What's the best way to choose educational tech for your audience?

The company should have a free, no obligations trial for you to use. (If not, run away fast!) Be sure to test drive it extensively, and if you can have a student or a child experiment with it, too, even better. Also, consider the tools they have for learners with special needs (closed captions, answer choice elimination, etc). Sometimes it may seem like these types of features aren't there, but they can be hidden or in a less-than-obvious location.

Your tools need to fit your audience and your context. Asking younger students to use a piece of software that requires a lot of frontloading is not appropriate as it is time taken away from the learning objectives they need to achieve. You also need to consider whether or not you have the reliable accessible to adequate hardware to use the tool in a manner that will enhance student achievement and their learning experience. Lastly, you need to consider if it is even necessary that a tool is used or is another method that is lower tech just as acceptable.

Start slow and start simple. If it takes more time to teach the tool than it does to do the activity, you’re probably off-track. Remember that students like variety, but you can’t overwhelm them with too many choices. Find one or two that you can stick with for a while before you add more. Finally, be familiar with the tool yourself! You will be the tech support, so if you don’t know how it works, you can’t expect your students to know. You don’t have to be an expert, but you do have to know the fundamentals.

And it MUST be accessible for students and faculty with disabilities, because the time and expense of retrofitting causes delays and sends the message that your students and staff with disabilities are an afterthought. There needs to be accessibility experts in the planning and selection committees to ask those important questions about accessible technology, and your focus groups and design teams need to have representatives with disabilities to provide feedback on usability for a variety of user abilities. Stop making accessible tech in education an afterthought and give students and faculty with disabilities a seat at the planning and design phases. Sean Loraas, Accessibility Technician, Austin Community College

SMART goals have been popular in the last decade, but there are more authentic means of outlining your goals for learning. Understanding by Design or UDL in my experience are better places to start ones thinking and imagining. Also consider models like TPAK, SAMR and a Technoethical framework to see see what is the best fit for you, the objectives and your learners.

Educational Technology is a business market. Every company wants your business and as educators you are being marketed to constantly. Be selective and picky on what you use and ensure it is the best fit for your learners and aligns with local and provincial/state regulations surrounding privacy and student information. Remember, for your students, it needs to tick as many boxes as possible to enhance the learning experience for all.

It’s essential to know your audience and your overall goal. Sometimes technology can be cumbersome and over complicate something or it can lose your audience. Know when you are introducing a tool, everyone is at a different place and what may seem like it Im has a simple interface may be a challenge to others.

For affordability, reach out to companies before you decide it’s too expensive based on the individual teacher’s license. Many times you’ll find a single teacher’s license is something like $60 USD, but a site license for 500 teachers is only $2,000. Also, your mileage may vary, but always check with your school/district to see if they can pay for it!

Don't be afraid to make course corrections mid way through a project or to drop a tool entirely if it isn't meeting student needs or achieving the objectives you have set out. Let your students know this is new territory, allow them to get excited to try something new. You may be surprised how that enhances the experience for you and for them.

Keep an eye on LinkedIn and other social media sites. There are often people talking about tools, and some companies have built great teacher communities (Flip, Kami, Wakelet, etc). There are a lot of people out there willing to share and collaborate around tools if you look!

As an IT person, I would say that when selecting Educational Technology, not only the audience (students) needs to be considered but also the administrators need to do a honest assessment of the technical abilities of the teachers and facilitators to be able to not only deliver content but also support the students since they will be the first line responders. Of course there will be training considered for the project but technology training should be also be included on their profesional development.