Great book

I have been reading a lot of books and research on differentiating instruction lately. Most of what I have read is interesting, but a bit academic, very oriented toward primary education, and lacking in technology-based ideas. The reason I’m interested in differentiating instruction (aside from believing that it is ESSENTIAL to improving educational effectiveness) is that mobile technologies seem to me to be a perfect way to accomplish this. (Maybe this will be the next book I write…:)

Anyway, I’ve finally found a really excellent book that addresses these areas; it is Differentiated Instruction Using Technology – A Guide for Middle and High School Teachers by Any Benjamin. *

This is a great read and is chock-full of great ideas that are well-suited to secondary classrooms. The author’s underlying premise is that “We want computers to enhance educatio, not just parallel it.” In other words, if technology doesn’t somehow make it better (easier, faster, etc.), don’t use technology. Ms. Benjamin talks about the tragedy of “workbooks on-screen.” I feel the same way about online textbooks that are nothing more than a PDF of the print textbook. Why bother? There are so many great ways that technology can add to educational effectiveness especially in differentiating instruction — let’s make the most of that! (If more educational technology did that, technology would be much more prevalent and popular in schools.)

One great idea in this book is to use learning centers, but instead of the physical learning centers we use in elementary grades, use technology-based “virtual” centers. This book must have been published just before wikis and blogs became all the rage, because for the most part, the author doesn’t mention these tools. However, the ideas she mentions are perfectly suited to wikis and blogs (which each provide an easier solution that traditional web page publishing).

I haven’t finished this book yet, so stay tuned for most posts on gems of wisdom in it. In the meantime, get the book!

* This is weird side note, but don’t order this book from Amazon. They apparently have their inventory mislabeled. I ordered this book three times from them and got the wrong book each time. After a very lengthy phone and email conversation with them, they finally told me they had no way to address this problem, but could give me a refund. Grrrrr….. I finally ordered from the publisher , Eye on Education, and got the book. I’m glad it was worth the hassle. 🙂