Cool toys!
Today our principal forwarded our staff an email from the shared technology department of our county RESD stating that they were going to be coming into possession of some iPads and Android tablets to pilot the educational use of these tools and some selected apps for them in some districts throughout our county and the neighboring county. They are looking for some volunteers across the districts and grade levels to volunteer to use these devices and report back to provide data on their educational benefit from administrators and teachers. Of course I replied with a firm, exclamatory yes, and asked them to sign me up. Hopefully the fact that I am nearly through a degree in Educational Technology will help me stand out as a good choice for this pilot.
The surprising part to me, however, was all of the other teachers in our building also asking to be considered for this project. Some of the same teachers who are slow to implement new technology into their classroom, or resist and fight it altogether, all of the sudden are very interested! I guess we're not as excited about building online content on a school webpage or utilizing ExamView software or using wikispaces for student projects because we can't take them home and play with them. Or maybe it's because these things aren't the subject of a brilliant TV marketing campaign. But an iPad... now we're talking educational technology we can all buy into.
C'mon guys, you're either in our out. There isn't a box to check that says, "Only if it's cool."
But I suppose there is a lesson to be learned here. If we invest in some of these cool toys, maybe we could get some more teachers on board with the real value technology can offer to our schools. Dress up the windows and maybe they'll come in. When they come in, they're sure to buy in.
But ya gotta hook em first.... and why didn't we get this memo at our building???
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