“When I first got started, there just wasn’t the same level of conversation around technology integration. There were a lot of questions about what was possible and what’s out there.”
Now, she’s a leading innovator in edtech, providing educators with resources and strategies on how to integrate technology into the classroom.
Dr. Monica Burns, founder of Class Tech Tips and a featured speaker at FETC© 2023 in January, has assisted teachers through edtech consulting for the past 10 years. She’s written books, hosts a podcast, blogs, organizes workshops and events, and provides edtech masterclasses.
Her career began in 2007 as a fifth-grade teacher at a Title I school in South Harlem, New York. She noticed early on that other educators valued her ideas and her use of technology in the classroom. “I credit the start of my journey with a phone call… from an organization that wanted a teacher (me) to tell just a couple more teachers about ways to use technology with students,” she wrote on her website.
It turns out that there were hundreds of educators waiting to hear what she had to say. “When the teachers who showed up that night started asking for the name of my blog, my Twitter handle, a link to my presentation… I didn’t have an answer,” Burns says.
It was then that she realized she could become an essential resource for schools and educators. “That beginning mission of just spreading the word, sharing ideas, letting people know what’s out there and available, has really transitioned into a commitment to help people streamline.”
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Today, there are two areas in which she frequently assists educators. “I would say sorting through the noise is probably the big piece,” she says. “How do I decide where to start or what to use first?” The answer: “I often speak about formative assessment and creativity in the classroom, so really making those types of experiences meaningful for students and actionable for teachers.”
Next year will mark Burns’ second year as a featured speaker at FETC© 2023, where she plans to discuss creativity in the classroom. “I believe we’ve got a session set up for social media-inspired projects where kids are publishing things that mirror the types of creations they consume—so really putting them in the driver’s seat, which I believe helps them become smarter consumers and evaluators of the content that comes their way. I’m also looking at some of the ways to think about formative assessment and feedback in the classroom.”
Looking ahead to this school year, she says she looks forward to reestablishing connections and guiding teachers as they enter a year of normalcy. “I’m really feeling optimistic about the school year,” she says. “Like there’s a fresh start for so many educators who are walking back into environments not without uncertainty, but with a little more certainty than the past two years.”
