K-12 Education, Technology, and Professional Development

Our founder, Rem Jackson, is an education technology pioneer. In 1994, he led the team that founded Classroom Connect, a high-tech company dedicated to helping K-12 educators integrate technology into their instruction. He ran the project that developed the Classroom Connect Newsletter and concept and went on to lead the development of the company’s professional development programs including the Connected Classroom Conferences, Connected University, and onsite professional development workshops and camps. He has an extensive background in working directly with K-12 schools and their leaders as they continue to struggle with effectively and efficiently integrating technology solutions into classroom instruction.

Rem founded Top Practices, LLC in 2007. The company has two divisions. One that helps professionals and businesses improve and grow their businesses and practices using innovative strategies and concepts. And one that continues Rem’s personal mission to aid educators in their on-going efforts and struggle to capitalize on the very best that technology can offer them to truly impact student achievement in the best possible ways.

In 1994, technology was exhibiting, for the first time really, a true potential to impact learning and make a difference in the lives of students and educators. Classroom Connect, a company that Rem helped build was at the forefront of this change and for over a decade, through its products and professional development programs, it was a source of best practices, new ideas, and tools that helped educators change the way they taught.

The events of 2001 and a sea change in America’s education agenda made it much more difficult for educators who could truly see how effective infusion of technology into instruction to put these ideas into practice. Many innovative and exciting programs were lost, many companies didn’t survive, and many educators became disillusioned and distracted. But the truly exciting possibilities technology offers have not gone away. In fact, recent developments both here and in other countries have created an environment in which truly integrating technology into every student and every teachers daily lives is a national imperative, no different that finding a cure for polio or racing the Soviet Union to the moon.

Rem Jackson firmly believes that we are entering a new era in which technology will find its rightful place in curriculum and instruction. It will be so “integrated” that it will be transparent and assumed. But we are not there yet…

Today educators must work to develop a sustained vision for infusing technology into curriculum before the textbook publishers do (long before) in spite of the challenges we face such as :

Lack of access to technology resources for teachers and for students
Lack of appropriate curriculum that seamlessly integrates technology and the Internet
Antiquated models that do not and cannot support a technology rich school and classroom

The old models are no longer working and the new models haven't yet emerged. Educators and students are living in a transitional period and it may take another decade to sort these issues out. But that doesn’t mean that educators and students shouldn’t continue to grow and use technology.

At Top Practices, Rem Jackson is focused on helping teachers, administrators, parents, and students examine what we need to do now to survive and thrive during this transitional period. Along with educators like Dr. John Gould, he is focused on essential questions like “How do you increase collective thinking, how do you develop new patterns of relationships, and how do you create powerful instructional practices through technology driven schools when they are feeling tremendous pressures to adjust to an era of standards/ accountability and accelerating complexity

Rem Jackson is available for a limited number of speaking engagements in 2007/2008. If you’d like to know how to bring him to your school, district, or conference click here.

Continue the conversation. If you’d like to receive news, useful information, and remained connected and informed about technology and education, click here and you’ll be added to our list. We will never ever share you information with anyone. You will receive occasional information from Rem and Top Practices about what’s happening in K12 educational technology.