Schools are facing new challenges now that most learning involves the web—chiefly, the ability to do work at home or anywhere away from school grounds. While many are looking for ways to provide all students with a device, just having the device does not mean equitable learning. All students need to have the same access to WiFi, and thus the ability to use the device, whether they are at school or not. In the edWebinar, “Closing the Homework Gap: Digital Equity for All Students,” the presenters talked about the challenges and potential solutions to fulfill the promise of anytime, anywhere learning.
While the Wild West era of edtech may be over, there’s still some mystery over how schools decide what digital materials to buy. Similarly, researchers and developers have their own approaches to the sales process. In the edWebinar, “Building Authentic Need and Research into Edtech Development,” representatives from a large school district, a small district, a developer, and the research community answered burning questions about edtech procurement.
When we “flip” the learning, and have students present to educators in our edWebinars, it’s a great example of how much we can learn from our students. In a recent edWebinar, Turn Struggling Readers Into Leaders Using Assistive Technology, Gavin and Marley, two middle school students, along with dyslexia specialist Dana Blackaby, presented on their use of assistive technology that helps struggling readers. We wanted to know how they felt about playing the role of teacher to a crowd of over 800 attendees.
“The opportunity of bilingualism is an important gift to give to our students.” The cognitive, cultural, and professional benefits of bilingualism have the potential to broaden learners’ experiences in their careers and academics. In a recent edWebinar, Maya Goodall, Senior Director of EL Curriculum at Lexia Learning, highlighted that 10% of all students in U.S. public schools are emerging bilinguals and emerging multilinguals. Formerly called English Language Learners, students who speak more than one language have demonstrated advantages and awareness of languages, communication skills, memory, decision making, and analytical skills.
Whether it’s summer or not, digital citizenship skills are something that adults and children alike should be practicing every day as citizens of the world. Common Sense Media identifies six areas of digital citizenship, including digital footprint, media balance, cyberbullying, online privacy, communications, and news and media literacy. In a recent edWebinar, Heather Barnard, a Digital Learning Leader at Stamford American International School in Singapore, explains that teachers need to help parents and students prepare for the use of devices and the internet during the summer months. Parents need to know what tools are out there to help with screen time, setting limits, forms of cyberbullying, multi-user games, and YouTube.
The industrial education model was massively successful, with high school graduation rates and student achievement increasing decade after decade. However, by the end of the 20th century, it was evident that the industrial education model had hit its limit with graduation rates plateauing at 80% and student achievement and engagement plummeted the longer students were in school. According to Dr. Devin Vodicka, Chief Impact Officer at AltSchool, in a recent edWebinar, reform after reform and many well-intended efforts have tried to reach the aspiration of all students being successful. Vodicka along with Erik Burmeister, Superintendent, and Theresa Fox, Coordinator of Technology and Innovation, both from Menlo Park City School District, CA, agreed that if 80% of students are graduating, then 20% of students are not graduating and that educational professionals can’t be satisfied with these statistics.
At first, educators could count the number of edtech programs in their school on one hand—and the number of users wasn’t too much more. Later, schools used spreadsheets and written reports to determine usage, and developers had to wait months, possibly years to get and analyze efficacy data. Now, when usage data is available on a daily basis, developers and educators have a shared interest in that information. During their edWebinar, “Edtech Usage Data: Key to Planning Efficacy Research,” Dr. Denis Newman, Co-founder of Evidentally, Inc., and Kylene Shen, VP of Marketing at Evidentally, Inc., explained why usage data studies are beneficial to edtech companies and schools as well as what types of additional studies can provide relevant insights.
edWeb has established a community entitled “Principal Leadership”, which will provide guidance for principals through a series of edWebinars on a variety of topics. In order to address the needs of principals, a survey was sent out to administrators across the United States to assess their biggest areas of need.
Creating makerspaces and incorporating them into schools involves more than coming up with project ideas. Typically, when schools add makerspaces, they’re also looking to shift their education goals and focus on skills beyond traditional curriculum. As Michelle Luhtala, Library Department Chair at New Canaan High School, CT, and Bill Derry, Consultant at School and Public Libraries, CT, explained in their edWebinar, “Design Models that Guide Innovative Thinking,” for educators looking to make this transition, there are several different methodologies that complement the goals of makerspaces and help students become creative problem solvers.
“edWeb Case Study: Rock Valley Community School District” examines the way the district relies on edWeb.net to support its professional development program for teachers. Their program embodies four of the key features identified by educational researchers as characterizing high quality professional learning experiences, the effective design of online communities for teachers, and best practices for integrating informal online professional learning with formal district professional development. In each case, edWeb.net provides critical support that empowers Rock Valley leaders to implement research-based practices.