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?
Follow Up: Reflecting on the 'Classroom of the Future'
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...Follow-Up: Leveraging Tech in the Face of High Stakes
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...Follow-Up: Challenge Teachers To Be Tech Pioneers
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...Follow-Up: A Strengths-Based Approach to Technology Use
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...Follow-Up: Making Magic in the Classroom With Tech
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...Follow-Up: Teachers as Tech Coaches
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...Follow-Up: Our Never-Ending Reliance on Digital Resilience
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...
Technology Doesn't Change Teaching, But Enhances It
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...Building the 'Classroom of the Future'
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...Technology for Technology's Sake
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...Ed Tech Integration Is a Low Bar
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,...Technology's Unexpected Results
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...Technology Is About Being Connected
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...Technology Is About Efficiency
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....
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About the Contributors
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Jessica Shyu
Jessica Shyu is Vice President of Regional Affairs and Training & Support at Teach For China, a part of the Teach For All global network. In this r...
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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 (...
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Patrick Ledesma
Patrick Ledesma is a middle school technology specialist and special education department chair with Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia. A N...
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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...
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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...
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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 ...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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 ...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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 ...
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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....
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Jessica Keigan
As a teacherpreneur, Jessica divides her time evenly between teaching English at Horizon High School in Denver and supporting results-oriented effo...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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Kate Mulcahy
Kate Mulcahy, a Boettcher Teachers Program graduate, has taught for five years as an English & English Language Learner teacher at Northglenn High ...
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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...
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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 ...
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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,...
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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...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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Cheryl Suliteanu
Cheryl Suliteanu has taught elementary school students in Oceanside, Calif. for 15 years. She is a National Board-certified teacher with certificat...
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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...
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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: ...
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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...
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Meenoo Rami
Meenoo Rami, founder of the #engchat weekly Twitter chat for English teachers, teaches her students English at Science Leadership Academy in Philad...
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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...
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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, ...
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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...
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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...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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...
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Jessica Cuthbertson
Jessica Cuthbertson, a Colorado educator with 10 years' experience, teaches middle school literacy and has served as a literacy instructional coach...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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Bud Hunt
Bud Hunt is an instructional technology coordinator for the St. Vrain Valley Schools in northern Colorado. He works with teachers and technologists...
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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...
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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...
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Darnell Fine
Darnell Fine is a multicultural educator who facilitates creative writing and education seminars, as well as social justice workshops, across the c...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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Ryan Prosser
Ryan Prosser is an National Board-certified teacher in early adolescent english language arts and currently works as an instructional facilitator i...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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