Tool agnostic

One of the most influential posts I’ve written on my educational blog was Transformative or just flashy educational tools (written 9 years ago). It led to multiple presentations, including this one: Transforming Our Classrooms – Ignite

In the original post I said,

A tool is just a tool! I can use a hammer to build a house and I can use the same hammer on a human skull. It’s not the tool, but how you use it that matters.

The tools we use and what we use them for matter. But more than ever we should be agnostic about the tools being used… as long as they are being used well! For example: We are a Microsoft school district and so we use Teams, OneNote, Word, PowerPoint, and MS Forms among other tools in the suite. This is an excellent set of tools that allow us to know that if a student wants to collaborate on a document or create a presentation, then they have what they need to do the job well, with a great tool intended for that purpose. That said, we are also a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) district and students come with other tools, or like to use other tools that they prefer.

Should we make a group of student collaborate on OneNote or Teams, if they all want to use Google Docs?

Should we make a student present in a PowerPoint if they want to use Apple Keynote?

Should we tell students Microsoft Forms are the only forms they can use?

No.

We should ensure every student has a good tool available to them, and we should ensure we use these tools when it benefits to have the whole class on the same tool. However we should also give students choice when we can, and be tool agnostic… as long as the tool they use does not hinder their ability to accomplish the tasks they want or need to do.