Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Tool #8: Taking a Look at the Tools

THINGS LEARNED:
* The netbooks are something we used frequently last year, but we did not access the camera capabilities. It was good to see how to access this and ways to incorporate this use in the classroom.
* As for the iPad, knowing what Apps are allowed and how to obtain those for student use is very helpful. The use of the iPad in class will be very exciting - this is something new for many of our students and will definitely keep their attention.

MANAGING THE DEVICES:
As for managing the devices.....I will have two iPads, 6 netbooks, and 4 Macs.
The netbooks will be numbered and assigned to specific students. These will be rotated between the students assigned to each. I am hoping this will allow me to be better monitor who has used and who has accessed information on each computer.....just in case there is a need to track student use.
As of today (and this may change as soon as the first day of school ends) I am planning to set up the Macs to be a full time station. As with lab activities, groups or individuals will rotate to these Macbooks to complete a specific activity. Having done this in summer school, we found the easiest thing to do was have these logged in already to save students time when they arrive at these computers.



With just two iPads, I am still considering the best way to manage and use these within a lesson. There will be the convenient days where a fellow teacher is not using theirs, which would then allow us to consolidate two or four more, providing another means of access for student groups.

I will also be purchasing a vga connector to project several of the apps for classroom presentation.

The overall idea will be to number & label all devices, monitor their use regularly, return and plug in everything BEFORE the students are ready to move to their next class, and make the students responsible for the technology. . . . and make the students active in the use of these devices to increase their comfort level and make them more efficient with their use.

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