Tech learning big data is not bad

For more details, visit techlearning.com/mar13 why we still need liBrarians In a recent report, Leading In and Beyond the Library, by digital learning and technology consultants Mary

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I d e a s a n d T o o l s f o r e d T e c h l e a d e r s I M a r c h 2 0 1 4 I $ 6

Volume 34 / Number 8

techlearning.com

It’s just misunderstood

See page 10 for more. The Total

Common Core Solution

Learn more on PG 25

Big Data isn’t BaD

To see more

Tech & Learning

scan the code

or visit us online

at: www.techlearning.

com/mar14

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active passive public private digital analog formal informal calm energetic social quiet choice

focused alone together engaged relaxed observant focused innovative traditional brainstorm contemplative collaborative the new library

Today’s students demand choices, requiring libraries to offer a range of spaces to support

the many ways they learn Steelcase works with the world’s leading educational institutions

to create multipurpose, high-performance destinations for all of the places learning happens.

Find out more at steelcase.com/libraries

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w w w t e c h l e a r n i n g c o m | March 2014 | 3

FEatUrEs

23 there’s a Badge For that

By Richard Ferdig and Kristine E Pytash

Digital badges have captured the imagination of many educators because they have proven to be an important way

to demonstrate a shared understanding of accomplished outcomes

32 school cio: Who’s aFraid oF Big data?

By Dr Steven Rubenstein

Big data is overwhelming, but it can also furnish important information about individual students, schools, and districts Here is how one district created a school system and culture to embrace data as a partner in learning

36 school cio: Back oFFice Business

38 tech tools For assessing the “soFt” skills

By Cathy Swan

Should schools teach “soft” skills, such as communication, problem-solving, and critical thinking? Most colleges and workplaces believe the answer is yes This article provides a variety of examples of tech tools that can help you teach and assess these skills

PrODUcts

16 Put to the test: t&l editors take some neW

Products For a test drive.

16 Digital Passport: Classroom Edition

18 LEGO StoryStarter Curriculum Pack

20 HotSeat’s Edustation flight simulator

22 Adobe Creative Cloud

42 What’s neW DEPartMEnts &

cOLUMns

4 editors desk:

get on With the shoWs

6 neWs & trends

• This Ain’t Your 70s Snow Day

• Why We Still Need Librarians

the digital edition, which includes additional resources.

M a r c h 2 0 1 4 | v o l 3 4 n o 8

contents

16

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EdITOR’S note

M a r c h 2 0 1 4 | v o l 3 4 n o 8

Get On With

the ShOWS

What a way to start the year! The Tech & Learning

team has been on the road and even “across the pond” these past few weeks, keeping up with what could be called edtech’s show season

First up was our own Tech Forum in LongBeach, with an inspirational keynote by Dr

Alec Couros (couros.ca/cv/), and an insightful panel that included

LA CIO Ron Chandler discussing that little iPad pilot you may have heard about You can watch it yourself at our Livestream channel (www.livestream.com/techlearning)

Then we spent a week in London for BETT, the granddaddy of edtech shows More than 40,000 educators from across the planet shared best practices in panel

sessions, which included one hosted by our UK advisor Terry Freedman Meanwhile, in Philly,

managing editor Christine Weiser was reporting on

T&L advisor Chris Lehmann’s Educon (educonphilly.

org), which is a sort of Davos for edugeeks Finally, we

all gathered in Austin, TX, for the Texas Computer

Education Association show and to celebrate our own

Awards of Excellence You can read about all of these

events plus some takeaways from this year’s Florida

Education Technology Conference on pages 14 and 15

and online at techlearning.com

So what’s the next “Big Thing” to come out of all

these shows? Besides the emerging Maker Movement

and education app market, I saw nothing much new

in the way of hardware and software What I did

find exciting were the new and innovative ways that

educators are learning to use current technologies

Next stops—SXSWedu back in Austin, TX and Tech

Forum in Atlanta on March 28, featuring longtime

School CIO advisor Carl Hooker as keynote speaker

We look forward to seeing you online or in real time soon

Besides the emerging maker movement and education app market, i saw nothing much new in the way

of hardware and software what

i did find exciting were the new and innovative ways that educators are learning

to use current technologies

ADvIsORs

David Warlick, Patrick Higgins, David Andrade, Dean Shareski, Kim Cofino, Darren Draper, Terry Freedman, Cheryl Oakes, Bob Sprankle, Lisa Thumann, Jen Wagner, Lisa Nielsen, Ben Grey, Michael Gorman, Henry Thiele, Özge Karaog˘lu, Kevin Jarrett, Kyle Pace, Steven W Anderson, Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano, Vicki Windman, David Kapuler, Jenith Mishne, Joyce Valenza

MARkETING AND EvENTs

Marketing Manager: Jared Stearns jstearns@nbmedia.com Director of Events: Diana Milbert diana@dmeventspro.com Production Manager: Nicole Spell nspell@nbmedia.com

REpRINTs AND pERMIssIONs

Wright’s Media: newbay@wrightsmedia.com; (877) 652-5295

EDITORIAL AND ADvERTIsING OFFICEs

28 East 28th Street, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10016 Phone: (212) 378-0400; Fax: (650) 238-0263 For general editorial correspondence: techlearning_editors@nbmedia.com

NEwBAy MEDIA LLC—CORpORATE

President & CEO: Steve Palm Chief Financial Officer: Paul Mastronardi Vice President of Production & Manufacturing: Bill Amstutz bamstutz@nbmedia.com Vice President of Digital Media: Robert Aames Vice President of Audience Development: Denise Robbins drobbins@nbmedia.com Vice President of Content & Marketing: Anthony Savona

NEwBAy MEDIA k-12 EDUCATION GROUp

Executive Vice President/Group Publisher: Adam Goldstein

Publisher: Allison Knapp Editorial Director: Kevin Hogan Online Production Manager: Rob Granger Web Production Specialist: Ashley Vermillion Web Director: Ragan Whiteside

sUBsCRIpTION INFORMATION

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$39.95 in Canada and Mexico $69.95 in all other countries.

To subscribe: (888) 266-5828 or www.techlearning.com

www.techlearning.com

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Restrictions apply Not available in all areas.

WHAT GRADE

WOULD IT GET?

IF YOUR DATA NETWORK WAS

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neWS and tRenDS

—Scott McLeod

@geraldaungst: Improvements coming to E-rate for libraries and schools More funds, emphasis

on broadband http://aungst me/1fIhsRJ

@henrythiele: School on snow days? Thank technology - Chicago Tribune http://tinyurl.com/ o6uxksw

@rroysden: Inquiry Driven: Ask questions we don’t know the answers to! Dare kids to ask questions! @chrislehmann

toP tWeets

1 Making 1:1 Work Ellen Ullman checked in with

some 1:1 districts to get their

insight into what makes these

initiatives strong and how

they can be sustained

2 New Study Says MOOCs Have Few Active Users

A new study from the

University of Pennsylvania

Graduate School of Education

reveals some interesting

findings related to MOOCs

3 Google Adds More to Play Google Play for Education

announced a new aspect of

their content distribution

strategy—digital books

4 6 Must-Have Evernote iPad Apps and Chrome Extensions

J Robinson lists additional

extensions and tablet apps that

make Evernote even more useful

and versatile for the school

leader and classroom teacher

5 Product Review: Britannica Pathways: Science

MaryAnn Karre reviews this

online, interactive approach to

teaching the scientific method

6 Animated Atlas: Growth of a Nation

A review of the growth of the U.S from the Revolutionary War until all the states were added in 1959

7 Favorite Student Apps & Tools At Tech Forum California,

students from elementary through high school shared their favorite apps and tools

8 Survey: Americans Concerned about Use of

Students’ Personal Data

Common Sense Media released

a survey showing adults are concerned about how students’ personal data may

be used to market to them

9 Send Them on Learning Missions

Shelly Terrell stopped giving her students homework and began to give them a choice

of missions and challenges

10 Top 100 Sites and Apps of 2013

David Kapuler cites digital storytelling as one of the most prominent themes in this year’s list

FINd lINks at WWW.techlearning.com/mar14

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The world’s most mind blowing feature ﬁ lms, television commercials and music

videos look amazing because they are ﬁ lmed with digital ﬁ lm cameras! The new

award winning Blackmagic Cinema Camera is unlike a regular video camera or

DSLR camera because it’s a true high end digital ﬁ lm camera! You get a true

Hollywood cinematic look with 13 stops of dynamic range, interchangeable

lenses, high quality RAW and ProRes ® ﬁ le recording plus much more!

Dramatically Better than DSLR Video

The Blackmagic Cinema Camera includes a large 2.5K sensor

for super sharp images that eliminate resolution loss HD bayer

sensors suffer from, while creating manageable ﬁ les that are

not too big! The large screen LCD allows easy focusing and the high speed SSD

recorder lets you record in ProRes ® , DNxHD ® and RAW ﬁ le formats for Final Cut

Pro X and DaVinci Resolve!

Super Wide Dynamic Range

The Blackmagic Cinema Camera captures an incredible 13 stops

of dynamic range so you can simultaneously capture the brightest

highlights and the darkest shadows all at the same time into the

recorded ﬁ le! This means you capture more of the scene than a regular video

camera can so you get more freedom for color correction for a feature ﬁ lm look!

You also get a full copy of DaVinci Resolve!

Film Industry Quality

Every feature of the Blackmagic Cinema Camera has been designed for quality With 2 separate models, you can choose from the world’s most amazing EF or MFT lenses from crafters such as Canon ™ , Zeiss ™ and more For extreme high end work, you can shoot full 12 bit CinemaDNG RAW uncompressed ﬁ les for incredible creative range in DaVinci Resolve color correction, as well as the world’s best chroma keying!

Accessories Built In

High end cinema cameras often require thousands of dollars of extra accessories to make them work, however the Blackmagic Cinema Camera includes accessories you need built in! You get a large 5 inch monitor, super fast SSD RAW recorder and professional audio recorder all built in! You also get UltraScope software, used via the built in Thunderbolt ™ connection, for on set waveform monitoring!

Blackmagic Cinema Camera

Includes DaVinci Resolve Software

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NEwS ANd TRENdS

T&L REaDER

SuRvEy

When Was The

lasT TIMe you

doWnloaded

an educaTIon

app?

/ISTOCKP hOTO/ThINKSTOCK

sITe We lIke

www.mIcrosoFt.com/ securIty/saFeroNlINe/

Microsoft launched the Safer Online site to spread the word about online safety and encourage people to “Do 1 Thing” to help make the Internet a safer place.

this ain’t your

1970’s snow day

It’s been a rough winter for much of the country, but

inclement weather doesn’t mean the learning stops

Here are tools many schools used to keep lessons rolling

anytime, anywhere:

* Google Apps for Education: Had a small-group

activity in mind for room 218, period 3? Set up a Google

Doc and have students answer questions collaboratively

from home If you have a presentation all ready for a

“live” class, throw it up to a shared class folder.

* Twitter #Chats: Use push notifications to send out

reminders, reading links, or review questions for

students Use class hashtags to help students easily find

relevant info, or create a class Twitter account Set up a

live #chat when you are available to answer questions

* Google Forms: Google Forms can be turned into quizzes

simply by asking content-specific questions Or they can be designed more like a handout

where students answer/practice/reflect on topic areas you wanted to cover face to face.

* G+ Communities: Create a G+ Community for just your class This makes a group page

where you can upload readings, videos, and links and have students comment on them

* Try a HangOut: Feeling like a live chat? Set up a Google Hangout on Air The added benefit is

this records the discussion for later viewing —Jennifer LaMaster, CIO Advisor

For more surVeys, VIsIt WWW.techlearning.com/aug13

50%

In the past month

9%

In the past year

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“How did it get so

late so soon?”

– Dr Seuss

For more information about how these award winning products can help address

everything from assessment to increasing access to educational resources,

visit www.stone-ware.com.

With a finite amount of hours in a school day, instruction time is more valuable than ever While we can’t stop time,

Stoneware’s products can help you maximize teaching during the school day Learn how LanSchool and

webNetwork can save you 10 minutes per class in recovered time That's an additional 150 teaching hours per year.

12 6

3 9

webNetwork / LanSchool

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NEwS ANd TRENdS

resources

for dIgITal

lITeracy

Tree Octopus Dog Island Free Forever spoof site Digital Literacies venn Diagram

read shelley terrell’s complete lIst at techlearning.com/mar13

for neW learning spaCes

Steelcase recently released the white paper, Technology-Empowered Learning: Six Spatial Insights, which examined ways that technological advances have redefined the classroom and the design of learning environments The report identified the following six insights to help educators consider spatial responses to tech integration:

■ Person-to-person connections remain essential for successful learning

■ Technology is supporting richer face-to-face interactions and higher-level cognitive learning

■ Integrating technology into classrooms mandates flexibility and activity-based spatial planning

■ Spatial boundaries are loosening

■ Spaces must be designed to capture and stream information

■ High-tech and low-tech will coexist

For more details, visit techlearning.com/mar13

why we still

need liBrarians

In a recent report, Leading In and Beyond the Library,

by digital learning and technology consultants Mary

Ann Wolf and Rachel Jones, the following suggestions

were made for policymakers and boards of education:

* Envision the role of school librarians as extending

beyond the physical space of the library and being

more than the keepers of books and reference

materials and consider the critical knowledge and

skills that school librarians bring to the digital

learning transition.

* Consider how funding the role of the school

librarian is also supporting teachers, students, and

administrators in the digital learning transition.

* Recognize how the library and the technology within

the library are essential to providing students with access to the Internet and research

and learning guidance and to leveling the playing field for students without access to the

Internet or devices at home, especially outside of regular school hours.

This same report made the following suggestions for librarians:

* Share how the collaboration, professional development, and instruction provided by the

school librarian are integral to the digital learning transition.

* Continue learning to be leaders in the digital learning transition and experts who

can provide professional development, implement new tools and resources, and guide

teachers, students, and administrators.

* Lead and model the potential of the library itself as a hub of digital learning and

the connection to rich and diverse content, and create a makerspace designed and

positioned to meet the needs of students and teachers.

sponsored by

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By Kevin, Phineas, and Theodore Hogan

LEGO Education StoryStarter is a

hands-on learning tool that enhances students’

reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills One set contains enough elements

to equip up to five students with everything they need to start constructing their

own stories

Quality and Effectiveness: Have LEGO

bricks ever been cooler? The classic

building toy can now be part of everyday

classroom work and can even be tied to

standards, thanks to the StoryStarter

curriculum packages The lesson plans, objectives, and rubrics

are meant to guide teachers toward building physical, mental, and

digital literacies, all while having fun While not the perfect solution,

StoryStarter comes close to fulfilling the promise of gamification

Ease of Use: You’d be hard pressed to find a kid who is not

comfortable with LEGO The challenge comes with the additional

element of working with StoryStarter Students are led into

conversation about creating characters and scenes and plots They

then create scenes using the specialized LEGO pieces

Here’s where it gets tricky Using a Web cam, digital camera, or smart

device, students can then take images of their creations and import

them into the software or application Students

then turn into desktop publishers—using a variety

of graphic design tools, they are charged with

creating dialogue, editing images, and learning

basic layout design While this product is

marketed for grades 2-5, we found our fifth-grade

reviewer more inclined to use the software, with

the second grader more intent on just building

with LEGO bricks

Of course, we can’t deny what most parents and

teachers would describe as the “LEGO Factor”—hundreds, if not thousands, of tiny plastic pieces that will inevitably find the floor The Core set does come with a tub designed to store the various pieces but our reviewers never seemed to get a handle on this concept

Creative Use of Technology: StoryStarter effectively bridges the

tactile with the digital and creative fun with rigor and assessment Logging on to the software is simple and the basic tools are intuitive Our student reviewers took right to it, although they needed help transferring and editing images and text All curriculum material is available as PDF and it is well written The software is a true tool Students weren’t so much “playing on the computer” as “making stories.”

Suitability for Use in a School Environment:

How effective these projects could be depends heavily upon class size and access to technology LEGO bricks are great but messy And keeping students on task could be a real challenge The lesson plans and rubrics are descriptive and solid As long as the teacher has a good grasp

on multimedia skills and a keen imagination, StoryStarter should be a great addition to a classroom

storystartEr CurriCulum PaCk

www.legoeducation.us/storystarter ■ retail price: $237.95 (Classroom pack)

toP Features

• The huge popularity of Lego makes it an obvious draw for students to engage with in class.

• The software tools are simple and intuitive, making the bridge between physical and digital play seamless.

• The curriculum materials are well written and easy to follow.

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The K-12 Blueprint offers resources for

education leaders involved in planning and

implementing technology initiatives.

These include:

• Case studies from schools and districts

involved in one-to-one and other

technology-supported initiatives.

• Practical tips from K-12 leaders and

practitioners.

• White papers, technology briefs and a

variety of helpful publications from Intel,

easily accessible in one place.

PLUS: Toolkits available now including:

• Bring Your Own Device (BYOD);

• Educational Technology Policy;

• Planning for Digital Content;

• ICT Program Evaluation;

• and Common Core Standards Evaluation.

Visit the

K-12 Blueprint Web Site!

The newly designed K-12 Blueprint website provides dynamic, just in time planning resources for the busy ed-tech professional.

Check out the new and improved site today If you like what you see, we invite

you to bookmark us, save and share your favorite Blueprint resources using the site’s new virtual briefcase, and subscribe to our twice-monthly newsletter to

receive updates on what’s new.

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By Frank Pileiro

HotSeat’s Edustation flight simulator is a realistic and

full-featured flight simulator that is designed to integrate into all areas of STEM education It is one of several models sold by the company This particular model is designed for middle and high school students It is self-contained and mobile so it can be shared among teachers in a variety of subjects

Quality and Effectiveness: The Edustation is well built and easily

moved The controls are sturdy and when they are combined with

the large screen and headphones, it is easy to get a real-life flight

experience The system is truly a plug-and-play model that gets you

up and running quickly Everything is self-contained, so you just

need to plug it in, start up the computer, and open the software

Ease of Use: The real power behind this product lies in the

software It is powered by Lockheed Martin’s Prepare3D flight

software The teacher can set the software so it can be tailored to a

variety of skill levels You can save and load flights that allow you to start

in the air or on the ground The hands-on controls give you everything

you need for flight and the onscreen cockpit is interactive and realistic

Like any new skill, there is a learning curve, but the software can be

adjusted to accommodate an aspiring pilot up to the most seasoned

aviator One thing I really liked is that you can turn off the crashing

mode so the plane just “bounces” off the ground and the user can

continue the flight

Creative Use of Technology: The Edustation simulator is a very

innovative use of technology because of the realistic environments teachers can create (e.g., weather, terrain, and location) to teach STEM subjects at a variety of skill levels Edustations can even be networked together to allow students to fly in groups or formations From small planes to large commercial jets, there are a variety of aircraft to challenge students While in the “cockpit,” there are controls that allow you to look around and change your views so you can get a real-life experience Students can actually learn how to fly with the Edustation.HotSeat is also developing 30 STEM lab lessons for middle and high school students Each lesson will be aligned to the Common Core standards and will be available in Fall 2014

Suitability for Use in a School Environment: The Edustation can

fit into a variety of curricular areas, especially math and science The unit is portable and easy to set up and run The cost for a single unit may be challenging for some districts, but its portability makes it easy

to share The students will be motivated and standing in line to use it

toP Features

• The realism of its flight simulation technology allows for flying in a variety of

environments and locations.

• it touches on many areas of STeM education, which gives teachers the

flexibility to use it for a variety of topics and subjects.

• The product’s portability and ease of use allow it to be shared by more than one

classroom This helps justify the cost for a single unit and reaches more students.

HotsEat CHassis EDustation

FligHt simulator

http://hotseatsim.com ■ retail price: $3,395

OVERALL RATING: HotSeat Chassis Edustation

is a very innovative use of flight simulator technology that makes

it fun to learn more about STEM subjects

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Are you attending the

ed tech event of the year?

With innovative solutions for every educator, ISTE 2014 is the

world’s leading ed tech conference — and it’s coming to Atlanta,

Ga Join thousands of educators Saturday, June 28, through

Tuesday, July 1, to discover the latest insights and develop the

skills to become a technology ambassador within your school

or district You will:

Ř Take back new tools and immediately applicable information

to share with colleagues.

Ř %eneŵ t from hundreds of hours of professional learning,

all in one place for one low price.

Program and schedule now available!

Head over to isteconference.org/program to view this year’s lineup

of fantastic sessions and keynotes Dive deeper into your learning

experience with our workshops before and during the conference!

Can’t make

it to Atlanta?

Registration begins March 6 for IS TE Live, our remote conference.

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By Carol S Holzberg

its product line by converting its desktop

applications into a subscription-based online

experience known as Creative Cloud (CC) All

applications except for Acrobat were upgraded

or enhanced Adobe introduced a new service

called Typekit, providing CC subscribers with

access to a growing library of high-quality fonts to

use in their Web projects Adobe also unveiled a new

social community called Behance, where members

can show work in progress, get feedback, and share

resources for use with applications like InDesign

CC and Flash Professional CC

Quality and Effectiveness: If you purchase a CC

product subscription, not only do you get a full

working application installed on your computer, it

also updates and upgrades each subscribed product

as it becomes available The previous version of

Adobe’s Creative Suite 6 gave licensed users free

access only to “updates.” Upgrades containing new

features, were available for an additional fee

Ease of Use: Most Adobe products share a similar

look and feel, with common toolbars, drop-down menus,

commands, panels, keyboard shortcuts, and tools like the

eyedropper, smart guides, paste-in-place, and edit Tools in one

program may appear in several others This means there is an

increased comfort level and a decreased learning curve for users

exploring each of the applications

Creative Use of Technology: Enhancement and

new features make Creative Cloud products more versatile than ever before For example, Photoshop

CC now features a shake reduction feature that helps sharpen an image by reducing the blur from handheld camera motion InDesign features a QR Code creator (Quick Response Code) that lets you create a graphic data code that can link to a Web hyperlink, plain text, text message, email or business card It can also be resized, colored and edited without compromising quality Adobe Illustrator CC comes with a Touch Type tool for more precise type manipulation of each letter in a text selection There are too many features and enhancements to mention them all in this brief overview Suffice it to say that the Adobe CC brush has touched all tools except for Acrobat

Suitability for Use in a School Environment: School personnel

installing Adobe CC products on local computers should understand that an Education Enterprise Agreement governs product installation

in new ways

aDobE CrEativE ClouD

www.adobe.com ■ retail price: pricing will differ from one institution to another based on its fTe count for large-scale deployments in k-12 classrooms and computer labs, adobe recommends that schools purchase Creative Cloud products under an adobe education enterprise agreement (eea)

toP Features

• Students work with the same industry standard tools that experts use

• updates and upgrades are free and available upon release

• creative activities produce output for mobile devices in addition to desktops,

laptops, and print publications

OVERALL RATING: Students who work in collaborative settings with real-world, industry standard applications such

as Adobe Creative Cloud can integrate digital media and technology tools into every project

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By Richard Ferdig and Kristine Pytash

Digital badges have captured the

imagination of many educators,

including those frustrated with

current assessment techniques

and practices A more thorough

explanation and history of

digital badges is available through a report

released last August by the Alliance for

Excellent Education

(http://all4ed.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/DigitalBadges

pdf) or through the Mozilla OpenBadges

project (http://openbadges.org/) However,

a simple definition for a digital badge is

digital recognition for accomplishing a skill

or acquiring knowledge after completing an

activity (e.g., a course, module, or project)

In the world of digital badges, there are those

who create badges, those who attempt to

achieve badges, those who recognize badges,

and those who seek to know people who have

obtained certain badges Digital badges have

arguably taken off in popularity given the

increase in massive open courses that are often

free and thus do not produce credits In sum,

digital badges have become an important way

to demonstrate a shared understanding of

accomplished outcomes

Though they may have capital in multiple

domains, digital badges are often new to teachers

and those who offer professional development

However, there are at least three key areas where

digital badges have implications for teachers and

their continuing education

1.– Digital Badges for Teacher

Professional Development Teachers

and educators often preach the

importance of personalization

and individualization of content for students However, professional development experiences for teachers are

theRe’S a BaDGe FOR that

ILLUSTRATION BY BRENdAN LEACh

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often one-size-fits-all excursions By engaging

teachers in conversations about digital badges,

district professionals are empowering teachers

to engage in conversations about what skills and

knowledge they need and want Additionally,

when teachers earn badges, they become part of

a community They are recognized as members

who have specific expertise, knowledge, and

abilities This is powerful as it recognizes

teachers as professionals who can assess their

current instructional needs and engage in

learning that addresses those needs

2.– Digital Badges for Teacher Education

District personnel and teachers need to be aware

that a conversation is happening at the university

level, led by educators like Ian O’Byrne and Greg McVerry (http://wiobyrne.com/ and http://jgregorymcverry

com/) This conversation

is focused on how teacher certification at the university, state, and national levels might begin to incorporate assessment through digital badges At this stage, it is too early to suggest implications for professional development However, school district personnel and teachers could begin to work with teacher educators to shape badge content and requirements

3.– Digital Badges for Instruction

Teachers are often introduced to badges in professional development as consumers of digital badges However, teachers should begin considering how they could become producers

of badges One goal of this work is for teachers

to consider how they could translate content and skills to badges as alternative forms of assessment for students

It is worth noting that teachers and district personnel need not investigate badges because they are the latest fad Rather, badges

challenge: swartz creek (mi) community schools

(sccs) understood the potential to improve

teach-ing—and ultimately student outcomes—through

effective teacher evaluations that informed

profes-sional learning to ensure such improvement-focused

evaluations, district officials knew they needed a

process that demonstrated administrators’

profi-ciency in conducting teaching observations equally

important, they needed an individualized process to

connect evaluation results with ongoing professional

learning for teachers

Solution: to address this challenge, the district

adopted the teachscape focus observation training

and assessment system and the teachscape reflect

observation and evaluation management system

with teachscape focus, administrators are trained

to conduct accurate and consistent teaching

obser-vations based on charlotte danielson’s framework

for teaching (fft) teachers are taught the

frame-work based on which subjects are being evaluated

“teachscape has helped us establish a common language around

teaching practice using the fft,” says adam hartley, assistant

super-intendent of curriculum and instruction at sccs “this common

language, when used as an embedded part of the evaluation and

professional learning processes, has been essential in creating a cycle

of continuous improvement.”

using teachscape reflect, administrators conduct and manage

teacher evaluations and then work collaboratively with teachers on

data-driven professional development based on the evaluations

together, they discuss areas of strength and weakness and

deter-mine strategies for instructional improvement in addition, teachers

at sccs participate in professional learning communities to reflect on their practices and learn from one another

teachscape has allowed district leaders to evaluate its teachers more effectively By providing the necessary training and assessment, all administrators and teachers understand and use the same definitions and criteria for evaluating teaching, thus creating teacher engage-ment and inter-rater reliability across the district and with an evalu-ation process that is entirely online, observations are more efficient and evaluations are more transparent looking ahead, the district plans to more heavily implement professional learning workshops focused on specific content areas

revaMPing PD anD Teacher evaLuaTion in Michigan

Swartz Creek Community Schools use teacher evaluations to improve teaching and student outcomes.

theRe’S a BaDGe FOR that

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