Getting Off to A Good Start w/ #EdTech: Consideration 2

Getting Off to A Good Start w/ #EdTech: Consideration 2

You understand the important role technology plays in teaching and learning but want to make sure you are getting off to a good start. Whether you have been integrating tech for a while or you’re just getting started, it’s essential to ensure you have the foundation for success in your school or classroom.

To do this, you must ensure your students are digitally literate and they understand what it means to be good citizen not only online, but also, f2f.

Teachers, schools, and districts can achieve and be recognized for digital literacy competency by becoming certified. Common Sense Education has a high-quality K-12 curriculum available at no cost as well as a structured certification program. The curriculum covers areas such as privacy, security, safety, creating a positive digital image, cyberbully prevention, strengthening relationships, and copyright.

Once your school is committed to ensuring students are digitally literate and responsible citizens teachers can get to the important work of ensuring they are creating the right environments to liberate genius in our students. Fortunately, Angela Maiers has written a guide that supports teachers in doing just that and gets you started with the first 20 days. What’s more, Microsoft has sponsored the guide so that it is available free-of-charge to educators. In the guide you’ll learn about using Thrively, a tool that helps you discover how every student thrives by learning about their passions, talents, interests, abilities, and learning styles. First step is discovering each student’s strength profile. This will help students learn about connections to possible paths to take for academic and career success and look at the best ways to get there. To get your copy visit http://www.choose2matter.org/liberatinggenius/

Read more all about it at Liberate Genius in 20 Days and Know How Every Child Thrives.

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This is part of a series in my conversation with author and professor Liz Kolb, who is teaching a course at the University of Michigan that addresses ways technology supports modern teaching and learning. Stay tuned on The Innovative Educator blog for the additional considerations in future posts. For a recap of all ten considerations visit https://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2016/10/essential-guide-to-modern-learning-10.html

Lisa Nielsen writes for and speaks to audiences across the globe about learning innovatively and is frequently covered by local and national media for her views on “Passion (not data) Driven Learning,” "Thinking Outside the Ban" to harness the power of technology for learning, and using the power of social media to provide a voice to educators and students. Ms. Nielsen has worked for more than a decade in various capacities to support learning in real and innovative ways that will prepare students for success. In addition to her award-winning blog, The Innovative Educator, Ms. Nielsen’s writing is featured in places such as Huffington Post, Tech & Learning, ISTE Connects, ASCD Wholechild, MindShift, Leading & Learning, The Unplugged Mom, and is the author the book Teaching Generation Text.

Disclaimer: The information shared here is strictly that of the author and does not reflect the opinions or endorsement of her employer.

Lisa Nielsen (@InnovativeEdu) has worked as a public-school educator and administrator since 1997. She is a prolific writer best known for her award-winning blog, The Innovative Educator. Nielsen is the author of several books and her writing has been featured in media outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Tech & Learning.  

Disclaimer: The information shared here is strictly that of the author and does not reflect the opinions or endorsement of her employer.