In Education Technology, ‘Creation or Content’ is the Wrong Question

Posted on April 10, 2017 by karen mahon

In education technology circles, and particularly as it relates to use of iPads and apps, I’ve sure heard a lot of discussion about creation versus content. I’ve been thinking about it and wanted to chime in from a learning sciences perspective.

In case you haven’t read much about it, creation apps are tools that are open ended and aren’t aiming to “teach” a particular skill or skill set. These apps are used by students to make new things…be they books or videos or presentations. With these tools, it is up to the teachers and students to decide what the learning goals are and what the product should be. A couple of examples of this type of app include Explain Everything and Toontastic. Continue reading →

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A Stranger in a Strange Land (with apologies to Robert Heinlein)

Posted on June 13, 2016 by karen mahon

Wanted to do a quick share of an article I just wrote for another blog….hope you all enjoy it. Please let me know your thoughts! /k

Behavior Analysis and Technology

I had a really interesting discussion today with a kids’ learning app developer. She was upset because her app, which got rave reviews from a number of other review sites, had received a letter grade of “F” from us at Balefire Labs. To her credit, she wanted to talk about and better understand our review criteria. I took her through our criteria and explained where and how her app didn’t meet them. I gave examples of how her team could make some simple (and some not-so-simple) changes to their app so that it would meet our criteria and earn a higher grade. We chatted at some length about how to design instruction to achieve student mastery. She seemed to get it. But at the end of the call she said to me, “Well, that’s not really what our app is intended to do. It’s not really supposed to…

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A critique of PBL and the ‘new’ pedagogies

Posted on December 22, 2014 by karen mahon

This is a wonderful post about evidence-based instruction and the “new” pedagogies. I encourage anyone who want to structure their instruction around student performance data (not to be confused with high stakes assessment data) to read this. Don’t be sucked in by the most popular “flavor of the month” educational trends!

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What Now

Posted on November 12, 2014 by karen mahon

Thought I’d share this recent guest blog post that I wrote for EdTech Digest. App integration in the classroom is a challenge for so many teachers…hope this helps!

EdTech Digest

5 questions for integrating apps in the classroom.

GUEST COLUMN | by Karen Mahon

CREDIT Balefire LabsYou’re on a roll. You have new tablet devices in your classroom or school. You’ve learned how to use them. You’ve done your planning and have an Acceptable Use Policy. And, of course, you’ve selected some instructional apps that sound like they’ll be great for your students.

But now you’re confronted with actually implementing these apps. And you’re wondering, “What now?” These five questions will help get you started.

There aren’t too many perfect apps out there. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t still use them meaningfully.

  1. “What does this app teach my students to do?”

Never mind what the description in the app store says. Use the app yourself and describe what skills the app teaches. Pay no attention to what the students are expected to “understand” or “know.” Put an action verb in there!…

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Creating a Content Strategy for Mobile Devices in the Classroom

Posted on July 25, 2014 by karen mahon

Center on Innovations in LearningI feel so fortunate to have been asked by the Center on Innovations in Learning (CIL), at Temple University, to prepare a classroom guide for content strategy and mobile devices. As most of you know, this has been a long-time passion of mine and the good people at CIL gave me an opportunity to write all about it. Continue reading →

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3-Minute Video Explaining the Common Core

Posted on July 21, 2014 by karen mahon

I really enjoyed this simple (and, I thought, elegant) explanation of why the Common Core State Standards are important! See what you think…. Continue reading →

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Who is Education’s Customer?

Posted on June 13, 2014 by karen mahon

Today I attended a session about the relationships between business and education. The session was put on by the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, a non-profit group that does really good work in my state to improve education on the policy level. The purpose of the session was to discuss how to get businesses more involved in supporting and helping improve education. There were a couple of consultants there who presented some findings of a Harvard Business School study looking at competitiveness in the global economy. Specifically they addressed recent policies or movements that have been most helpful to improving education and student achievement.  Continue reading →

Posted in Academics, Assessment | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Who are these people who are against learning facts?

Posted on May 12, 2014 by karen mahon

This post is simply outstanding…Harry Webb captures the precise problem with new kinds of “progressive” education. Many of the comments are also fantastic, so take the time to check those out as well.

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inBloom & Net Neutrality: I’ve Got the Blues

Posted on April 24, 2014 by karen mahon

Blue_SadTwo things happened in the news this week that have me really bummed out.

The first is that inBloom announced that it is winding down. The purpose of inBloom was to be a data repository for student data; a resource that would help teachers make sense of vast amounts of student performance data to then better individualize instruction. It seems like the words were no sooner out of my mouth last week when I posted that educators were worried about the wrong thing with big data when THIS happened! Continue reading →

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Educators Are Worried About the Wrong Thing With “Big Data”

Posted on April 9, 2014 by karen mahon

big dataIt seems that we are awash in data in education, especially edtech, lately. I’m a big data junkie, so I find it tremendously exciting. With the advances in technology we have the opportunity to collect real-time performance data at a level of detail that just wasn’t possible before. And with good data and people who understand what those data mean, well, the possibilities just seem endless for how we can improve and individualize instruction for kids. Continue reading →

Posted in Instructional Design, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments