Everywhere I turn, teachers are craving more tech knowledge. After a year of virtual teaching, you would think they had learned enough about educational technology for a lifetime, but more often I find that my colleagues are now asking more nuanced questions. With a better understanding of what digital tools can do for their students and themselves, teachers are eager to take their digital pedagogy further.

I have been considered the “techy” teacher at my school since the first cart of laptops arrived in my classroom in early 2008. As such, my colleagues have often come to me for advice, ideas, and coaching about the technology they want to use in their own classrooms. My passion for using educational technology led me to become a Google for Education Certified Innovator and to co-author a pedagogy book for teachers who were new to teaching with a device for every student. Digital teaching is an understandably challenging shift for many educators and that process usually takes several years. So, it is completely reasonable that teachers embrace an ongoing process when learning how to leverage new learning tools.

Technology in classrooms is not new, though. Most of my colleagues remember having an Apple IIE in a corner of one of their elementary classrooms or weekly trips to a computer lab. Some of us even remember taking students to the computer lab. But we have moved from a place of computing scarcity to laptop ubiquity. Technology is no longer an occasional variation in a paper based learning environment. Increasingly, the laptop is the learning environment. The design of learning experiences now relies on educators who can navigate and build with digital tools.

And there are a multitude of tools. They all work a little differently, provide different benefits and drawbacks, come in free, freemium, and paid versions. Some support real time collaboration, some don’t. Some can only be accessed through a district or school wide license, some can be accessed by any teacher who wants to create an account. It is this labyrinth of choices that causes teachers to feel overwhelmed and unsure where to spend the limited time they have to learn how to use a new tool.

There is a lot about educational technology that is beyond my control as a teacher. I don’t get to choose the laptop my district gives me, or the display board for my room. District-wide subscriptions to our learning management systems, Canvas and Google Classroom, are not up to me. But there is still a huge range of free tools that I can take advantage of to support student learning and make my teaching experience more efficient. I have years of experience about what does and does not work well for my students when it comes to using digital tools for learning. That’s why my colleagues come to me with their questions and these are the questions they are asking most often:

1. How do I learn about new digital tools that support student learning?
2. How do I know if this piece of technology is worth adding to my classroom practice?
3. How do I introduce a new digital learning tool to my class?

These are questions we have to ask ourselves continuously because the answers will change as the technology and our students’ levels of experience with digital tools changes. Just as I would for a colleague, or any of my former graduate students from the University of San Diego, I’ll give you the best advice I have now.

Question One: How do I learn about new technology tools that support student learning?

The world of educational technology is an exciting and evolving space where everyone is welcome. If you want to learn more about digital tools for your classroom, there are lots of people ready to support you.

The likely first place to start is your own school. You work with lots of other educators who are all learning more about how to use educational technology better every day. Make it a priority to share what you have discovered. Want to have fun at a staff meeting? (Don’t laugh, this is totally possible.) Divide into teams, have each team spend 5-10 minutes learning about a tech tool and then present what you found. Or organize a “slam” with prizes, where the person to present the most useful tool wins. Everyone learns something new, and learns which colleague can teach them more, in just a few minutes of time.

Social media is the next step for many educators. There are Facebook groups, twitter chats, webinars, and hashtags like #edtech, all devoted to supporting teachers who want to use more technology in their classrooms to support student learning. In 2020, when I found out I would need to use Canvas with my students, I joined a Facebook group called ​​Canvas for Secondary Educators. Reading the questions and conversations other teachers were having about Canvas helped me to learn the basics and consider some of my options. I don’t think anyone should join a social media platform just to learn about educational technology, but if you are already on Facebook, Twitter, or another large social app, keep your eyes peeled for groups and hashtags that relate to educational technology.

YouTube is also a great resource for learning more about specific tools. By searching the name of the tool plus the word “tutorial” you will find videos to help you get started. I would suggest that you look for tutorials posted by the company that makes the tool, but also look for things posted by other teachers. Consider limiting your search to videos from the last twelve months so that you are seeing current information. Tools change, and older videos won’t be as helpful. I really like a tool called Formative, but searching for it on YouTube includes things that are five years old. I scrolled past those to one with fewer views, but it was made in the last year, so that’s more useful to me.

There are also numerous virtual and in person conferences devoted to teaching and learning with technology. Once you begin to look, there is a tremendous range of offerings to help you. I’ve been a member of CUE (Computer-Using Educators) for more than ten years. Membership is free and it gives you access to invitations to lots of free and low cost local and statewide events. When you join you also sign up for a local affiliate. There are 21 affiliates all over California, where I teach, and teachers from across the United States can join. In the US, most  states will have a local or regional group of techy teachers ready to welcome you as well. Organizations like CUE can connect you with other educators who are experts about tools sure, but many of these folks are also leading educational change in their own schools and districts. They can be a huge  source of inspiration, and we could all use more of that right now. Full disclosure, CUE did just name me the Outstanding Educator for 2022, so I may be slightly biased, but how can you go wrong joining an organization of educators, for free, that will inspire you, and support your own growth and learning?

If your comfort zone is professional books there are some great options to consider. In the K-5 space, I really like Amplify by Muhtaris and Ziemke. Secondary teachers would probably find my book helpful, Power Up: Making the Shift to 1:1 Teaching and Learning by Neebe and Roberts. Books by Matt Miller, Catlin Tucker, and Alice Keeler are also worth considering. Any of these would be good for a staff book study too.

This, though, is my favorite piece of advice on this question: ask your students. They are an often overlooked source of knowledge. Many have more experience than you do using educational technology and could provide valuable insight on which tools they like, have experience with, or wish they could learn more about. At the very least you’ll find out what they have already used, and at best you may get to learn about something fabulous.

Question Two: How do I know if this piece of technology is worth adding to my classroom practice? 

Our choices and intentions will make all the difference in how our students experience learning with technology. The following questions can help determine if a piece of technology is worth adopting.

1. What do you want digital tools to do for your students?

A common pitfall for teachers new to technology is to get excited about a new tool and then try to find ways to use it in the classroom, sometimes without obvious educational benefit to students. This makes sense when all the tools are new and exciting.  With so many options though, it is possible to be intentional about choosing tools that are not only new and exciting, but also work to help your students reach specific learning objectives. Remember to keep your learning goals in mind, and then consider which digital tools can help your students reach those objectives. Instead of asking, “How can I use -slick new tech tool- in my classroom?” try this: “To help my students learn [objective] I could use ____, ____, or ____. Let me spend a few moments considering the benefits and constraints of each tool.” Considering multiple tools will help you make the most intentional choice about what will best support student learning.

For example, if I want my students to work on their speaking and presentation skills I might compare the pros and cons of several options: a. having them present slides in class, b. having them present on video using Flipgrid, or c. having them create and record in Adobe Creative Cloud Express. The best choice for my classes will depend on what my students have used before, how much time I have for the project, what skill I most want them to develop, and perhaps I may even take into account technology skills I want to build for future projects.

To be able to go through a decision process like this, you have to be very clear about what your objective is. Then begin asking yourself “What if..” questions, as in “What if I use Flipgrid? What would that process be like for students?” Play through the assignment steps in your mind, or try writing out the steps you would want students to follow to see if this tool or process will support students in meeting your objective (See Table 1).

It is incredibly helpful to turn to a colleague to talk through the process of choosing digital tools for learning. You will benefit from explaining the way you want to use the tool to meet the learning objective. Your colleague will learn from your thinking and they may also be able to suggest alternate tools that could help you meet the same objective. If you teach the same course, you can both benefit from the collaborative creation of digital materials and that will support even more students.

Table 1: example advantages/considerations chart for my 9th grade English class

Tools	Advantages	Considerations
Google Slides	-Easy to create and collaborate on shared slides -Familiar tool -Able to present to a live audience	-No built in recording option -Easy for students to add too much text
Flipgrid	-Record privately -Students can see each other’s presentation videos -Allows screen recording for slides. -Familiar tool	-Students have to record in one take and that could take several tries -Students need to make slides in another tool and screenrecord, which involves multiple skills
Adobe Creative Cloud	-Students can record each slide separately and make a movie -Could import movies made in Adobe to Flipgrid -Supports collaboration with peers or teachers -Significant design support	-Less familiar tool (but we might want to use it more later) -Design constraints are sometimes limiting

2. What do you want digital tools to do for you?

Yes, consider your needs here! Do you need to be able to see the student work while it is in progress? Do you need to be able to grade the results quickly, or even have them graded automatically? Do you need something that will sync nicely with your learning management system (LMS)? ( A Learning Management System, or LMS, is an online learning platform—for example, Google Classroom, Canvas, or Schoology.) Do you need to be able to share your digital curriculum materials with your colleagues?

Something digital tools do well is accelerate the feedback loop. I can see my students’ work in progress when I preview their documents in Google Drive, or watch their answers show up in Formative. I don’t have to wait for them to turn in a paper at the end of the period or the next day, and then take home all those papers to read through. I can leave feedback faster with comment banks. I can paste in a sentence frame for a student who is struggling. My response time is faster, my support is more confidential, and my carefully constructed multiple choice questions are graded by the computer and sync to my online gradebook.

Any tool that allows teachers to make something and share it with colleagues is extra useful. One of my colleagues really likes to use Formative when students are reading a text for the first time. She creates the Formative with a PDF of the text and then embeds digital questions to help guide students as they are reading. She gives me a share code so that I can make a copy of her Formative. With my own copy I can edit or add questions, but I don’t have to start from scratch. In return, I often share assessments I create in Google Forms. When we can share with each other we save everyone time. Almost all digital tools now include sharing options for teachers. Ask your colleagues what they are creating and freely share what you create. A shared folder online can make sharing resources even easier. Teachers like to joke about not recreating the wheel, but that is even more true than ever. Save yourself time making digital materials by working as a team. 

3. What will the workflow look like?

When selecting digital tools to use in your classroom, you will need to consider the workflow. Workflow is a catch-all word for the way digital materials will move through the learning process.

Workflow includes:

• Distributing digital materials to students: Will you have your LMS make a copy for each student? Will they work in teams on one shared slide deck for the class? Is this a material you need to distribute, but not collect?
• Observing student progress:  Will you be able to see their work in progress like in a Google Doc, or will you need to actually see their screens as with a Canva project that they need to download and submit?
• Collaboration and peer feedback: Are students working alone or collaborating? Have you given them a tool to use that supports collaboration? How accountable do you want the collaboration to be? Do they need peer feedback? How can they share their work with peers for feedback?
• Collecting student work: How will students ‘turn in’ their work? When they submit it are they turning in a doc, a pdf, a link to their work? Are there any settings they need to adjust so that you can see it?
• Returning feedback to students: How will students know how they did? Does the tool support an attached rubric or comments from you? This is often where teachers need to get the most creative with digital tools. And, it is totally fine to resort to printing out a rubric, scoring it on paper and handing that back to the student as feedback on their digital work.
• Publication: Can this work be shared with a larger audience? How will it be collectively presented? How can students help create that collective presentation? (You don’t want to lose sleep curating student work into one publication space.) How will that collective work be shared with an audience? Are there any technical barriers to sharing student work? (In some districts student’s Google Docs can only be viewed within the district domain. For me this means I have to be the “owner” of any published work. Student owned work won’t be viewable by parents and others without district accounts. It’s a barrier I have to work around.)

Before assigning any project to students you should know how they will turn it in and, even more importantly, how you will give feedback to them about their work. Bonus points if you can also predetermine how students will collaborate, and/or publish their amazing work. Thinking through how student work will move from draft, to feedback, to grade, to publication is the art of teaching with digital tools. Sometimes it requires some creative solutions.

Question Three: How do I introduce a new technology to my class?

Adding a new tech tool to my class workflow is always still a scary moment for me. I don’t really know how it’s going to work. I’m not sure my students will want to engage with it. I worry the sign in process or navigation won’t be intuitive and I’ll need to stop and help a lot of students individually. No matter how many tech tools I’ve tried or how much time I spent learning about it before class, the moment I introduce a tool to my class for the first time is always a moment of truth. I have found that it is okay to be nervous, and  it is also a good idea to know what your backup plan is.

When I try a new tech tool with my students, I always tell them we are testing it. Even if I am using a tool I’ve used before, there are likely changes and new features every year. If it is a creative tool, I will give my students time to play with it and discover. If it has specific steps to follow I will model those for them. When I ask them to do a technical task that has several steps, I will make a screencast that students can rewatch as needed. I’ll be on the lookout for students who become experts quickly and ask them to help their peers when I am spread thin.

If I think a tool will require a lot of my support, I’ll introduce it to students in small groups over several days while we do a station rotation. You have all kinds of options for how you bring these tools to your students and you get to decide what’s going to work best in your classroom.

After using a tool with students the first time, and then again later after more use, I will ask them for their feedback about the tool. Their answers to questions about things like, what was easy and what was hard, inform the way I introduce and use the tool in the future. My students like getting to “beta test” a tool in our classroom. They like having a voice in deciding which tools we will use. In my classroom, the student feedback on tools we have been using for writing informed the way we support each other with writing. My students are well versed in running writing response groups in person, but they also like it when we use PeerGrade, where the process is digital, silent, and anonymous. Taking their feedback about the pros and cons of both options helps me decide which will work best for each writing project.

You got this

Digital educational tools can feel daunting. And, yes, it gets easier when you have more tools in your box to choose from. But, you don’t need to learn everything at once. Ask your colleagues and your students for their advice about your next steps. Move at your own pace. Remember that though there is a time investment to learning about digital pedagogy up front, there is often a lot of time saved later, when you can skip the line at the copier, or borrow a digital resource from a colleague.

Teachers and students have seen what educational technology can do to engage, accelerate, and inspire their learning. Our students will live in the future. If we look ahead five or ten years we can make some predictions about what life might be like when our students are older. The educational technology we use now, in the service of learning content and skills, is their foundation for future success. By continuing to ask the right questions, we can use technology tools to enhance the student learning experience, teaching experience, and build everyone’s skills for the future.

 

References

Muhtaris, K., Ziemke, K., & Harvey, S. (2015). Amplify: Digital Teaching and Learning in the K-6 Classroom. Heinemann.

Roberts, J., & Neebe, D. (2015). Power Up: Making the Shift to 1:1 Teaching and Learning. Stenhouse Publishers.