You may think you have determined which technology product is the best fit for your educational needs, but a pilot program is an excellent way to be sure before making that big purchase. It’s a sad truth that more than a few products end up sitting on shelves or taking up space on a server, never to be used. Setting up a successful pilot program is an important part of evaluating classroom technology before spending district funds.

Prior to setting up a pilot, design a pilot process. Schedule a timeline of usage with the vendor, and use that time wisely. Pilots should coordinate with academic calendars, budget discussions, and purchasing time frames. Gather as much data as you can while you have the products. Gather input from all stakeholders, and be sure to speak to your students, as well.

Finals are over and, hopefully, you had a chance to unwind during the Memorial Day weekend. So, are you rested and ready for the 2016 ISTE Conference & Expo? This annual event, the biggest ed-tech conference in the United States, is just around the corner: June 26-29.

For 2016, the conference and expo are being held in the “Mile High City” – Denver, CO – and we’ve compiled a short list of conference and city attractions that you won’t want to miss. To enjoy the full experience of ISTE 2016, consider doing the following:

With the current school year quickly coming to an end, you probably have a gazillion things to cross off of your end-of-year checklist. But because you’re a teacher, we’re sure there’s a little voice inside your head challenging you to prepare for back to school time right now. You know that if you do, your summer will be that much more relaxed and restorative.

Last week we discussed why accustoming students to whole-class collaboration is critical to their future success in the workplace, and looked at the ways that mobile applications can facilitate that type of classroom collaboration.

Today we’ll consider other types of ed tech: interactive whiteboards, digital displays, and Web 2.0 tools.

It has become clear that student collaboration is now an important focal point of modern education. The Common Core standards found in many states require that students participate in a diverse range of collaborative activities. That’s because teaching students collaborative skills has become paramount to their success in the 21^st century global economy.

Collaboration Creates Tomorrow's Successful Workforce

When today’s students enter the workforce, they will be asked to collaborate with others, both in person and via technology. To prepare students to perform their future jobs successfully, many schools have adopted curricula, materials, and lessons centered on the concept of student collaboration. Programs such as College Prep Math (CPM), which requires students to work and to solve problems together as a team, are becoming more common in schools across the country and around the world. 

With all the new and exciting choices that exist for school classrooms, it can be difficult to decide exactly what to purchase. The educational technology market is huge, encompassing everything from iPads to IWBs. And the technology can often feel complicated and overwhelming. After 19 years of working as an educational technology specialist, I completely understand why many find technology challenging. To help you evaluate technology and set your school up for success, follow these eight tips:  

Have you noticed how fast the K-12 educational landscape is changing? There are new laws, new research, and new approaches (derived from the new laws and research). And then there are the new tools to support those new approaches. It can all be a lot to stay on top of. The good news is that professional associations can help you to keep up. In our last post, we looked at five interesting professional associations for teachers. This time around, we look at five options for administrators.

Technology can be a great tool for reinforcing and therefore promoting positive student behavior in the classroom. Students who can use technology to track their behavior in the classroom have shown increases in positive behaviors and decreases in negative behaviors and their consequences.

Why does tracking reinforce positive behavior?
There are a few reasons why these tracking and monitoring strategies are effective. First, the social skills of students are still developing, so they may not immediately recognize negative behaviors. Students may benefit from simply being made aware that unwanted behavior is occurring. Second, the evaluation portion of the process gives students concrete feedback about particular unwanted behaviors, which helps them learn to keep them in check. Instead of feeling unable to control or impact the behaviors, students develop a greater sense of control.

Ask any teacher who has experienced it: having technology in the classroom is exciting and motivating for students. All they need is a certain amount of freedom to run with the technology and feel empowered. However, letting students loose on the Internet, or even within certain tools, isn’t always safe or conducive to a productive learning environment. 

This is where technology rules come into play. With certain guidelines in place, students can take charge of their learning journey safely. The following tips can help you with this process. 

The Mimio team has settled back in after FETC (January 12-15) in Orlando, Florida, and TCEA (February 6-10) in Austin, Texas. As always, both events were fun and informative. Here are some of the highlights and trends we noted at these two industry events.