Nail Your Next Tech PD with the Quadrant Graph
“Teachers are the toughest students.” Everyone who has ever conducted professional development has muttered some variation of that quote at one time or another. It’s no surprise that a classroom of teachers is a tough audience. They spend their days...
A Coaching/Mentoring Tool for All Subject Areas
If someone has passed this article 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...
Adding Standards and Other Alignments to the Coaching Tool
The July 2023 update to TIM Tools adds the ability to load alignments into the TIM-C Coaching Tool. Super, but… What’s an alignment? The short answer is anything you can express in 3,000 characters or less of text plus a title and optional web link to a...
The Technology Uses and Perceptions Survey and Excel
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...
Ten Tips for TIM-O Observers
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...
Universal Design for Learning and the Technology Integration Matrix
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. ...
Using TIM Tools Data Analysis Templates
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...
Survey Library Additions
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....
TIM PD Activity: Build a Matrix
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...
TIM PD Activity: Take It Up a Level
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...
Site Banner Customization
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....
Using TUPS Collection Frameworks
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 introduced the concept of “collection frameworks.” In previous versions of TIM Tools, the Technology...
Working with TUPS Data: The First Read-Through
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...
Start with a Reflection
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...
Introducing TIM to Your Teachers
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...
Using TUPS Data: Individual Items
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...
Comfort and Confidence as Professional Development Goals
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...
Customize Your TIM Tools Site
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,...
The TIM and Time Management
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...
TIM Tools: What level of license do I need?
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...
Path Models and Technology Integration: A PD Cheat Sheet
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...
Talking TIM: A Common Vocabulary
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...
Regional Agencies, Associations, Consultants, and Others Who Manage TIM Tools on Behalf of Others
The TIM Tools suite makes it easy for educational service agencies (ESAs), 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...
SIS IT Driver’s License
Several presenters at a recent tech conference shared how they were using TIM Tools in their respective schools. Today, I would like to share one aspect of the professional development program implemented at the Stockholm International School as presented by Anurag...
FETC 2021
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...
Cybersecurity Education and the TIM
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...
Quick Surveys on the Fly
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...
Goal-Directed Learning: Escape from the “Schoolwork Box”
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,...
TIM Instructional Planning Model
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...
TIM Tools for Dissertation Research
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...
Authentic Learning: Mirroring the Real World
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...
Constructive Learning: Making Connections
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...
Ownership of Learning with 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...
The Beauty of Failure in Coaching
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...
EdTech Consultants, PD Providers, and Exercise Bicycles
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...
Tech Exploration in the Classroom
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...
The SAMR Model and the Technology Integration Matrix
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...
Eight Great Habits for Learning with Technology
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 and the Technology Integration Matrix
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 and the Technology Integration Matrix
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...
ISTE Standards and the Technology Integration Matrix
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...
#COACHBETTER Spotlight
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...
Ultimate Teaching Device
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...
Using the TIM-C Coaching Tool
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...
TIM Tools: Do I need a school or a district license?
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...
Admin Guide at Your Service
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...
Collaborative Learning: Building Knowledge in Community
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...
The Invisible Technology Integration Matrix
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...
When Old Tech Is Better
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...
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