5 EdTech Insights from 5 Educational Thought Leaders

Thank you to eSparkLearning.com for including me in their recent blog post (August 5, 2013) titled 5 Questions for 5 EdTech Thought Leaders

The article contains answers from four other educational thought leaders:

Adam Bellow [ @adambellow] Founder and President of eduTecher and eduClipper, ISTE 2013 Closing Keynote Speaker (You’re Invited to Change the World – video)
Jon Bergmann [ @jonbergmann] Technology Facilitator and Educational Consultant with Flipped Classroom, LLC and ISTE 2013 Presenter. (Two Sessions: Flipped Learning Best Practices & Through the Flipped Classroom: Transformation from the Bottom Up!)
Jon Samuelson [ @iPadSammy] Educational Technologist for Eanes ISD, iPadSammy website and Presenter at ISTE 2013 (Two Sessions: iPad, You Pad, We All Love the iPad & iProductivity: Student Work Flow in the iClassroom)
David Warlick [ @dwarlick] Educator of 37 years, author of 4 Instructional Technology books, active educational blogger at DavidWarlick.com.

Following are the questions that were posed to us and my answers:

In your opinion, what’s the most exciting thing happening right now in digital learning?

Individualized and personalized learning that is available 24 hours a day and 7 days a week from mobile devices.

Technology versus textbooks: will there ever be a winner?

I don’t believe published paper text books to be a sound investment when there are dynamic and interactive digital options that can always be easily updated. While I may personally prefer the freely-available openness of the Internet and its vast array of resources, I understand the need for grade-level appropriate, self-contained, subject-specific digital texts. That said, I worry about student families and institutions being beholden to expensive publisher costs for eTexts.

What’s going to be the next big thing in educational technology?

Gamification.

If you could give one piece of advice to teachers about to integrate technology in their classroom this fall, what would it be?

Don’t hesitate because you think you have to be the controlling expert. Start small and learn alongside your class. Most importantly: Have fun!

What’s your best kept EdTech secret?

If there is an “EdTech secret”, it’s that people are the most significant ‘technology’ and that learning occurs best when powerful connections are made. Technology is simply a tool to help teachers extend their reach and for students to access content, investigate, share, and produce demonstrations of their understandings.

I encourage you to read the original article for all of the insights from the above noted educational thought leaders. Follow them on Twitter and visit their web sites for outstanding information on educational technology and learning in the digital age!

Original eSparkLearning article: Educational Thought Leaders

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