In my 22nd year as an educator, I will easily say that being an Esports coach has been one of the top or maybe the top things I have done. Having been part of the start of an esports program at two different school districts has allowed me to help create experiences and opportunities for…
As someone who has worked for a while now helping others learn about effective use of educational technology for teaching and learning, I have seen a number of reflective frameworks, but none of them really hit the spot with me. I just want a framework that will help focus us on whether or not that…
One of the best metaphors I have heard when it comes to talking about identifying those barriers that are created around student learning in our instructional design has to do with fish and the water they swim in. A fish may not be fully aware of the water they are swimming in as it is…
Google seems to be constantly updating Sheets to make it easier to not analyze and use data but also easier to enter data. One of main features I have always used is the ability to have a dropdown in a cell. This dropdown makes it easier to either enter the same information time and time…
Although ISTE 2017 was almost 2 1/2 months ago, I am still thinking about all of the great conversations I had with other educators after my Ingnite presentation. I was ecstatic to be able to share how my learning as a kid was affected by a piece of technology. Without that piece of technology, a…
In the first 11 episodes of the Esports Classroom Podcast, I have been able to get insight from people with a variety of connections to esports. We have had high school coaches, college coaches, members of professional organizations, and others connected to esports. In future episodes we will include more perspectives and even have upcoming…
One of the things we need to teach students the most is how to manage all of the tasks and due dates they have to deal with throughout the course of a school day. While many schools are making use of tools like Canvas or Google Classroom to manage the digital workflows of class, students…
As an Esports coach, I have seen so many positives come out of our programs over the last 5 years in both districts that I have been a coach. There is no doubt in my mind that Esports can have a lasting positive impact on our students and can create opportunities for our students that…
I am someone who loves to use data to understand the problems that we are truly facing. If we say something is a problem, we should have data to support it. Schools have an abundance of data that they can use beyond just grades and attendance, which can often provide a wide view of the…
Backchannel tools are not new in education and they have been done well before computers made their way into our classrooms. Just using small pieces of paper as ways for students/others to write down questions and comments during a class/presentation is something that was done well before Google was even a company. However, they have…
I saw this image once while mindlessly surfing online and could never find it again. It said, “Please go up the stairs to the 2nd floor to ask for the elevator to be turned on for use.” So if you were someone who needed to actually use the elevator because you could not use the…
In just over 7 weeks, hundreds of educators across the state of Iowa and surrounding areas will come to the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines for the 2024 ITEC Fall Conference. I have been coming to the ITEC Fall Conference for about a decade and a half so far. It is an event I…
In my 20 years as an educator, there are not many things I would rank higher on my pet peeve list than hearing an educator say “low student”. I feel the same way when they say “high-level” student. This desire to label students in such a simplistic way does nothing to help the students and…
Back in August of 2020, I wrote a blog post called “Beware the Pendulum Swing” where I talked about my fears that the after-effects of so many teachers having to use technology for teaching and learning without the right training and support, was going to lead to a pendulum swing effect away from using any…
One of my favorite sessions to present at education conferences is about removing barriers to student learning. There are many decisions we make, consciously and unconsciously, that impact the learning environment for students. As students have a wide range of needs and learning characteristics, sometimes we are not always aware of how these decisions are…
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