Data Worth Looking At
How Classroom Technology Can Be Truly Transformational
I was interviewed yesterday about an article I wrote about classroom management in a technology-rich environment 9 years ago. All those years ago I saw and heard the hearts of teachers trying to navigate a changing classroom environment that they weren’t trained for. I walked into classrooms and saw off-task behavior manifesting as open tabs, open chats, and the answering of social media notifications. I saw teachers either trying to do a song-and-dance to keep their students attention or teaching as if nothing had changed and choosing to put the onus of engagement on the student.
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Fast forward 9 years and I still hear and see much of the same issues going on in classrooms. I see some edtech tools that help teachers in engaging students more in the midst of teaching- whether it be things like interactive slide-decks, simulated learning, or gamified formative assessments, some teachers embrace these and some resolutely do not.
I find myself wondering how differently my own k-12 learning would have been if it had happened after the mobile-technology revolution. My off-task behavior looked more like writing and/or reading notes to and from my friends during classroom discussions that I wasn’t really listening to. It meant smuggling notes up a row of equally aligned rows and columns of students to get the note to the right person to read. Off-task behavior looked more like daydreaming and flirting instead of mindless scrolling and chatting. Regardless of the time frame, engagement has always been a hard part of classroom management since classrooms became a thing.
As someone who has been thinking about what effective technology integration looks like for 14 years, I do understand both the pros and cons of technology in the classroom. It’s something I think about way more than the average person. It’s what has driven me to create a technology tool that can truly lead to transformational teaching and learning. It’s not that the tool is fancy and has all the bells and whistles, the beauty of it is its simplicity. As one of our pilot teachers said, “If you use it for what it’s designed for, it’s perfect!”
What is it designed for? To give teachers a fast snapshot to see student learning in quick, actionable form. Whether a teacher decides to use the feedback graphic to create small groups, go over key concepts missed, or pull individual students, CheckForU relieves the pressure points that data often presents. Creating a culture of informed instruction opportunities has never been easier. Instead of forcing teachers to change the way they teach, CheckForU guides teachers to teach differently because teachers are more aware of needs, more confident with reading data, and more equipped to fill missing gaps. Feedback matters for both the student and the teacher, CheckForU creates feedback efficiencies that could make technology feels less cumbersome and more intentional.
