The COVID pandemic has emphasized a need for school plasticity in a rapidly changing landscape: the initial overnight transition to emergency remote learning was only a harbinger of many further shifts, and more yet to come. In this context, it is crucial to implement teaching practices that can do more than just preserve minimal learning levels – they need to actively improve student outcomes as the world changes around them. We will see how to develop new ways of using technology that address this challenge of antifragility by reframing how we think about two existing models, SAMR and the EdTech Quintet. In particular, we will translate recent research results into hands-on methods for learning design that can scaffold robust teaching practices. The goal here is not to deliver a prepackaged static set of methods – rather, it is to start a conversation that can generate flexible practices as the times demand.
Dr. Ruben Puentedura, Ph.D. is the Founder and President of Hippasus, a consulting firm based in Western Massachusetts, focusing on transformative applications of information technologies to education. He has implemented these approaches for over twenty-five years at a range of K-20 educational institutions, as well as health and arts organizations.
He is the creator of the SAMR model for selecting, using, and evaluating technology in education, which currently guides the work of the Maine Learning Technology Initiative, as well as multiple other projects worldwide. He is also the author of The EdTech Quintet, a categorization of the core technology toolset required for education derived from the Horizon Report.
His current work explores new directions in mobile computing, digital storytelling, learning analytics, and educational gaming, focusing on applications in areas where they have not been traditionally employed. He can be reached at rubenrp@hippasus.com and on Twitter @rubenrp.
