Over the last couple of months, we’ve expanded the scope of our educational content and launched some new video series on our YouTube channel. Hopefully, you’ve had a chance to watch some of the videos, which feature Eduporium co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Irina Tuule, and Eduporium co-founder and CEO, Rick Fredkin, discussing a number of key topics that pertain to 21st century education and how technology fits into that arena. If you haven’t seen them all, however, now’s your chance to give them a watch. Irina covers some topics like how the role of the teacher has changed and how STEM tools are like a pencil while the pair also discuss the principles behind Eduporium’s core vision and more!
The Role of the Teacher
As we all know, the role of today’s teacher has certainly evolved over time. That argument could be made for just the last six or seven years as well—never mind how much their roles have changed in the last few decades. In this video, Irina talks about some of the different ways teachers have been labeled based on the teaching styles of various points in time. They have been seen as the highest authority figures in the lives of children, as the sage as the stage, and also as the guide on the side. Nowadays, teachers are more like facilitators of learning rather than people who recite information for their students to retain. Being a facilitator means they are enabling and empowering their students to learn collaboratively, think critically, and make mistakes while equipping them with the tools and resources to find success. Now, doesn’t that sound like something that’s pretty much ideal for 21st century educators?
Each of the various teaching models have worked well at one time or another—and worked well for long periods of time. The world is always evolving, however, and, if teachers aren’t willing to update their instructional practices, they’re not doing any favors for their students or for themselves. Even providing students with assignments and project ideas and then staying out of the way (guide on the side) is no longer ideal. As she says in the video, the speed of change is constantly pushing educators to assume different roles. She believes that classroom instructors today should be teachers of the process of learning rather than teachers of content or concepts. Since teachers have been learning all their lives, she says, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be able to shift their practice and learn a new way of teaching—a way that’s more beneficial for their students.
Today, if a teacher has the unique ability to teach their students how to learn, they are that much more valuable. Rather than telling them what they should know, teachers can inspire the development of qualities like exploration, inquiry, outside-the-box thinking, and more—all of which will serve today’s students extremely well in the long run. Innovative technologies, like STEM tools, can definitely make the process of learning how to learn more attainable for students. Technology is a very incubating tool—inside of it, there is stored a whole lot of potential for creativity and problem solving. Teachers can share this excitement and potential with their students and use these tools as sources of inspiration to unlock all kinds of learning. Using technology as a tool rather than relying on it completely, today’s teachers can find success in their new roles as facilitators of learning.
Technology Is Like A Pencil
Technology is like a pencil? That seems like a bit of an odd statement to wrap your head around. These days, technology is so advanced and even educational technology tools are pretty powerful, whereas a pencil hasn’t really evolved or improved over time. So, why is it that Irina believes today’s technologies are like a pencil? Well, pencils can be used for everything from drawing incredibly detailed pictures to sketching important blueprints or serving as a building block. And, that analogy relates to a lot of the STEM, STEAM, and MakerEd tools that are a part of the Eduporium store. Educators always ask us to be truthful with them about the best technology on our store. Since each item has different benefits and can help students in various classrooms in different ways, there really is no one right answer to that question.
The point is that a pencil is just a tool for helping students, teachers, and everybody else accomplish something greater. That’s the same kind of idea that we use to describe the EdTech on our store. They are simply tools that be used to unlock greater promise and accomplishments. They enhance creative solutions—they don’t provide the answers. The question Irina asks is ‘how can we use them?’ The creative potential and possibilities that lie inside just about every STEM tool can reveal themselves in so many different situations. They can be utilized in the classroom, in the library, in a makerspace, or in an afterschool program. They could also be used in a non-academic setting or during the summer to help ensure students keep learning and being creative as often as possible.
Educational technology also helps establish lines of active communication among students who may be from different backgrounds or new to each other. By helping to facilitate this kind of collaborative work, EdTech can bring students closer together. Since technology can be incorporated in so many different types of learning challenges, it can also help provide a sense of comfort and support to students who might have various learning challenges, including ELL students. When they see tangible and immediate results of using EdTech in their learning, they tend to gain a much greater sense of satisfaction and can take greater ownership of their learning. So, while the term ‘technology’ as a whole offers a very general idea of the tools that can be used in education, it can be as simple as a pencil and be used in a lot of different ways to create and revise learning experiences that are best for each student.
Core Vision
Just like at any company, Eduporium has been guided and shaped by a set of core beliefs and goals since it was founded. While those may have shifted over time, that just goes to show how the evolution that’s taking place in education has occurred as well. In this video, Irina talks about empowering educators to keep up with all of the changes that are constantly going on both in the worlds of education and in technology. She is, once again, joined by Rick and the pair discuss how our vision has developed over time in response to a lot of those changes. As can be expected, Irina knows that our vision has shifted along with the innovations that have been seen in the world of technology. She also remarks how changes in the educational system have contributed to the formulation of our vision and how we’re monitoring the latest trends very closely.
One of those biggest transformations has come in the way of STEM, STEAM, and maker education, which represents the hands-on aspects of 21st century learning. Using innovative technologies to inspire and create relevant, hands-on learning experiences, education has essentially seen the creation of a whole new world, Rick says. He also says it can be called a fourth wave of computing, but, now, these technologies are tools—tools that can be used in every classroom. That statement also ties in with our vision since we believe strongly that technology does, in fact, belong in every classroom. Even the younger students or the teachers who haven’t bought in can benefit from the effects of STEM tools—especially since companies like us are assessing and evaluating EdTech tools to determine how well they do fit in modern learning environments that have various features.
Today’s educational technologies are very versatile, allowing for educators to use them across multiple disciplines in the classroom. With this versatility comes new types of learning experiences and a whole new set of learning opportunities for students. To go along with the development of our own vision, we’re looking for technologies that fit this very mold. And, as soon as we find them, we begin the process of adding them to our store and making them available for educators everywhere. To conclude, Irina shares her belief that she would like for Eduporium to be the ones who ultimately contribute to speeding up that fourth wave of computing—but with purposeful EdTech and STEM tools being used in the classroom for deeper learning. With these kinds of tools and help from the people who know them best, we believe that education can reach brand-new heights and unlock new benefits for students.
Eduporium Helping Teachers
Co-founders, Irina and Rick, teamed up for this video and started off with what we believe to be a pretty powerful approach to what we do. We are out there looking for the best technology on the market and getting it into education. We help start the conversation. This is an important aspect of the EdTech implementation process if you ask us and one that educators might sometimes overlook. Whether it’s teachers who are doing their own shopping, district tech directors, or executive purchasers, they need to know that what they’re spending their money on is worthwhile. When we search for new technologies and add them to our store, we’re very confident that they will be able to provide educators with a significant return on their investment throughout a long-term classroom life.
Technology, in our opinion, doesn’t just find its way into classrooms. Those who make the decisions at the school and district levels are often looking for technologies they can introduce in a number of classrooms or even in a number of schools. It’s no longer uncommon for school-wide or district-wide technology rollouts and that’s certainly something that we encourage and are able to support educators with. We’ve come to put our own unique mark on this process through the creation of educational technology bundles. Since we are a neutral reseller and able to allow educators to purchase products from dozens of different EdTech manufacturers in one place, it’s relatively easy for us to put bundles together with tech from different manufacturers that’s complementary and can help teachers reach their academic goals.
Perhaps most importantly, we help teachers with the introductory phase of launching learning with this new technology. It’s very routine that they’re skeptical, hesitant, or don’t know how to start teaching with something new, so we make ourselves available to answer their questions or show them the best approaches to take—even with something as overlooked as turning a STEM tool on. Then, once a teacher in a school becomes comfortable with using a new technology, we’ll encourage them to spread their knowledge throughout their school or district, creating a new level of buzz around a single piece of technology or a bundle—whatever the case may be. Essentially, whatever it is that educators need at whatever level of the school system they’re involved with, we most likely have someone who can help—we’ve done it before and we hope to continue doing it for a long time!
The Feedback Loop
As we’ve discussed, we’re constantly searching for the best technologies for students to learn with and for teachers to improve their instruction. We can spend time testing them ourselves and also base our offerings on customer and manufacturer reviews, but that’s not always enough for us. We rely a whole lot on teacher feedback for how each STEM tool translates to deepening classroom learning. This feedback helps us gain important insights into what kinds of tech tools work well in certain classroom environments and work well with different types of students. We’ve been testing the STEM tools we put on our store for a few years now and, if they don’t meet a certain set of standards, we don’t sell them or recommend them to educators. When it comes down to deciding, we ensure that everything we offer, first and foremost, has an educational component to it and advances learning while also, of course, including a technological component so that kids are able to bolster their tech skills simultaneously.
Since we are not in the classroom ourselves, we rely a great deal on this feedback from teachers in how we evaluate each and every EdTech tool. This also helps us gauge which types of technologies work best in different settings and with different age groups. In order to streamline this whole process, we’ve kind of built up something we like to refer to as the feedback loop. Just like feedback from teachers is very important to how students learn, develop, and master concepts, feedback is also very important to us. It helps shape the kinds of tech tools we look for and ultimately determines whether or not we should carry a certain product or set of products. This specific feedback also helps us identify key examples for how a technology enhances instruction, project ideas to share, and more ways to use them!
At Eduporium, we’re pretty much built on partnerships and the feedback we receive from (and give) to teachers who use the tools we provide is one of the most important partnerships to us. It gives us new ideas for how to promote the value of these technologies as well, which ultimately helps enlighten school leaders about the various options they have for using EdTech. Rick and Irina wrap up the short video by touching on why the technologies on the Eduporium store are different from other technologies. And, the main point is that these technologies can be used to legitimately advance 21st century education as opposed to just being cool and being used out in the real world. We hope you’ll check out the videos on our YouTube channel and subscribe to our YouTube channel to make sure you don’t miss the next releases!
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