Joel Backon

Description

As Director of Academic Technology and a History teacher, Mr. Backon has been a supporting member of the Choate Rosemary Hall leadership team since 1992. Mr. Backon has taught history and political science since 1998 and has led two teams that created world history courses stressing depth and analytical thinking rather than the traditional survey approach. He has also designed a technology- and research-based Contemporary Global Issues course, as well as teaching and redesigning three senior electives, Use and Abuse of Power, Democracy, Media and Politics, and American Diplomacy. When he used a Tablet PC years ago, Mr. Backon married the Tablet and the school’s LMS to create his “paperless classroom,” a concept he expects to continue in this age of the iPad. Choate adopted a 1:1 iPad program in 2012. He also directs the Choate Technology and Learning Institute (TLI), a summer program providing Eight Schools Association faculty members with an opportunity to hone their technology integration skills to improve teaching and learning. Mr. Backon is a former chair of the CAIS Commission on Technology, a current member of the CAIS Commission on Professional Development, has consulted to ADVIS, NJAIS, and several independent schools, and has made numerous presentations ranging from intellectual property and copyright laws to using Web 2.0 tools for collaborative projects to mapping learning management system tools with pedagogy to redesigning curriculum to reflect the “new shape of knowledge.”