A comprehensive K-12 Project-Based Learning (PBL) solution serving over 120,000 teachers in over 7,500 schools nationwide, Defined Learning engages students in high-quality projects that are based on careers to deepen understanding, enhance engagement, and build necessary future-ready skills.

The platform provides teachers with the essential curriculum and assessment tools they need to engage students in PBL, including a library of standards-aligned projects, career-focused videos, research resources, editable rubrics, and more. Defined Learning’s interdisciplinary projects are based on careers and provide opportunities for students to apply their knowledge and skills to real-world challenges. It excites students about their future and empower them to build the critical future-ready skills they need to succeed in college, careers, and life.

It is the mission of the company to drive student engagement and achievement through real-world PBL. Through career exploration and experiences coupled with hands-on, real-world PBL, they want to ensure that all students have visibility into the limitless world of opportunities ahead of them. Their content leads to enhanced student skills such as: 21st Century & Workplace Skills, College & Career Readiness, Social Emotional Learning & Standards Mastery.

Research by Mida Learning Technologies showed that after utilizing PBL through Defined Learning for one year, teachers saw improvements in students’ engagement and motivation. In addition, students who used Defined Learning outperformed their peers in critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Defined Learning gives educators all they need to facilitate deeper, career-connected learning through high-quality PBL instruction that engages students and empowers them to build future-ready skills. For these reasons and more, Defined Learning is a Cool Tool Award Winner for “Best Skills Solution” as part of The EdTech Awards 2024 from EdTech Digest. Learn more. 

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The market has spoken—now what do the teachers say? 

GUEST COLUMN | by Al Kingsley

ATANU TANMOY

The headline of our recent survey was easy to understand – a nearly unanimous view that technology makes teaching and learning better. A striking 93% of teachers and other education leaders who use technology in their jobs agreed with the sentiment.

‘…technology makes teaching and learning better. A striking 93% of teachers and other education leaders who use technology in their jobs agreed with the sentiment.’

That’s not surprising. But, as is often the case, context is paramount.

The Line is Gone

That educators see the benefits of technology so overwhelmingly may catch the attention of some people. However, the reality is that the line between technology and learning environments is gone. Not smudged, evaporated. The question is no longer whether we should have technology in teaching and learning but how much, when, and what we want it to do.

Even if, for whatever reason, you don’t put much faith in survey results, on the education technology question, the market has spoken. The ubiquitous adoption and use of classroom support and instruction technology cannot all be due to good salesmanship. Obviously, at least some education technology is providing some clear benefit in at least some places. The 92% tells us it’s considerably more than some.   

That’s the given. But, based on our survey released in March, the context and specificity of where we find education and technology are important and potentially insightful.

What a Majority of Educators Want

One of those insights is that even though educators recognize the benefits of technology, a majority (54%) told us that what they wanted most was more time for, and investment in, training to use education technologies. In contrast, 28% of the respondents in our survey said their top want was more funding for more technology. That’s a nearly 2:1 ratio.

As someone who’s been on both sides of the education technology market – as a school leader and company leader – the results tell me that sometimes we all try to introduce technology where there’s no actual impact or benefit from it. And that, even though we know it works, more is not always better, at least not right away.

Technology Alone Isn’t a Lever

When this happens, or when it looks as though it may happen, we shouldn’t be afraid to say that technology alone isn’t a lever that’s going to add value – by “we”, I mean all of us, no matter what side of the table we’re on. Educators, company representatives, administrators, families, and students should not be shy about asking impact-related questions and, where the answers are unclear or absent, pause. What educators are telling us they want, time, is not the enemy of good.

Going a bit deeper, these answers around our education resources and tools also show what seems obvious but is so easy to overlook – you can have technology in the classroom, but if you don’t have the skills or the understanding of how to use it effectively, then it can become a lump of clay. To me, for example, clay is clay, while a sculptor may see a universe of possibility and power. Sculpture is transformative. 

But even worse than letting powerful and expensive education technology gather dust and dry out for lack of time and training, without competency or mastery of technology tools, they can become a distraction rather than a benefit.

We’ve all struggled to get software or hardware to work, spending more time and frustration than it would have taken to ace the intended task the old, traditional way. It’s annoying and a waste of time, to be sure. But in a school setting, it may not be just the teacher’s time that’s being ineffectively sunk into trying to make the tech work.

The Teachers Are Right

The teachers are right. More time and training would help.

If we believe the things we say – that we want teaching to be more efficient, that we want teachers to be rock stars, that we want learning to be more personal and engaging, that managing a school should be much easier than it is – we owe them, and ourselves, that time.

After all, technology isn’t a kind of magic potion in which all that’s required is to add water and stir. It takes more than that.

Many of our education technologies are awesome, as our teachers know. If we want them to work like we imagine, time and training ought to be part of every technology package. For many technology providers and platforms, they already are. That’s the right path. In case we forget from time to time, teachers are right to remind us. 

—

Al Kingsley is the CEO of NetSupport. He is an author, chair of Multi Academy Trust cluster of schools in the UK, Apprenticeship Ambassador, and chair of his regional Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Board. A 30-year veteran in the sector he has written books on edtech, school governance, and school growth. Connect with Al on LinkedIn. 

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Lingoda is one of the world’s top online language schools. Founded in Berlin, Germany in 2013, they provide convenient and accessible online language courses in German, English, Business English, French and Spanish to over 100,000 students worldwide. Their small group and 1-on-1 private classes are taught by over 1,500 qualified, native-level teachers. With almost 550,000 classes available per year and accessible 24/7, their mission is to build bridges around the world through language learning. “By speaking someone’s language you learn about them. Their culture and their ideas. Breaking down the language barrier bridges cultural differences, fosters a world of inclusion and is a first step in helping to address humanity’s challenges.”

The company believes in a communicative approach to language learning: mastering a language means being able to speak it with confidence. Their CEFR-focused learning materials (this stands for Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) are designed by linguistic experts and focus on meaningful topics that are applicable to students’ interests, careers and everyday lives. Thanks to their extensive rotating roster of teachers and their small group classes, students are exposed to a variety of regional accents and expressions within the same language and have the opportunity to practice speaking in every lesson.

For these reasons and more, Lingoda is a Cool Tool Award Winner for “Best Language Learning Solution” as part of The EdTech Awards 2024 from EdTech Digest. Learn more. 

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