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,...

Making the Most of the $122 Billion American Rescue Plan

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, schools have access to unprecedented funding. The latest federal relief bill alone, the American Rescue Plan, allotted $122 billion to be used for education over the next few years. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for...

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 entirely determined by the number of...

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...

Using the TIM to Support Teacher Reflective Practice: Part 1

This post is the first in a series focusing on teacher reflective practice and how the Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) and TIM Tools can be used to support this key element of a teacher’s professional growth. While it’s tempting to go into an academic treatise on...

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...

A Framework for Growth: A Story of TIM Implementation in Graphs

We are pleased to welcome Sister John Paul as a guest contributor! She is the principal of St. Michael School in Worthington, Ohio. St. Michael School set out to find a framework to build a conversation around how to best integrate technology to advance student...

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, 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...

SIS IT Driver’s License

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...

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...

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...