Edtech playground: Helping teachers choose better tools

By Nicole Krueger Leadership

https://www.iste.org/explore/articleDetail?articleid=2177

A virtual reality headset can take students on an immersive journey to another world. But no matter how cool it is, if that $3,000 piece of equipment enters a classroom and doesn’t provide any real instructional value, it can quickly become a very expensive paperweight.

Most schools don’t do edtech procurement really well yet. Sometimes we buy products that end up in closets because they don’t fit the instructional needs of students, and we end up not being good stewards of taxpayer dollars.

Located in the district’s central office, where hundreds of teachers and staff members stop by each week for professional development, the playground offers a creative space that encourages teachers to explore new tools that have been vetted and approved by the district’s tech department.

In the United States, K-12 schools spend more than $13 billion a year on edtech — often without any idea whether it will make a difference in learning outcomes.

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More on ISTE in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=iste

more on digital literacy for ed leaders in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=digital+literacy+EDAD