Last week, we had the opportunity to attend the 2019 Georgia Educational Technology Conference (GaETC 2019) in Atlanta, Georgia. The theme of this year’s conference was “Technology Transformation: More Than Meets The Eye,” and it did not disappoint. We were honored to be amongst the transformational technologies represented at the event and left feeling inspired by the educators in attendance and their commitment to better teaching and learning through technology.
Throughout the conference, speakers, panelists and conference organizers referenced “the four Cs,” which are an integral part of the way technology can transform the classroom. In this blog post, we will explore the four Cs—creativity, communication, collaboration and critical thinking—as we reflect on GaETC 2019 and uncover the ways EdIncites® and the Incite® Assessment & Reporting Platform promote the four Cs.
- Creativity
Because it is so flexible and easy to use, the Incite Assessment & Reporting Platform promotes creativity in the way teachers build and use assessments. The item and assessment builders offer a blank canvas for teachers to pull in items from either an item bank or create items from scratch. When building items from scratch, the options are endless. Insert creativity! Incite also promotes creativity in the way assessments are used in the classroom. As an example, many EdIncites clients use our real-time proctoring tool as a way to make formative assessments fun and engaging in the classroom. When students take these assessments electronically, teachers have the ability to display the results to individual items on a smartboard so that they can dive deeper with students to see which standards or areas of curriculum need extra attention (student names can be hidden to protect student identity and privacy). We at EdIncites understand that teachers are some of the most creative minds out there and we are proud to offer a tool that cultivates creativity.
- Communication
If there’s one thing all educators can agree on, it’s that communication is critical to student success. In this post, we want to focus on the importance of communication between teachers and parents. Our partnership and integration with ParentSquare gives EdIncites clients access to a best-in-class “school-home communication platform.” Through this integration, families have access to all of ParentSquare’s amazing features, plus insight into specific student success data gathered through the Incite Assessment & Reporting Platform. This integration brings families into the classroom, connects parents and teachers and empowers parents to take part in their child’s education.
- Collaboration
Collaboration is one of the most powerful tools educators have. EdIncites inspires collaboration in many different ways, whether it’s through sharing items across schools and districts or bringing parents into the education process like we discussed in the previous section. In addition to the collaboration tools inherent in our platform, EdIncites is also committed to bettering education by collaborating with other inspiring organizations. At GaETC 2019, we had the opportunity to connect and collaborate with IMS Global Learning Consortium Board Member Keith Osburn, as well as attend Dr. Tim Clark’s session on enhancing teaching and learning through connected digital ecosystems. We look forward to further collaboration with IMG Global Learning Consortium and others!
- Critical Thinking
So you’ve just administered an assessment and now you have all this data…now what? That’s where critical thinking comes into play. Unlike other assessment providers, Incite’s powerful reporting and analytics functionality makes it easy for educators and administrators to take action on the data they collect. We built our reporting tool for the modern age and took a business intelligence approach that “transforms raw data into meaningful and useful information used to enable more effective strategic, tactical and operational insights and decision-making.” But don’t just take our word for it…click here to see it in action.
Many thanks to GaETC for hosting a fantastic event, full of insightful conversation. We are already looking forward to next year!
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