I had the pleasure of going to the Silicon Valley Education Foundation and the Learning Innovation (iHub) Pitch Games at Google last night. The Learning Innovation Hub at SVEF connects EdTech entrepreneurs with educators to facilitate teacher and student feedback for creating better technology tools for the classroom.
There were about sixteen or seventeen Bay Area schools present that were being matched up to EdTech companies. Each of them expressed their wants and needs for the present 2016/2017 year. I thought their needs were worth sharing, so I’ve listed them below.
- Integrated, platforms using flexible tools and multimedia – Teachers presently use a “mish mash” of tools, which can be difficult to manage.
- Project-Based Learning tools that increase engagement and collaboration with great real-world content.
- Data capture of student intelligence, and more adaptive apps that respond to student responses.
- Tools that effectively collaborate.
- Content creation tools
- Project management tools for students and teachers
- Engaging tools in any subject for getting reluctant students to participate- this was big!
- Need tools that incorporate critical thinking and engineering to help incorporate tech into NGSS/their science program.
- Tools that help push 21st century learning, especially the design and software development processes.
- Address individual learning and a choice for all learners.
- Rich, technological applications that help kids that don’t have internet access at home to understand how to access, understand and use everything out there. Although most/many kids have smart phones, they still lack in general internet savvy.
- Address the needs for both under achievers AND over performers.
- Tools/Apps that cover math and science together.
- Help students go from a fixed to a growth mindset. Help students want to achieve more.
Based on other research/reading I’ve done- this seems to be a good list for what teachers want nationally, so I hope you find it useful!
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