Technology Use
Chapter 4: The Boredom Argument
Influence of Teaching Materials and Assignments
Influence of Cognitive Demand on Engagement
Chapter 5: The Innovation Argument
Key Skills for Innovation
Environments That Foster Innovation
Teachers’ Lack of Choice and Flexibility
Chapter 6: The Equity Argument
Demographic Discrepancies in Academic Achievement and Technology Usage
Discrepancies in Ways Students Utilize Technology in School
Iowa BIG, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
New Village Girls Academy, Los Angeles, California
New Technology High School, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Ao Tawhiti Unlimited Discovery, Christchurch, New Zealand
Surrey Academy of Innovative Learning, Surrey, British Columbia
Other Deeper Learning Schools
About the Authors
Scott McLeod, an associate professor of educational leadership at the University of Colorado Denver, is widely recognized as one of the United States’ leading experts in preK–12 school technology leadership. He is the founding director of the University Council for Educational Administration’s Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education, the only U.S. university center dedicated to the technology needs of school administrators. He is co-creator of the Did You Know? (Shift Happens) video series and the trudacot (technology-rich unit design and classroom observation template) technology integration discussion protocol.
Scott has worked with several hundred schools, districts, universities, and other organizations and has received numerous awards for his technology leadership work, including the 2016 Award for Outstanding Leadership from the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). In 2015, he was one of three finalists to be the director of the Iowa Department of Education. In 2011, he was a visiting faculty fellow at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Scott was one of the pivotal figures in Iowa’s grassroots one-to-one computing movement, which has resulted in more than 220 school districts providing their students with powerful learning devices, and founded the annual Iowa one-to-one Institute and EdCampIowa.
Scott blogs regularly about technology leadership and shares numerous resources through his Digital Leadership Daily SMS service. Scott is a frequent keynote speaker and workshop facilitator at regional, state, national, and international conferences. He has written 170 articles and other publications and is the co-editor of What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media.
To learn more about Scott’s work, visit his blog, Dangerously Irrelevant (http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org), or follow @mcleod on Twitter.
Dean Shareski is the community manager for Discovery Education Canada. He taught grades 1–8 for fourteen years and spent nine years as a digital learning consultant for Prairie South School Division in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. In addition, he has taught and designed courses both at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan and at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania.
Dean’s blog, Ideas and Thoughts, consistently ranks among the top educational blogs. He also blogs for Tech and Learning and The Huffington Post. In 2010, he won the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Award for Outstanding Leader of the Year.
Dean has had the opportunity to speak to a variety of education audiences within the United States and Canada as well as outside North America. He believes humor and humility go a long way in supporting and advocating transformational practices in teaching and learning. More important, his efforts to promote joyful learning and working environments remain his greatest passion.
He holds a master’s degree in educational technology from the University of Saskatchewan. Dean has been married to his wife Paula for more than thirty years, and together they celebrate their four children and their families. When not teaching and sharing, you might find Dean on a golf course.
To learn more about Dean’s work, visit his blog, Ideas and Thoughts http://ideasandthoughts.org), or follow @shareski on Twitter.
To book Scott McLeod or Dean Shareski for professional development, contact [email protected].
Foreword
By William M. Ferriter
Can I ask you a tough question? How many students in your classrooms are truly satisfied with the learning spaces you have created for them? If your kids reflect the national average, the answer is bound to be discouraging. Fewer than four in ten high schoolers report being engaged in their classes, and students often list boredom as the primary reason for dropping out of school (Busteed, 2013). Over 70 percent of students who don’t graduate report having lost interest by ninth grade and, worse yet, the majority of dropouts are convinced that motivation is all that prevented them from earning a diploma (Azzam, 2007).
These numbers are troubling for anyone passionate about schools. They indicate systemic failure on the part of practitioners to inspire learners and warn us of the immediate need to transform education—a warning that school leadership expert and series contributor Scott McLeod (2014) issues:
If we truly care about preparing kids for life and work success—we need schools to be different. If economic success increasingly means moving away from routine cognitive work, schools need to also move in that direction. If our analog, ink-on-paper information landscapes outside of school have been superseded by environments that are digital and online and hyperconnected and mobile, our information landscapes inside of school also should reflect those shifts. If our students’ extracurricular learning opportunities often are richer and deeper than what they experience in their formal educational settings, it is time for us to catch up.
Scott is right,
