There is great power in storytelling as a preferred mode of communication – and it’s certainly a better way to learn from the sharing of ideas.
For those looking for new ideas for innovative uses of educational technology there is now a website that offers stories from educators at all levels about the ways in which they are leveraging edtech to promote better learning.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology now offers “Stories of EdTech Innovation“. The goal of the initiative is:
By sharing these stories, we hope to connect districts, schools, and educators trying similar things so that they can learn from each other’s experiences.
The number of stories found here is still limited and only a few apply to higher education but there are some really good ones that could most likely be transferable to different educational settings. It’s not clear how the stories get posted here as a “submission” option is not provided, so it’s likely that OET staff decide what gets added. I really liked this story about “Playdate” as a professional development activity – sounds like something we should do at our librarian conferences.
It will be interesting to see where this project goes and to what extent it grows and evolves as a clearinghouse for innovative edtech projects. We will keep this one in mind for a future Blended Librarians Online Learning Community webcast – so we can learn more from the project owners.