A Reason to Push Forward

I was honored to receive the 2014 Yale-Lynn Hall Teacher Action Research Prize at the Yale School of Management Education Leadership Conference on Friday, April 4.  Click the link below to view my submission:

Mobile Devices and Student Innovators


Mobile Devices and Student Innovators


My colleague Janet Dee was an encouraging force in getting me to put together the submission and helped with the editing and data analysis processes. Her connections with Yale SOM made it all possible.

I was part of a panel on entrepreneurship in education with edtech leaders from Panorama Education, DBL Investors, EdSurge, and Whiteboard Advisors. We heard high quality business proposals as part of the Education Business Plan Competition. After, we discussed the revolution of edtech in education reform. 


A few reflections after attending the conference, being a part of the panel, receiving the honor, and returning to my classroom:




EdTech is Changing My Classroom Even Today

I drafted the submission in February and I can't help but notice how much farther my students and I have come in the two months since then. They are building even more creative products, sharing their ideas collaboratively online, and staying on contact with me 24/7 with questions and ideas.  The classroom experience is changing faster than I could have imagined due to the possibilities created by edtech. I'm so happy to be a part of it.

Policy Makers Want to Include Motivated Teachers in EdTech Reform

After speaking about how my students have benefited from the collaboration and creativity that technology integration has made possible, edtech entrepreneurs, administrators, and policy makers wanted to talk to me more.  They seemed starved for information about successful technology integration from the classroom level.  I'm hoping I can be a voice for teachers.

Student Input is Needed to Move Education Forward

My students have GREAT ideas. Just today a student asked me if SMART Technologies could create an app that allows her to view my SMART Notebook lesson files and edit them for her own note-taking purposes. What an awesome idea! I did a little looking and it turns out there is one. Time for more due diligence on my part.  Yale ELC was a forward thinking conference, but student input into where education is going would make it an even more valuable experience for all involved.


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