techieMusings

The pandemic has been hard on all of us, and teachers are a group challenged beyond anything that is healthy or sustainable. Despite that, I saw so much innovation, creativity, and positive shift as a result of the reality we found ourselves in during remote and hybrid learning.

I want to highlight a handful of changes that I saw in 2020-2021 that I think will stick. Alecia Berman-Dry, Director of Professional Learning of AIMS, actually posed this question as a challenge, and I thank her for prompting me to pause and reflect deeply on this. Most of the innovations that I share here will center on what I’ve been most passionate about for years — embracing educational technology to create deeper connections and give each student a way to communicate and share in a format that best fits them. It was during remote and hybrid learning that I saw these ideas resonate with teachers on a new level.

Let me showcase some of the examples of shifts that I’ve seen in the past two years that have real staying power. I will focus on three tools here — Pear Deck, Flipgrid, and Kami — and center on how these tools:

• create new opportunities for participation from all voices in the room;
• allow students to verbalize their thinking process in a format that best fits them;
• help teachers better connect with all learners;
• foster a richer culture of peer-to-peer learning, which can easily extend beyond the walls of the classroom; and
• enable richer, more personalized and actionable feedback to help students own their learning.

Transformational Moments — Technology Innovations Post Pandemic: Creating More Equitable & Empowering Classrooms

I’d love to hear your thoughts! What transformational moments have you seen come out of pandemic learning? What ideas from my video resonated with you? What changes are you excited to expand on?
And if you’re interested in learning more about my personal journey into edtech integration and why I’ve made the shifts I have in my own classroom, check out my book, Tech with Heart.