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...

Characteristic Dominance: A Key to Targeting Professional Development

As part of the TIM Tools suite, the Technology Integration Matrix Observation Tool, known as the TIM-O, is a framework for guiding the observation and evaluation of a lesson. It can be used for in-person, online, and hybrid lessons. When a lesson observation is...

Level Prevalence: A Snapshot of Typical Teacher Classroom Technology Use

Over the last few months, we have published a series of posts entitled “Getting the Most from your TIM Observation Data.” The purpose of this series is to guide you in making the best use of the data from your TIM Observations in support of targeting...

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...

Using the TUPS to Target Professional Development

As part of the TIM Tools suite, the Technology Uses and Perceptions Survey (TUPS) provides information on teacher beliefs about and perceptions of technology in instruction as well as current instructional uses. Comprised of 200 items, the TUPS is often used for...

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...

Quick and Easy Check-Ins with the Survey Tool

In our recent conversations with teachers and educational leaders at various levels, two things came through loud and clear: everyone is working at maximum capacity to maintain instructional continuity, and the last thing teachers need is another philosophical tome...

Ramp Up Your PD Today

Effective use of technology, as described by FCIT’s Technology Integration Matrix (TIM), is more important now than ever. As your teachers move to, or increase their use of, online instruction it is critical that you offer support and guidance. The TIM Tools...

Leveraging Your TIM Tools

Many schools and districts are scrambling to support teachers who suddenly find themselves teaching online for the very first time. In addition, of course, to the technical challenges, schools and districts have an enormous professional development and support...

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...

Flexibility: A Teacher’s Range of Technology Integration Levels

Several months ago we started a new series entitled “Getting the Most from your TIM Observation Data.” The purpose of this series is to help you leverage the data from TIM Observations so that you can gain a deeper understanding of the technology-related strengths 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...

Highest Levels Observed: The High Watermark for an Observation

In October, we started a new series entitled “Getting the Most from your TIM Observation Data.” The purpose of this series is to provide more detailed explanations of the various concepts included in the TIM-O report, including information on how the data are derived...

#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...

TIM Tools Application Programming Interface

The TIM Tools development team has always put an emphasis on the school or district’s convenient access to their own data. Clients can create reports just by making a few selections in the Report Tool. Data from the TUPS, TIM-O, TIM-R, and TIM-LP can be...

PD Resources for Implementing the TIM in Your School or District

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...

Extensity: A Teacher’s Highest Integration Level

This month we will begin a new series entitled “Getting the most from your TIM Observation Data.” A careful consideration of your TIM-O data will give you a deeper understanding of the technology-related strengths and needs of your teachers so you can more...

Choosing Models and Modeling Choices

The Second Handbook of Information Technology in Primary and Secondary Education is out this year and it includes an article by Scott McLeod entitled, “Technology Integration, Leadership, and Organizational Support Frameworks for Instructional Improvement with...

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...

TIM-Powered Research and Evaluation

In a previous post I highlighted updates to our published research page and mentioned several ways we are seeing the Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) used in research studies. In this post I would like to give a little more information about each of these...

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...

“C” is for Coaching: Introducing the TIM-C

The September update of TIM Tools will include a new tool: the TIM-C. Many of our current clients have been using data from one or more of the TIM Tools to support their coaching programs, while documenting coaching cycles within spreadsheets or other tools that...

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...

Check out our updated TIM Research page!

  It is exciting to see more and more examples of people using the Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) and TIM Tools in their research! We recently updated the Research page on our website to share these with you. Our goal is to strengthen the body of knowledge...

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...

What do we mean by “independent access”?

I was recently talking with a friend at a school district about their upcoming round of TIM observations and we went down an interesting path talking about independence as it is discussed in the Technology Integration Matrix. A lot turns on independence. At the first...

Third Edition of the TIM Descriptors Arriving Soon!

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....

How many observations do I need?

Here’s a great question I recently received: In your experience, what are the optimal numbers of TIM Lesson Plan (TIM-LP) reviews per teacher and TIM Observations (TIM-O) per teacher to get actionable data? This is an interesting question and there is no...

3 Things To Look for in Any Classroom Observation Protocol

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,...

Active Learning: Engaging Students’ Minds

The Technology Integration Matrix was not designed simply to promote the use of technology, but rather to encourage the use of whatever technology is available to promote effective, researched-based pedagogy. When constructing the TIM, we examined how technology could...

Leveraging TIM Tools Roles for Research and Evaluation

The addition of customizable roles in TIM Tools v6.0 has made it convenient to create and track different groups when evaluating technology initiatives, PD programs, or other interventions. The new roles feature defines eight different sets of permissions, or roles,...

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...

Rockin’ Roles in TIM Tools 6.0

Each new instance of TIM Tools includes eight predefined roles: Super Administrator, District Leader, Zone Leader, School Leader, District Observer, Zone Observer, School Observer, and Teacher. The default permissions for each of the eight roles are preset to what is...

TIM Tools 6.0 Arrives!

FCIT is rolling out a major upgrade to TIM Evaluation Tools this month. Site administrators will now have much greater flexibility to create and define roles within the system. The standard TIM Tools installation now comes with eight default roles: Super...

Regional Agencies, Associations, Consultants, and Others Who Manage TIM Tools on Behalf of Others

Version 6.0 of TIM Tools now makes it much easier for regional service agencies, consultants, foundations, and others to manage multiple clients within a single TIM Tools instance. It’s always been possible to do so and has been done most frequently by...

Using TIM Tools around the World

TIM Tools have been successfully used in individual schools and entire school systems around the world, but the new version 6.0 now makes it even easier to configure a TIM Tools instance to match the structure of just about any type of school system. The addition of a...

TIM Tools 6.0 and Private Schools

Much of the attention surrounding the version 6.0 release of TIM Tools regards the new flexibility of creating and defining roles within the system. While this may be somewhat more important to large school systems, it also has practical application to individual...

TIM Tools 6.0 in Higher Ed

Although colleges of education have been using TIM Tools for years, with the rollout of version 6.0, it is now much easier to manage any combination of research projects, grant evaluations, and intern observations in a single “district” version of the software. The...

A Teenager in the House: TIM Turns 13!

As the Technology Integration Matrix officially becomes a teenager, we take a look back at TIM’s formative years and speculate just a bit about the future. Originally published in 2005, the Technology Integration Matrix was produced by the Florida Center for...

Custom Banners for Your TIM Tools Instance

While most TIM Tools clients use one of the 100 or so built-in page header images for their site, some clients prefer to make a custom banner to match their other websites or sometimes just their school colors. With just a few minutes effort you can create a custom...

Overcome Survey Fatigue with Cute Robots

Survey fatigue is a well-documented phenomenon that lowers both the response rate and quality of responses. Two types of fatigue are generally distinguished: 1. Survey Response Fatigue happens when people are asked to take too many surveys. They are simply tired of...