How Improving Typing Skills Can Improve Overall Communication

As someone who writes blogs as part of her job, I feel my words-per-minute more than most. I can pinpoint my early typing skills to particular summer I spent at a cousin’s house, stumbling inside out of the heat and falling into playing Stickybear Typing on their Apple II. This was during the era between electric typewriters and computer labs; computers were word processors and toys, not the educational, creative, data-collecting and professional powerhouses they are today.

Learning to type became just as crucial as learning to swim that summer, and it was a turning point in my confidence level and the way I put my ideas to work. I didn’t know it at the time because it was a game and I enjoyed it, but that summer spent typing was a game changer in my school and professional life.

Nowadays, kids learn their letters by the shape, sound, and where they are located on the QWERTY keyboard. How well they learn them, and how fast they can type them, could very well determine how well they do in school, how well they interact with others, and how well they communicate with the world at large.

Keyboarding gets their motor running.

And by this we mean motor skills. Keyboarding requires an artful application of fine and gross motor skills—locate keys by touch, applying just the right pressure when striking, and moving on to the next. It’s a common action those of us can do it take for granted; we simply think and the words seem to appear effortlessly on the page. The truth is, typing is a much more physical exertion, and one that requires constant practice, like playing an instrument or a sport, to maximize efficiency, accuracy, and confidence.

Keyboarding gets juices flowing.

This is where making keyboarding a part of early and ongoing curriculum just makes sense. Just like providing technology in the classroom on a one-to-one or shared basis is important to closing the digital divide for all kids, teaching keyboarding removes yet another barrier between inspiration and innovation. The faster kids can translate thoughts into sentences, sentences to words, words to letters, and letters into keys, the easier it becomes for them to use technology to express themselves, find what they are looking for, create what they mean to, and present what they intended. 

Keyboarding makes coding possible.

While coding will likely be a part of daily existence for our future workforce, it is simply another language our kids must learn to type. Basic computer skills start with typing, even in a touch screen environment. While Chromebooks and Windows10 laptops are becoming more and more hands-on with stylus pens and on-screen interactive elements, those advancements just give us more ways to use our hands to navigate the technological landscape.

Keyboarding apps and software abound, thank goodness, and the best ones, like Typing Instructor and UltraKey, teach children the correct finger-to-key movement as well as variety, drills, and tips on posture and how to improve accuracy speed. There are also typing programs geared for the younger set—Mickey’s Typing Adventure and Garfield’s Typing Pal, to name two good ones—that offer simple, fun, personalized games for the best results.

In the end, keyboarding makes students more proficient in educational technologies and the opportunities that come with them. The more exposure children get to a keyboard and what they can do with it, the faster and better they can learn.

10 For 10: Why Windows 10 Is Crushing It In The Classroom

Windows 10 keeps delivering more value to the classroom with a platform that is as fun to explore as it is to use while exploring.

Here are ten ways we think Windows 10 is a win for so many K12 schools and classrooms. 

1. Customized technology means personalized learning.
   According to PBS Learning Media, 73% of teachers say that technology allows them to create specific lesson plans tailored to individual learning styles. Teachers can specify the apps, programs, and settings for each student through their admin console, allowing them to create—and monitor—the learning environment for each student.

1. Students learn by touch, by movement, and by heart.
   Windows 10 devices speak education as their first language, and they translate accordingly to a variety of learners. The goal isn’t to teach every child the same way; the goal is to help kids realize how much they love to learn by approaching it in the way that comes most naturally to them. Touch screens, stylus pens, gesture inputs, and voice activation are just a few ways students can use technology to bridge the gap between questions and answers. 

1. Assisted learning gets an assist.
   It’s predicted that nearly 10% of the population is affected by a specific or undiagnosed learning disability, which can—and often does—have a profound effect on educational outcomes. Windows 10 supports inclusive classrooms by providing a technological environment that is compatible with a wide array of assistive applications that helps all students engage, interact, and collaborate with each other.  

1. Windows 10 puts it in writing.
   A recent study states that students who diagrammed their thinking with a pen scored up to 36% better on science tests than their keyboard stroking peers. Windows 10 takes advantage of Microsoft’s premier inking experience to bring ideas to life on every advice and application.

1. Keeping student data secret and safe.
   Ask any parent about technology in the classroom, and you’ll get their fears in the first two sentences. In fact, 79% of all parents are concerned with the security and privacy of their kids. Windows 10 addresses this head on with improved tools for data security, log-in validation measures, student identity protection, and malware protection.

1. Deploy in minutes.
   This one is for the teachers and administrators who didn’t necessarily sign-on to be IT professionals when they took their jobs. Windows 10 is arguably one of the easiest classroom technologies to deploy, monitor, and manage, offering a seamless transition process for users as well as in-place upgrades and assistance packages.

1. A class that works together, learns together.
   Collaboration is a skill kids learn early and practice often; to do it well takes repeated exposure to different ways of thinking, communicating, organizing and delegating. Windows OneNote makes easy work of this, enabling students and teachers to work on files simultaneously, whether they are across the room or across the country. Students stay on top of their work and, with collaboration tracking, teachers keep an eye on who’s participating.

1. Bring on the peripherals.
   Windows 10 not only makes it easier for students to collaborate and share with each other, but it also makes it easier to work across devices and connect to printers, cameras, digital microscopes, and several other devices.

1. More free apps mean more accessibility.
   School budgets are tight enough without having to add additional costs to one-to-one and shared technology. Microsoft’s education partners are constantly coming up with free and inexpensive ways to help children learn, and all are available in the Windows 10 app market.

1. Windows 10 puts the fun into getting things done.
   All in all, Windows 10 allows teachers to demonstrate ideas and concepts in a way that couldn’t do with traditional methods; they have moved beyond the front-of-the-room lecture and onto white boards, interactive presentations, video, and exploratory maps and wikis. By making learning more accessible and approachable, more kids participate in lessons and fewer kids get left behind. And that’s entirely the point.

Want to know how you can implement Windows 10 into your curriculum?

8 Things That Are Obsolete In 21st-Century Schools

Times are a-changing. If you were born before 1990, chances are you can walk into today’s 21st-century classroom and only find a handful of the items you used while you walked those hallways as a student. Here are eight things that are missing from today’s schools and what’s replaced them.

The Computer Lab

Remember the computer lab, the room filled with huge monitors, the smell of static, and the hum of twenty small fan blades cooling off core processors? No more. Computer labs have been replaced by mobile laptop carts and in-classroom device learning, and they are now used as additional classrooms and space for STEAM and STEM learning environments.

The Oregon Trail

Goodbye, wagon wheels. Hello, SimCityEDU. Instead of working to avoid dysentery, students are braving a new frontier of civil engineering and anthropology.

The School Newspaper

Also phasing out is the paper copy of the school newspaper. Thanks to schools embracing social media, there are far more effective methods to distributing information, events, updates, and more. 

One-Size-Fits-All Learning

Thanks to improving technology, teachers can now more easily identify the types of learners in their classroom and provide customized instruction based on a student’s ability to process information visually, audibly, or kinesthetically. By using test scores and software, teachers are better able to equip students to learn in a way that is most efficient and most effective.

Three-Ring Binders

The Trapper Keeper is to Google Docs as the ditto machine is to the copier. Schools and students alike are using less paper and more cloud-based solutions for note-taking, homework, and collaboration.

Chalkboards

Gone are the dusty slate walls of yesterday, as is the dreaded end-of-day task of clapping erasers and washing the boards. Today most schools use white boards and smart boards to provide more than just math equations and verb conjugations; they can share informative videos, visual aids, guest speakers, and more.

Cursive

Dropping cursive from some curriculum has been a bit controversial as of late, but with typing and keyboarding such a crucial part of learning and connecting with the world these days, something had to go.

Floppy Disks

Five-and-a-half or three-and-a-quarter? If these sizes mean something to you, it may be hard to believe they don’t mean a thing to today’s learners, who operate solely on thumb drives and cloud storage.

These are just a handful of the ways today’s learning environments are different from the past. What are we missing from this list?

Why Kids Should Learn To Program In Schools

While the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts jobs for computer programmers will decline 8% over the next decade in the United States, coding is becoming the most in-demand skill across industries. And most experts agree that teaching it to kids should be our first priority.

In his Time Magazine article, “Why Schools Should Teach More Than Basic Coding” Tim Bajarin says, “We live in a complex world, one in which technology plays a major role and more jobs require computer skills. Both coding and computational skills classes need to be a mandatory part of our youth’s education if they are to be prepared to compete for the jobs of the future and live successfully in a world where technology will be integrated into every part of their personal and professional lives.”

Several studies back opinion; while jobs specific to computer programmers may be decreasing, more and more industries are requiring coding as part of their job descriptions, much like Microsoft Office proficiency was preferred during the turn of the 21st century. Burning Glass Technologies found that coding skills are being increasingly required in significant industries; in fact, seven million job openings in 2015 were in occupations which value coding skills, including nformation technology, data analysis, design, engineering, and science.

During his presidency, President Obama stressed the importance of mandatory computer programming education in schools as the “Hour of Code” swept the nation. Students as young as kindergarten began to understand the inner workings of their favorite games.

Programming isn’t only a popular part of the curriculum, it’s also becoming the most essential. Learning how and why to do something is becoming more important than what and when; the former must be learned, and the latter can be looked up, confirmed, and researched in a matter of seconds. As schools navigate and use technology in their classrooms, coding becomes the universal language in which students can write their own ticket for success.

Interested in learning how technology can improve your classroom? Arey Jones is here to help.

Technology Closes Gaps In Different Learning Styles

As every educator knows, students process and digest information in a variety of ways. Visual learners remember best what they read or see. Auditory learners understand best by listening and speaking. Kinetic learners feel most comfortable jumping in and physically learning as they go. So many different learning styles can cause quite a challenge for teachers trying to make sure every student is on the same page.

Enter educational technology.

Integrating technology into the classroom is a beneficial practice for students and teachers alike. Teachers can incorporate students’ learning styles into the lesson and execute them over a variety of devices to ensure students learn in the way they are most comfortable.

For instance, the same lesson can be visually demonstrated while also accompanied by narration and tactile touchscreen assignments help round out the educational appeal. Educational devices allow students to actively participate in the learning, even before they are aware of their own specific learning preference.

These positive practices can extend beyond the classroom and into the home for nightly homework sessions at the kitchen table. Students can peruse the entire day’s lesson plans with access to its presentations, recorded lectures and interactive worksheets, allowing them to proceed at their own pace and in their own way.

Whatever the student’s learning style, tablets and computers have a place on their desk. Educational technology aims to ensure no child is left behind both in the details of the day’s assignment and the scope of the bigger picture.

We believe technology should always enhance a classroom, not distract from it. When you need an integrated technology architecture that works seamlessly with your classroom, school, and district goals, we at Arey Jones can help you design a solution that works.

K-12 Blueprint Faces Privacy And Security Challenges Head On

One of the most important factors in making educational technology more accessible is making sure it remains in a safe and secure environment at all time. Protecting student, administrative, and institutional data is an important concern and one that organizations like K-12 Blueprint take seriously.

With almost 20 informational presentations and programs, K-12 Blueprint guides teachers and educational leaders in protecting student and institutional information. Measures like “need to know” access and secure student profiles are addressing the privacy and security issues head-on.

“A breach of a school’s student information system raises massive privacy concerns, but it starts as a security breach,” said Bob Moore in his Analyst Report for K-12 Blueprint. “Ensuring security of data does not ensure privacy, but without effective security measures, there can be no expectation of privacy.”

Fortunately, K-12 Blueprint believes security is a top priority for education technology and has designed a security and privacy toolkit to address threats and concerns before they emerge. From device to data and third-party apps, K-12 Blueprint offers detailed plans for addressing third party advertisement vendors, mobile device student privacy terms, and how to create a healthy metadata environment for parents, teachers, and schools.

We believe technology should always enhance a classroom, not distract from it. When you need an integrated technology architecture that works seamlessly with your classroom, school, and district goals, we at Arey Jones can help you design a solution that works.

5 Stress-Free Ways To Manage Chromebooks In The Classroom

Introducing technology into the classroom unlocks numerous educational benefits for parents, teachers, and students. It can also introduce distraction, hassle, and disorder. To help keep stress levels low, here are some tips for managing and organizing technological tools in the classroom.

1. Labeling Chromebooks and other hardware is the first step to device organization. Different colored tape or marker provides differentiation among students’ devices. Another possible suggestion is to set the background on the device as the child’s school picture for easy recognition when lost.

1. Set aside time at the end of the day for students to put Chromebooks and other devices in their backpacks to avoid last minute confusion.

1. Keep better tabs with tracking apps, which allow teachers to track the location of their students’ devices while also providing another layer of security.

1. Designate a time once every two weeks to update all devices to the latest software. Keep the devices at school overnight and ensure they are all up-to-date. While the devices refresh and recharge, students can, too!

1. Speaking of charging, create a power station for your students’ Chromebooks and tablets to ensure they are always ready for a full day of work. Label cords with the same color as the one on the device and make sure students place their device in the same spot each time.

Remember, technology devices are supposed to make teaching easier. Maximize the benefits by plugging into device organization tips that work.

We believe technology should always enhance a classroom, not distract from it. When you need an integrated technology architecture that works seamlessly with your classroom, school, and district goals, we at Arey Jones can help you design a solution that works.

5 Ways Educational Apps Improve Classroom Performance

With the introduction of technology into the classroom becoming more prevalent, it begs the question: What makes using education apps worthwhile?

The answer?

First, apps used for education come in a variety of subject genre. Companies like Google provide students with numerous apps they, and their teachers, can use in the classroom. Google sheets, Google Play for Education, and Google Art Project are just a few of Google’s many education platforms. In addition to google there are many apps for each classroom subject such as Choreo Graph which teaches students STEM information through interactive lessons and activities.

Second, the process of downloading an app is a quick and easy process. Compared to the old way of ordering books and lessons, an app download is one click away. All the knowledge teachers and students require is at the touch of a button in moments.

Third, apps can be mobilized. Most apps in the Google G Suite are transferrable and work on multiple devices. Students and teachers can take the day’s lesson right out of the classroom without missing a beat or falling behind. 

Fourth, this mobility of apps also means an increase in sociability between teachers, parents, and students. Parents can acquire status reports from these apps to monitor how their child is performing. They can also actively participate in their child’s lesson via apps’ sharing capabilities.

Finally, apps cut down the cost for the institution. Textbooks and workbooks for every student are no longer necessary and one app download can be shared with the entire class without paying per student. The expansive quality of an app is worth its weight in gold.

Interested in learning how apps can improve your classroom? Arey Jones is here to help.

A Crash Course In Managing Classroom Technology

Today’s classrooms look nothing like they did 20 years ago. Notebooks are being replaced with laptops, chalkboards with smart boards, cursive with typing. Say what you will with the changing of the times, students today have the ability to participate much more actively in their education, and technology has a huge hand in making sure it happens smoothly, effectively, and measurably.

How well that classroom technology works depends on how it is designed, implemented, and supported. The actual classroom computers play a relatively small role in today’s modern educational environments; more important is how easy software is to find and use, which peripherals are connected, the strength and security of the network, and how well it is balanced with offline curriculum objectives.

In fact, when it comes to managing classroom technology, there are six questions you should consider.

1. Will technology engage my students and make them active participants in learning?
   It absolutely can. Technology, when used properly and when it works consistently, is an amazing classroom tool to support and engage students. However, simply having classroom computers or several available apps will not make every student learn and retain more or better information. The key is having the devices, peripherals, network, and support in place to make sure you have the right classroom technology for your age group, interests, and goals. Most importantly, remember that classroom computers are there to support the learning, not to drive it; they will never replace the most important element of the classroom--you, the teacher.

1. Will the technology help me measure their individual progress so that I can better assess their needs and align them with their personal and classroom growth?
   There are several apps and programs available that will both enhance your curriculum and provide you with supportive feedback to gauge your classroom learning and information retention. True retention and understanding are demonstrated in a student’s ability to put the information into practice and into their own words; technology helps support that process by allowing teachers measurable data on which to base individual and future instruction.

1. How much technology am I comfortable with in the classroom? How much time do I need to reasonably allow for distribution, powering up and logging in, use, and powering down?
   Much of this is a personal preference of the teacher and the actual learning environment. Classrooms with a 1:1 device ratio typically have a more streamlined approach to technology; everyone can start and stop a lesson plan at about the same time. Those classroom environments that share technology must rotate the use of their electronics as needed. The key is balancing the type of learning taking place and whether or not it helps you achieve your overall curriculum objectives. This takes time, discipline, awareness, and flexibility; the active use of these four components will help you discover the right mix of technology and traditional learning that works for your unique classroom needs.

1. Which comes first: the lesson plan, or the technology used to support its instruction?
   It’s our opinion that the offline lesson plans—and teachers—should always drive the classroom experience. Technology is an amazing away to support classroom objectives and, while there may be some instances where an application or program could inspire additional or new learning, the key should always be how best to engage students to be active participants in their own education, social awareness, and personal lives. Technology can support these goals in huge and impactful ways, especially when it is balanced with other "unplugged" directives.

1. Which technology apps are best for me and my classroom?
   You can imagine we get this question a lot at Arey Jones, and we answer it differently every time because no school, classroom, and teacher are the same. That said, educational applications and programs can help integrate awareness, practice, and retention throughout every step of the learning curve. We can help you discover which of these would be right for your district and classroom needs.

2. How do I minimize distractions?
   The best way to ensure technology does not increase or create distractions is to use it purposefully. Your students should be aware of how the technology supports the specific lesson and what goals they are trying to achieve while using it. Providing the proper balance of online and offline time will help students stay focused and engage with the material in different formats, allowing for deeper learning and understanding.

We believe technology should always enhance a classroom, not distract from it. When you need an integrated technology architecture that works seamlessly with your classroom, school, and district goals, we at Arey Jones can help you design a solution that works.

How To Use Technology Fearlessly In The Common Core Classroom

One of our goals at Arey Jones is to give our schools and teachers the resources they need to make the most of the technology they have in the classroom. We came across this article by Stephanie Novak from the International Society for Technology in Education that hits on the challenges and the opportunities that come with integrating technology into the Common Core curriculum.

In it, Novak addresses seven ways to welcome and embrace technology in your classroom, broken down and paraphrased as follows.

1. Don’t Try To Learn Everything At Once
   Channel the growth mindset you teach your students when it comes to technology in the classroom. It’s not that you are not a master of classroom technology; you aren’t a master of classroom technology YET. Take your time and take it one at a time.

2. Don’t Reinvent Your Curriculum
   Common Core has been around for years, and textbook publishers have grown and changed to accommodate it. Use technology to support your current efforts, allowing teachers and administrators access to new materials, lesson plans, resources, and ideas to help breathe new life into your material and engage students in a whole new way.

3. Integrate The Interactive
   Whether you begin with blogs or welcome the wiki, find a platform that allows your students to send their ideas and work to you in an easy and accessible way. Students are often encouraged to show what they know and understand within the Common Core framework, and these personal publishing platforms are a great way to do it.

4. Who’s Ready For Podcasts?
   Don’t be intimidated by podcasts, the popular method of sharing information via live and recorded feeds. Using Audio, Visual, and Video—or a combination of all three—students can represent their knowledge with graphics, images, vocabulary, and video in unique and collaborative ways.

5. Keep Parents In The Loop
   Keeping parents informed while reducing the amount of paper that goes home is getting harder and harder. To communicate effectively, classrooms, schools, and districts have to engage their parent network in a way that is both clear and easy to use. More and more schools are turning to online and mobile tools to keep their families informed of important deadlines, school-wide events, and student progress.

6. Expand Your Classroom Environment
   Who says learning has to stay in the classroom? Use and share multimedia clips and videos to help hammer subject matter home—and then make the clips accessible from home.

7. Give Them The “Write” Stuff
   With acronyms, emojis, and shortened text taking over our student vocabulary, it takes some serious instruction to help them communicate effectively with each other and across generations, cultures, platforms, and subject matters. There are many great resources available to teachers to support them in their Common Core objectives, including ways to incorporate additional media elements, like video and live interviews.

The author goes on to include relevant applications, books, and resources as she dives into details, so don't miss a word of it. Read the full article here.

Common Core was designed to help students be more prepared for college and career, and technology will play an imperative role in both. And it all starts with what you do now.

What do you think about Common Core? Let us know!