As part of her continuing involvement in Apple’s Distinguished Educator Program, Assistant Professor Nicole Kraft will travel to Berlin this summer to attend the institute’s biennial conference. In her attendance as a participant, Kraft will network with fellow ADEs on incorporating technology into pedagogy in the classroom.

The Apple Distinguished Educator program was launched to recognize educators using company technology as an integral part of the classroom learning process.

Educators range from K-12 teachers to higher education professionals. The program currently enlists over 2,000 ADEs worldwide, according to Apple.

The newest Buckeye of six to be inducted into the program, Kraft hopes to lead the way at Ohio State in integrating technology in education, not simply using it as a replacement to a chalkboard.

“I think we have this assumption that students are digital natives,” she said. “We think that because the main population of students has grown up with technology as part of their everyday lives, that they know everything there is to know about technology. But that is an absolute fallacy. Students know what students know the same way adults know what adults know.”

Kraft believes technology should be treated like every other academic skill—and that it should be taught to students as such.

She first became involved with the ADE program when she applied for the Digital First Impact grant, made possible through Ohio State’s Office of Distance Education and e-Learning. Through research she conducted with Natalee Seely, Kraft saw the potential of the iPad to be an effective tool for journalists. As such, she hoped the grant would allow her to bring the technology into her classroom.

“My pitch was for journalists: We have to learn how to write, research, take pictures, do video, do it all at the same time [and] distribute it. The iPad was the most natural way to do that,” she said.

Kraft's classes at Ohio State are inverted, meaning that class time is spent working on projects and homework is watching recorded lectures in preparation for the next class.

Her end goal as a professor is simple: “We need to teach students to think for themselves and to stop doing work for teachers and to do work for the world.”

Learn more about the Apple Distinguished Educator program.

Article written by student Danny Ndungu