I’m in Hattiesburg, MS today at the USM Leadership Institute. We’re here talking about using technology to differentiate instruction for a wide variety of learners. The topics we’re exploring include ebooks, multimedia presentations, audio ebooks, podcasts, mini-movies, scaffolding, graphic organizers, writing tools, assessment systems, and more.
I’d like to give the participants at this conference an opportunity to reflect on what they’re hearing here. Please post a comment and address one or more of these questions:
– What does “differentiating instruction” mean to you?
– What is your school’s biggest challenge in trying to differentiate instruction?
– What needs to be done to live up to the promise of ensuring the success of ALL students?
– Which technology that you’ve seen today do you think has the greatest potential to help differentiate instruction?
– What have you learned today that will be most valuable to you as you go back to your school?
Thanks for sharing!
Using Technology to Differentiate Instruction
I appreciated the superintendent’s call to action for changing what we’re doing to raise student achievement.
I was also impressed with the role technology can play in adapting instruction to a variety of learner needs.
ok, I don’t usually comment on my own posts, but since Mississippi administrators seem to be feeling shy today :), I’ll tell you a few of my own obserations.
I was impressed by Mississippi State Superintendent Hank Bounds. He started his presentation with a wakeup call to the calamity of high school dropout rates. [I think this is a much overlooked statistic that is an indictment of the current state of failure of K-12 education.] He then proceeded with a gutsy presentation of data that showed a disparity of achievement between various student populations (by ethnicity, SES, ELL, etc.). Those statistics painted a clear picture that we are not adequately serving “all” studnets. He called on all of us to recognize that a drastic CHANGE is necessary.
Bounds also said that principals must be “instructional leaders,” helping teachers know how to do their jobs better. [This is an area I feel strongly about, yet many principals view their job as overseeing discipline and sports. Shouldn’t curriculum and instruction be the primary concern of everyone in education?]
Finally, I liked Dr. Reeves comments about the school trophy case. He identified that as a place where kids see what is important to a school. It should include things like writing samples, academic awards, and other exemplars of academic achievement.