Inaccessibility by Design

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…

Stop Saying “Low Students”

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…

Image of a classroom of students working collaboratively with the text "Removing Barriers: Text-to-Speech Tools" over.

Removing Barriers: Text-to-Speech Tools

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…

Why use technology in teaching and learning?

For over the last decade-plus, my roles in schools have revolved largely around using technology for teaching and learning. I have spent 8 years as a Technology Integration Specialist, 1 year as a Director of Technology, obtained my first Masters in Curriculum and Instructional Technology, am a member of the ITEC Board (including being a…

Figjam as a Backchannel Tool

One of my favorite uses of edtech tools ever is to have a backchannel, whether that was in the classroom or when doing a presentation at a conference. A very memorable experience of mine as a classroom teacher happened soon after my classroom went 1 to 1 where every student was given a laptop. It…

AI and Academic Honesty

With the rapid rise of easily accessible AI tools this year, there are a lot of educators scrambling to answer the question around how the use of AI in the classroom will impact learning. With this, there is a strong desire to have some written statements around how AI could and should be used in…