Abstract

About ten years ago, we designed and opened our Technology Sandbox, a dynamic learning environment where our students and faculty could learn and practice using various instructional technologies and tools to gain a clear understanding of how they can embed them into real-life teaching, learning, assessment, and research. We will describe our guiding principles for the design of the Tech Sandbox, illustrate how it was laid out initially, why and how it has been changing, list technologies currently included in this modern learning space, clarify how we engage with students and faculty, and share lessons we learned organizing professional development and enrichment activities and resources for the Technology Sandbox users. This paper benefits the audience by covering design, pedagogical principles, and logistics that can be scaled and applied in various disciplines and within different educational organizations to enhance pre-service teachers’ and other educational professionals’ preparation. Many support resources are shared online (Vyortkina, 2024).

Citation

Vyortkina, D. (2024). Technology Sandbox: Reflecting on a Decade of Progress. In J. Cohen & G. Solano (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 41-46). Las Vegas, Nevada, United States: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved August 9, 2024 from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/224014/.

© 2024 Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)