Giving Compass' Take:

• Digital learning specialist Kerry Gallagher writes on EdSurge about the ways online tools and multimedia can intersect with traditional teaching techniques to create a more robust education system.

• How are programs allowing the human element to inform decisions about edtech? It's worth looking closely at Gallagher's examples (deep research connected with podcast creation, data analysis with infographic design) to see where there's potential for symbiosis.

• Here are three steps to building your own edtech solutions.

In my work as a digital learning specialist, I’m charged with helping teachers try new classroom strategies and learn to use the technology tools that make those strategies possible.

Yet, even after three years in this role at my current school, there are a handful of teachers who are still hesitant to allow students to use devices and the powerful apps and resources they contain. Part of their concern is that incorporating these new services means they have to throw away the tried-and-true teaching techniques that they’ve mastered and love to use.

This is perhaps the greatest misconception about my goals as a teacher coach and, after speaking with colleagues in similar roles at schools around the country, I know I’m not the only one who wants to debunk this assumption.

Improving teaching and learning practices with technology is not about replacing traditional teaching. It is about taking what works and making it even better.

Read the full article about why digital learning shouldn't disrupt traditional teaching by Kerry Gallagher at EdSurge