2015 Tech Year in Review

The following has been borrowed from my end of year post last year as it still remains appropriate. "The one guaranteed constant in educational technology is change, and the pace of that change is definitely accelerating. So as we approach the New Year I thought it a virtuous time to reflect on this year's development in the use of technology at my school."

The biggest shift I have seen with the use of technology had been a pedagogical one. I have begun to find teachers have moved away from asking about how to use specific programs, apps and hardware to focusing on this is what I want to teach what tools are out there to enhance the learning desired. This has included coding, makerspaces, video conferences and mystery locations. I have found a major shift towards teaching genres of programs eg word processing and presentation rather than 'word' and 'powerpoint'. I believe that this has been driven by a greater reliance on cloud based computing.

This year has been a great year to see many of the elements I wrote about last year get classroom practices built behind them, enriching the learning experience for all students. It has also been a year when teachers and students have embraced FAIL (first attempt in learning) and SAIL (second attempt in learning) realising that it doesn't always work out the way we plan things and back up plan is always helpful.

I have seen a massive growth on teacher take up in social media for professional development especially twitter. Guerrilla PD is an article that I wrote that has supported the uptake at my school.

While I haven't written much about specific programs and apps, I am encouraged because I have experienced the better utilisation of the technology we already have and observed teachers using this in increasing innovative ways.

For more information on programs and apps that we have implemented in the past please refer to the 2014 Year in Review.

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