Choosing Appropriate Technology: The Right Tool For the Job

 This post is a formative answer to the question:  How do you help and guide educators in choosing the appropriate technology to maximize learning and teaching? 

There are two situations in which I recommend tools to coworkers: 

1) a coworker comes to me asking for a specific kind of app for an assignment

2) I come across something I think will work in a colleague's unit

In both instances I try to choose tools that:

• are easy for students to use since these are elementary students
• extend thinking
• allow students to creatively show their learning

My flaw is that I mostly go by instinct over a rubric, checklist, or guidelines I can follow. 

This is making me think of a quote I recently heard in a TED talk by Helder Guimarães where he said, "We stop thinking too soon."

Perhaps before I make another recommendation, I should take a breath, ask another question, and listen, taking another moment to allow my colleague to speak, or finish their thoughts.

Follow-up: The other day a colleague came into my classroom asking about a tool to use for something. I went to my computer to do a search, and she went to her phone to do a search and came up with a solution before I could. Sometimes it helps to feel like you are being helped.