The Real Question Educators Ask About Technology
Every classroom is different. Teachers are personalizing the learning process with various blends of traditional instruction, project-based interactions and student-centered digital tools. Personalized and blended learning holds great promise, along with a whole lot of variables!
In the modern classroom, educators rely on classroom technologies that match pedagogical styles, that strengthen lessons and help them stay organized. Personalized education requires data-driven approaches that are tailored for student groups, and ultimately for individual students. But data shows the tools we purchase are not necessarily the ones we use.
Educators don’t simply ask, “Which technology or product is best?” The real question educators ask is, “Which tools are best for my students in my current situation right now?”
Teachers are scrappy, but they have had few options to address this one important question. Twitter and Google searches will yield thousands of links and anecdotes, but no true knowledge. Since “best of” lists or 5-star-ratings in marketplaces are not targeted, trusted (who’s paying for this review? is it ad supported?) or timely enough to satisfy the real needs of educators, they get frustrated with the ultimate time suck and wasted effort trying to explore thousands of options.
So, teachers test their own hypotheses constantly, and iterate quicker than most entrepreneurs. The majority of teachers reach out to peer educators they trust, when they have time, to learn from each other. However, these insights evaporate into the ether when they are not shared.
Our team of educators, researchers, and technologists at Lea(R)n works with thousands of educators to create a rapid, research-backed approach to quickly harness the insights of experts in the classroom — teachers! — PLUS designed quantitative methods to answer the most important question educators are asking, anytime, anywhere. Teachers can freely access:
- Research-backed rubric to ensure useful insights are seen and shared quickly among professional learning communities
- Smart Report Cards on thousands of products — grades change based on your situation, not on stack rankings
- Discovery, filtered search functionality and side-by-side comparison tools for rapid, detailed insights on the 8 most important criteria for teachers
- Quickly grow and engage your professional learning network within Lea(R)n’s community of thousands of trusted educators
- Share your expertise with your district to improve purchasing and access to the tools that work best for YOUR needs
We made LearnTrials FREE for individual educators and their professional learning networks, so they can answer the same burning question we had when we were in the classroom, just like the teachers we work with every day. You can also trust the insights you find from verified educators, since we don’t sell ads or offer paid services to private companies or product manufacturers that could impact the report cards. We contract directly with schools, districts, states and networks of innovative schools to support all their edtech management needs, saving them significant budget dollars, improving instructional practice, analyzing outcomes and ensuring you can trust the insights you find on Lea(R)n.
It’s about time LearnTrials starts answering the real question everyone is asking.
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Our platform helps district leaders gather feedback from teachers, while conducting product analyses, so they can effectively budget for edtech. Subscribe to our newsletter! And follow LearnTrials on Twitter!!
