Page 4 - THE Journal, October 2017

Editor’sNote David Nagel, Editor-in-Chief
What Teachers Love T(and Hate) About Technology
TECHNOLOGY HAS seen wonderful improvement with the
CERTAINLY taken its lumps in the program. The students enjoy it and
education sector over the last year, with even ask for it. It is easy for teachers to
both new concerns arising about student access and see weaknesses and strengths
data privacy and new questions about in the students learning levels. Ougr: 1 1 0 b: 146
the efficacy of the tools in furthering the entire school uses 80 licenses to the mission of education. fullest extent possible. I would love
Nevertheless, educators are wildly to see it recognized and promoted for enthusiastic about at least some of the others in education to accept into their tools they use, even as they decry certain curriculum.”
technologies that are forced upon them. That was the spirit of many of the
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| OCTOBER 2017
In this month’s issue we’re congratulating the winners of the 2017 THE Journal Readers’
Choice Awards. But really
it isn’t just about declaring
that one product is better
or more popular than
another. When we read
educators’ comments in
our open-ended survey
questions, it became clear
that what we’re celebrating
here are the significant
contributions to teaching and learning that a whole lot of technologies have brought with them.
(As a side note, although we didn’t use this Readers’ Choice survey to ask which technologies educators hated the most, you went ahead and told us anyway. The difference between the two categories was obvious: The tools teachers love support them and their students in teaching and learning; those that don’t just get in the way and seem to be forced on teachers either with shallow buy-in or with no buy-in at all.)
Google, Apple and Lexia Learning were the big winners in our two overall categories (favorite technology added in the last year and favorite technologies already in use at our school).
Said one educator of Lexia: “I have
comments — not only for the top 3 overall winning technologies, but for other
educator favorites as well. Mystery Science,
which took a Gold in
the category of Best Science Program, received comments like this: “It
is such a huge help to
our science curriculum and teacher-friendly, not to mention student’s are highly motivated! They
love it.”
And Schoology, the Gold winner
in the Learning Management System/ E-Learning category, received this praise: “I can’t imagine my classroom without it — time saver, no lost papers, student accountability — it’s all there and much more.”
Education technology clearly has value — when it’s embraced by the teachers. It clearly has a positive impact on teachers and students alike. And we congratulate all of this year’s winners on the excellent work they’re doing to provide such great tools for teachers
to make education more effective for everyone.
To continue the conversation, e-mail me at dnagel@1105media.com.
thejournal.com
October 2017 : Volume 44, No. 6
Editorial Advisory Board
Elisa Carlson
Director of Instruction, Curriculum and Innovation, Surrey Schools (British Columbia, Canada)
Julie Evans
Chief Executive Officer, Project Tomorrow
Geoffrey H. Fletcher
Private Consultant
Ann Flynn
Director of Education Technology & State Association Services, National School Boards Association
Phil Hardin
Director of Project IMPACT, Iredell-Statesville School System (NC)
Christopher Harris
Coordinator, School Library System, Genesee Valley Educational Partnership (NY)
Cathy Hutchins
Principal, South Woods Elementary School, St. John’s County School District (FL)
Thomas C. Murray
Director of Innovation, Future Ready Schools, Alliance for Excellent Education
Erin Wilkey Oh
Executive Editor, Education Marketing, Common Sense Education
Mark Stevens
General Manager, NEA Academy
Donna Teuber
Team Leader for Technology Integration, Richland School District Two (SC)