How do you manage the use of technology peripherals with students? What are some things you've learned and hope to implement?
Well…this may be a rather short blog posting since I really don’t use a lot of technology peripherals in my classroom. It’s not that I don’t want to… it’s just that I lack the time to really get to know them.
At best, I have a basic relationship with my Smart Board. The students enjoy using it and I see a lot of potential, yet the Smart Board still remains an untapped resource. To further complicate things, I learned, through personal experience, that different Smart Boards operate a little differently…so the two Smart Boards in my classrooms this year are not exactly like the one I used last year. I know tech help sessions are offered after school and some of them have even focused on getting to know your Smart Board, but these sessions always seem to conflict with a club meeting or a homework help session. Once again, it is all about the lack of time.
What I really need is some time for “messing around” with these different items and to incorporate them into some lessons. This is how flip cameras débuted in my health class last quarter and now they will be making a regular quarterly appearance. There is something to be said for having the time to play with and get to know peripherals and technology. (Susi wrote a great blog about this!) Having that time can yield tremendous results. For example, last year I gave my students about 45 minutes to play with Moviemaker. We were starting working on a photo essay project that traditionally used Powerpoint. I wanted to offer them another option so I provided some time for them to get acquainted with the program prior to starting the project. It was time well spent. The majority of students opted to use the new program with very satisfying results.
Teachers need time to try out technology, play around with it, and to share things that work. However, until that happens, my plan is to try to create some of this time for me…just as soon as I finish all of the other things that I need to do…
Well…this may be a rather short blog posting since I really don’t use a lot of technology peripherals in my classroom. It’s not that I don’t want to… it’s just that I lack the time to really get to know them.
At best, I have a basic relationship with my Smart Board. The students enjoy using it and I see a lot of potential, yet the Smart Board still remains an untapped resource. To further complicate things, I learned, through personal experience, that different Smart Boards operate a little differently…so the two Smart Boards in my classrooms this year are not exactly like the one I used last year. I know tech help sessions are offered after school and some of them have even focused on getting to know your Smart Board, but these sessions always seem to conflict with a club meeting or a homework help session. Once again, it is all about the lack of time.
What I really need is some time for “messing around” with these different items and to incorporate them into some lessons. This is how flip cameras débuted in my health class last quarter and now they will be making a regular quarterly appearance. There is something to be said for having the time to play with and get to know peripherals and technology. (Susi wrote a great blog about this!) Having that time can yield tremendous results. For example, last year I gave my students about 45 minutes to play with Moviemaker. We were starting working on a photo essay project that traditionally used Powerpoint. I wanted to offer them another option so I provided some time for them to get acquainted with the program prior to starting the project. It was time well spent. The majority of students opted to use the new program with very satisfying results.
Teachers need time to try out technology, play around with it, and to share things that work. However, until that happens, my plan is to try to create some of this time for me…just as soon as I finish all of the other things that I need to do…
Image source: http://oncallweb.net/images/Computer%20smile.gif
Ahhh...time. Would be nice to have more of it. The Flip camera is very user friendly and more and more that's what we want from our peripherals.
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