Last month we looked at the use of Excel Templates. This month we’ll consider what can be done simply within Excel itself to review data or to filter it for later use in the TUPS Data Analysis Template. Sorting Looking around. It never hurts to take a...
Classroom observations are a key component of any professional development program. Having a good observation instrument helps, but no observation instrument is of much value unless used well by the observer. Whether you are an administrator, coach, or peer teacher...
I have previously posted articles relating the Technology Integration Matrix to the ISTE Standards, TPACK, Bloom, and SAMR models. A recent gardening experience (see sidebar) prompted me to add a post about Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to the series. ...
Administrators of TIM Tools sites can view their data four different ways: Using the built-in Report Tool Downloading raw data and importing into their own statistical software Using an API Downloading and importing into a TIM Tools template It’s the template...
Whenever I look at our internal dashboard of TIM Tools use across all of our clients, I can see that hundreds of surveys are being created by schools and districts using the Survey Tool. But none of these are being shared with other schools or districts....
This is the second in a series of professional development activities we have used when introducing the Technology Integration Matrix to teachers. If participants walk away from a professional development session with only one thought, I’d want it to be the...
We’re often asked by PD departments, “What is the best way to train our teachers in using the Technology Integration Matrix?” Of course, there’s no one answer to that question, but in coming months, I plan to share some of the ideas we’ve...
Three changes to banner customization in version 7.0 of TIM Tools bring additional choices, zippier options, and more convenience to banner selection. 1. More Choices Previous versions of TIM Tools had a hundred banner choices in the banner customization panel....
To support the needs of larger districts, regional centers, and clients with numerous grant projects or special tech initiatives, version 7.0 of TIM Tools introduces the concept of “collection frameworks.” In previous versions of TIM Tools, the Technology...
The Technology Uses and Perceptions Survey provides a rich source of information to guide technology initiatives, professional development efforts, purchasing decisions, and tech planning. Each section can be unpacked in specific ways and the Excel report template we...
We frequently consult with school districts that have recently licensed TIM Tools. Generally, we suggest that they start by administering the Technology Uses and Perceptions Survey (TUPS) to collect baseline data. This is especially important for districts that are...
A question that often comes up in courses and consultations is, “What’s the best way to introduce the Technology Integration Matrix to my teachers?” While there’s no one best answer for all schools or districts, here are a couple of principles...
If someone has passed this post along to you, it’s probably because your school or district currently licenses TIM Tools, and the tech person wants you to know how you can leverage the license to support coaching or mentoring in your subject area regardless of...
The Technology Uses and Perceptions Survey (TUPS) is a rich source of data to identify professional development needs, document the successes of technology initiatives, and inform purchasing decisions. Over the next year or so, I plan to write a series of posts on...
Given a choice, which session do you think your teachers would prefer? Professional Learning Meeting Friday 3:00-4:00 Topic: Uploading course content into our new LMS Professional Learning Meeting Friday 3:00-4:00 Topic: Getting Comfortable Last month I wrote about...
We always encourage TIM Tools clients to customize their TIM Tools site. Most customizations are things that the user never sees, such as roles and permissions. In this post, however, I’d like to focus on three areas that all users will see: your site banner,...
If you didn’t think teaching time management in school was an important skill, take five minutes to talk to any parent or grandparent who struggled with kids at home and “Zoom School” in the past year. Subtract the usual scaffolding of a physical...
A year or so ago, I wrote a post answering the question, “Do I need a school or a district license?” Today, I’d like to address what level of license a school or district requires. The level of license required is determined by the number of members...
When we think about technology integration and how best to support our teachers in this area, a logical question to come up might be “What influences teachers’ use of technology besides being told to use it more?” Educational researchers often use path analysis as a...
We often present the Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) as a “common vocabulary” for technology integration. We didn’t pick that phrase out of thin air. The TIM was developed to meet a specific, pressing need, although its utility as a “common...
The TIM Tools suite makes it easy for educational service agencies, consultants, foundations, and others to manage multiple clients within a single TIM Tools instance. The Tools allow for complete customization of administrative rights when one agency is managing a...
In the coming months, I plan to feature some of our presenters from the FETC conference in January. Today, I would like to share one aspect of the professional development program implemented at the Stockholm International School as presented by Anurag Choudhary, the...
For decades, FETC has been one of the most important educational technology conferences. Originally, FETC stood for the “Florida Educational Technology Conference,” but it long ago outgrew Florida and is now the “Future of Education Technology...
Recently, a colleague mentioned how well he thought the Technology Integration Matrix supported cybersecurity education. Huh? That caught me a bit off guard. The TIM is all about supporting ownership of learning and higher-order thinking skills, but doesn’t...
If we’ve learned anything over this past year, it’s that we need to be quick to adapt to changing circumstances. And quick to collect information we may not have needed previously. TIM Tools clients should remember that they already have a convenient...
This is the fifth and final post in a series on the characteristics of meaningful learning as used in the Technology Integration Matrix. The previous posts were Active Learning: Engaging Students’ Minds, Collaborative Learning: Building Knowledge in Community,...
I’ve had the opportunity to observe in many different classrooms across a wide variety of schools and districts. In the best of classrooms, one notices a harmonious relationship among curriculum demands, student needs, and technology integration. In other...
We regularly correspond with graduate students planning to use TIM Tools as a part of their doctoral research. The Technology Integration Matrix is frequently used as a theoretical framework in studies of classroom technology integration because it is uniquely...
This is the fourth in a series on the characteristics of meaningful learning. The previous posts were Active Learning: Engaging Students’ Minds, Collaborative Learning: Building Knowledge in Community, and Constructive Learning: Making Connections. Last month, I...
This is the third in a series on the characteristics of a meaningful learning environment. The previous posts were Active Learning: Engaging Students’ Minds and Collaborative Learning: Building Knowledge in Community. The Constructive characteristic of the Technology...
Last year I wrote a post called “The Invisible Technology Integration Matrix” in which I introduced the reader to some of the underlying concepts of the Technology Integration Matrix or TIM for short. One of the most important concepts behind the TIM is...
I recently happened across the website of a EdTech consulting company that referenced “epic failures” on their homepage. I loved it. First, because they were confident enough in their own work to write that up front. And second, because they understood...
Sometimes EdTech consultants or PD providers are surprised that FCIT is eager to license TIM Tools to them. After all, they may know—or at least surmise—that FCIT itself has a long history of EdTech consulting work and PD. Why the enthusiasm for supporting a possible...
Throughout the Technology Integration Matrix there is a consistent reference to student exploration of technology tools beginning at the Adaptation level. The emphasis on not only allowing, but also encouraging, exploration is no accident. In our busy schedules we...
Earlier this year I began a series to answer questions we often get from schools and districts that are considering implementing the Technology Integration Matrix (TIM). Often those questions are about how the TIM relates to models and standards they are already...
As I write this, we are currently in the midst of The Great, Worldwide Experiment in Online Education of 2020. Never before has there been so obviously a need for students to be able to use their technology in ways that follow sound pedagogical principles. Students...
TPACK is one of the best known frameworks for technology integration. It has its roots in work done in the 1980s by Lee Schulman who noted that is was not sufficient for teachers to know pedagogy and the content of their teaching area as two separate fields. To be...
Bloom’s Cognitive Taxonomy is familiar to nearly every educator. The illustration at left shows the six categories of Anderson and Krathwohl’s 2001 revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and...
We spend a great deal of time of each week speaking with school and district leaders who are considering adopting the Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) and TIM Evaluation Tools. Invariably, the conversation comes around to questions about how the TIM relates to...
Kim Cofino at #COACHBETTER SPOTLIGHT interviews James Welsh regarding the five characteristics of effective educational technology from a coaching perspective. Listen to the full hour-long podcast at CoachBetter.tv or watch the 15-minute spotlight version on...
So your school or district has decided to implement the Technology Integration Matrix (Good choice!) and it falls to you to provide the professional development for your teachers. Fear not! The TIM website now has over 1,000 pages of content you can use. So where to...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Ultimate Teaching Device Identified Tampa, FL (September 26, 2019) After years of testing, the Florida Center for Satirical Research has determined that the ultimate teaching device is not the celebrated Infotroneks 2000 adopted by many leading...
It comes as no surprise that TIM Tools clients tend to have strong coaching/mentoring programs in their schools or districts. Current clients use the TUPS, TIM-O, and ARTI to support tech planning, resource allocation, research and evaluation, and professional...
You might think that a school would always need a School license and a district would always need a District license. While that may be true in most cases, experience has taught us that our clients often use TIM Tools in ways that we never anticipated, so it’s...
We love interacting with TIM Tools clients via email, phone, or videoconference. Sometimes a conversation with a real live human is the most efficient way of getting started with TIM Tools. When we get a phone call from a tech director who says, “I need to...
This is the second in a series on the characteristics of a meaningful learning environment. The first was Active Learning: Engaging Students’ Minds. The Collaborative characteristic describes the degree to which technology is used to facilitate, enable, or...
On the surface, the TIM looks pretty simple. There are five characteristics of effective learning environments: Active, Collaborative, Constructive, Authentic, and Goal-Directed. And there are five levels of technology integration ranging from the Entry to the...
Each week at FCIT, we interact with a wide range of schools and districts in a number of different countries. Many have enviable levels of the latest technology available to their students and teachers. Others struggle to provide even outdated, shared digital devices...
Nearly a year in the making, the revised TIM descriptors are ready for publication. Last summer, we began conversations with some of our TIM Tools clients about revising the wording of the setting descriptors so that they applied equally well in virtual environments....
There are many protocols for observing classroom technology integration, including FCIT’s own Technology Integration Matrix and our corresponding TIM-O tool. In this post, I’m using the word “protocol” broadly to refer to any checklist, survey,...