine years working to increase opportunities for ...

  • Bill Ferriter

    Bill Ferriter

    Bill Ferriter (@plugusin on Twitter) carries about a dozen different titles around with him each day. He's a member of the Teacher Leaders Network,...

  • Robert Pronovost

    Robert Pronovost

    Robert Pronovost is a 2nd grade teacher and MOUSE Squad student tech advisor at Belle Haven Elementary in Menlo Park, CA. Robert has been a teacher...

  • Nancy S. Gardner

    Nancy S. Gardner

    A renewed National Board Certified Teacher, Nancy Gardner teaches senior English at Mooresville High School in Mooresville, N.C. She is also chair ...

  • Karl Ochsner

    Karl Ochsner

    Karl Ochsner is a 7th and 8th grade science teacher at Blessed Pope John XXIII Catholic School in Scottsdale, Arizona, and teaches classes on K-12 ...

  • Joel Malley

    Joel Malley

    Joel Malley teaches AP literature, along with mass media and film production, at Cheektowaga Central High School outside Buffalo, NY. He is an acti...

  • Jennie Magiera

    Jennie Magiera

    Jennie Magiera is a 4th and 5th grade math teacher and a technology and mathematics curriculum coach in Chicago Public Schools. A Teacher Leaders N...

  • Lauren Hill

    Lauren Hill

    Lauren Hill teaches AP Language and Composition and 9th grade English at Western Hills High School in Frankfort, Kentucky. A National Board Certif...

  • Todd Rackowitz

    Todd Rackowitz

    Todd Rackowitz has been teaching math for 19 years in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system, and for the past 11 years at Independence High Schoo...

  • Alison Wright

    Alison Wright

    Ali Wright teaches Algebra 2 and AP Calculus at Lafayette High School in Lexington, Ky. A National Board-certified teacher with 11 years of experie...

  • David Ruenzel

    David Ruenzel

    David Ruenzel is an English teacher at the Athenian School in Danville, Calif. From 1992-2001 he was a senior writer at Teacher Magazine and contri...

  • Bill Ivey

    Bill Ivey

    Bill Ivey teaches 7th grade Humanities, French, and music at Stoneleigh-Burnham School in Western Massachusetts. He is a member of the Teacher Lead...

  • Cheryl Suliteanu

    Cheryl Suliteanu

    Cheryl Suliteanu has taught elementary school students in Oceanside, Calif. for 15 years. She is a National Board-certified teacher with certificat...

  • José Vilson

    José Vilson

    José Vilson is a math teacher, coach, and data analyst for a middle school in the Inwood/Washington Heights neighborhood of New York. A poet, web d...

  • Jennifer Barnett

    Jennifer Barnett

    Jennifer Barnett is an English and social studies teacher and technology specialist in Talladega County, Ala. She is a co-author of Teaching 2030: ...

  • Delonna Halliday

    Delonna Halliday

    Delonna Halliday is a Literacy Coach at First Creek Middle School in Tacoma, Wash. She has a background in TV/movie production, spent a year teachi...

  • Meenoo Rami

    Meenoo Rami

    Meenoo Rami, founder of the #engchat weekly Twitter chat for English teachers, teaches her students English at Science Leadership Academy in Philad...

  • Sarah Brown Wessling

    Sarah Brown Wessling

    Sarah Brown Wessling is a high school English teacher at Johnston High School in Johnston, Iowa. She is also serving as TCHr Laureate for the Teac...

  • Paul Barnwell

    Paul Barnwell

    Paul Barnwell teaches English and digital media at Fern Creek Traditional High School in Louisville, Ky. In his spare time, he enjoys bow hunting, ...

  • Dedy Fauntleroy

    Dedy Fauntleroy

    Dedy Fauntleroy is an ELL instructional coach in Seattle Public Schools. In her previous life, she served as an ELD specialist, mentor teacher, and...

  • Shannon C'de Baca

    Shannon C'de Baca

    Shannon C'de Baca has been a science teacher for the last 34 years. She currently teaches a blended online chemistry course. Shannon has written le...

  • Mark Sass

    Mark Sass

    Mark Sass has been teaching high school social sciences for 16 years, for the past 12 years at Legacy High School in Broomfield, Colorado. Mark is ...

  • Brooke Peters

    Brooke Peters

    Brooke Peters has taught kindergarten and 1st grade in Los Angeles and New York City for 10 years. As co-founder of The Odyssey Initiative, Brooke ...

  • Lillie Marshall

    Lillie Marshall

    Lillie Marshall (@WorldLillie on Twitter) has been a teacher in the Boston Public Schools since 2003, and is passionate about creative forms of tea...

  • Jessica Cuthbertson

    Jessica Cuthbertson

    Jessica Cuthbertson, a Colorado educator with 10 years' experience, teaches middle school literacy and has served as a literacy instructional coach...

  • Justin Minkel

    Justin Minkel

    Justin Minkel teaches second and third grade in northwest Arkansas at Jones Elementary, where 97 percent of students live in poverty and 85 percent...

  • Jane Fung

    Jane Fung

    Jane Fung is a National Board-certified teacher in urban Los Angeles, where she currently teaches 1st grade. She serves on the board of the Nationa...

  • Sandy Merz

    Sandy Merz

    August (Sandy) Merz III, a National Board-certified teacher in Career and Technical Education, teaches engineering and algebra at Safford K-8 Inter...

  • Silvestre Arcos

    Silvestre Arcos

    Silvestre Arcos is the founding 5th grade math teacher at KIPP: Washington Heights Middle School in New York City. He studied human development and...

  • Matthew Holland

    Matthew Holland

    Matthew Holland is a native of Alexandria, Va., and a product of the city's public school system, where he is currently an elementary school teache...

  • Jody Passanisi

    Jody Passanisi

    Jody Passanisi is a middle school teacher at an independent school in the Los Angeles area and a clinical educator for DeLeT's teacher induction pr...

  • Bud Hunt

    Bud Hunt

    Bud Hunt is an instructional technology coordinator for the St. Vrain Valley Schools in northern Colorado. He works with teachers and technologists...

  • Elizabeth Duffey

    Elizabeth Duffey

    After 37 years as a high school English teacher, Elizabeth Duffey took a position as facilitator of instruction in literacy in the Tacoma Public Sc...

  • Lhisa Almashy

    Lhisa Almashy

    Lhisa Almashy is an ESOL teacher at Park Vista High School in Lake Worth, Fla. A 2012 winner of Teaching Tolerance's Cultural Responsive Teaching A...

  • Darnell Fine

    Darnell Fine

    Darnell Fine is a multicultural educator who facilitates creative writing and education seminars, as well as social justice workshops, across the c...

  • Ben Curran

    Ben Curran

    Ben Curran is a K-5 instructional coach at a charter school in Detroit. He is also co-founder of Engaging Educators, co-author of Learning in the 2...

  • Jennifer Martin

    Jennifer Martin

    Jennifer Martin is an English teacher at Wootton High School in Rockville, Md. During her 12 years in the classroom, Jennifer has taught nearly eve...

  • Casie Jones

    Casie Jones

    Casie Jones is an English teacher at Martin Luther King Jr. Student Transition Academy in Memphis. She is a Teach Plus Teaching Policy Fellow and a...

  • Ryan Prosser

    Ryan Prosser

    Ryan Prosser is an National Board-certified teacher in early adolescent english language arts and currently works as an instructional facilitator i...

  • Rod Powell

    Rod Powell

    Rod Powell, a National Board-certified teacher (social studies), has been teaching for 26 years. A CTQ Collaboratory member, Rod loves the challeng...

  • Pernille Ripp

    Pernille Ripp

    Pernille Ripp (@PernilleRipp) is a 5th grade teacher in Wisconsin, a proud techy geek, creator of the GlobalRead Aloud Project, co-founder of EdCam...

  • Elizabeth Stein

    Elizabeth Stein

    Elizabeth Stein has been teaching more than 20 years and is currently a middle school special education teacher and mentor-teacher program coordina...

  • Brianna Crowley

    Brianna Crowley

    Brianna Crowley teaches high school English in Hershey, Pa. She also serves an instructional-technology coach to implement her district's BYOD poli...

  • Julie Hiltz

    Julie Hiltz

    Julie Hiltz is a 2013-2014 CTQ teacherpreneur who helps Florida teachers personalize their leadership roles and works as an educational-media speci...

  • Carl Finer

    Carl Finer

    Carl Finer has taught in South Los Angeles for ten years, currently teaching English and journalism at Animo Jefferson Charter Middle School. He is...

  • Tim Walker

    Tim Walker

  • Margit Timakov

    Margit Timakov

  • Meredith Kohl

    Meredith Kohl

    Meredith Kohl is special projects manager for Project Tomorrow and lower elementary education director for Bridges Reading and Writing Institute, b...

  • Hillary Greene

    Hillary Greene

  • Brad Clark

    Brad Clark

  • William Tolley

    William Tolley

  • Kristina Holzweiss

    Kristina Holzweiss

  • Laura Thomas

    Laura Thomas

  • Kathleen Melville

    Kathleen Melville

  • Cindi Rigsbee

    Cindi Rigsbee

Discussion Topics

Project Partner

Looking to learn and lead? Join the CTQ Collaboratory, a virtual community where forward-thinking teachers are connecting, learning, and innovating.

Teaching Ahead is inspired by the vision of teaching and learning set out in Teaching 2030, co-authored by 12 teachers and Barnett Berry. Join @teachingquality for a #teaching2030 chat every 3rd Thursday, 8:30-9:30 p.m. ET.

Recent Comments

Most Viewed On Teacher

Advertisement