Dr. Monica Burns of Class Tech Tips

Dr. Monica Burns

Dr. Monica Burns is a Curriculum and EdTech Consultant, Apple Distinguished Educator and Founder of ClassTechTips.com. As a classroom teacher in New York City, Monica used digital tools to create an engaging, differentiated learning experience to meet the unique needs of her students. Monica started her blog Class Tech Tips in 2012 to help make EdTech easier for fellow educators, and launched the Easy EdTech Podcast and her membership site the Easy EdTech Club to support educators who want to simplify and streamline technology integration. 

Since starting Class Tech Tips Monica has led workshops and webinars, and provided keynote presentations to teachers, instructional coaches, administrators and tech-enthusiasts at numerous national and international conferences including SXSWedu, ISTE, FETC and EduTECH. Monica is the author of Tasks Before Apps: Designing Rigorous Learning in a Tech-Rich Classroom (ASCD), two quick reference guides for ASCD on Distance Learning Essentials and Classroom Technology Tips, as well as several other publications.

Below are some highlights from our discussion. Listen to our full discussion with Dr. Monica Burns on our podcast.   

Dru & Angie
What is your educational super-power? EdTech super-power?    

Wow, well, I love that question. I think it's sometimes hard for all of us to kind of step back and say, you know, what is that thing? Or what is it that I'm really trying to make sure other people can understand and try out themselves. And so, if I had to pick one thing, I think it would really be about simplifying things and trying to streamline and just make things easier. 

Dru & Angie
Your book is titled Tasks Before Apps: Designing Rigorous Learning in a Tech-Rich Classroom. Can you share what you mean by Task before Apps and its importance?

The idea of tasks before apps is really about simplifying things and coming back to this idea of putting the learning front and center, what are we really trying to accomplish here? We might have this great tool, we might have a great resource and we need that to make things happen. But how can we anchor it into the learning and really make sure that our learning goals are front and center and having that guide our decision making around using technology and that can look a few different ways. 

Dru & Angie
We stress the 4 C’s - collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking quite often on our show. Let’s focus on creativity - Can you share with us why you feel creativity in the classroom is important for student achievement? What are some simple but effective ways of adding creativity to daily or even long term lessons or projects?

Yes, creativity is important in all the things that we do. It's not just an arts situation. It's not about painting  or music making. Those are fantastic components, but they are not the only parts. We can be creative in all the things that we do and I think giving students opportunities to create something new, make this new thing based on what they've learned really sets them up for an opportunity to share and to celebrate having more ownership of their learning.

Dru & Angie
With the way things are for so many school districts across the nation with Covid-19 and remote, F-2-F, or any combination of these - can you share some asynchronous and synchronous learning strategies that would be beneficial to parents, teachers, and students?     

We've all sat in a faculty meeting and walked out the door and maybe we thought it to ourselves, or we shared it with a colleague and said, couldn't this have just been an email?  I'm sure the best intentions were there but why did  that have to happen that way? We all know that feeling and we try not to be that person so I think the same thing applies in the asynchronous and synchronous situations. If we're asking or encouraging folks to tune in at a certain time, there's got to be a reason for it that separates it from what they could just do on their own.

Dru & Angie
Assessing student learning can take on many forms. What are some strategies and resources you can share for creating effective and engaging formal assessments?  

I'm way less concerned with a number or a letter than I am with what that actual piece of data says, or tells me. It's really about driving instruction, making decisions. And there's no point in giving a quiz or asking for a response or collecting any kind of data that you're not going to use.  So it really needs to be purposeful for everyone involved.

Thank you, Monica. We enjoyed having Somethin' to Tech About with you! 

Listen to our entire conversation on the podcast above, and connect with Monica to learn more!

Connect with Monica

Easy EdTech Podcast

Class Tech Tips

Tasks Before Apps