Okay, so life and school have finally caught up to me and this blog post is about a week late, but I am proud to say I finally have the time I need to consider what technology I would want in my classroom and the reasoning behind it.
During Internship, the school I was at had 4 desktop computers in each room. I believe all of the rooms, had a digital projector installed by the time Christmas break rolled around, and for the teachers who had applied to the district, some of them received
Mimio equipment.
A bit about the Mimio:
- The Mimio is an interactive whiteboard that can be transferred between rooms.
- All that's needed is a white board, the Mimio pen/stylus, the bar, the Mimio USB hub receiver, and a digital projector.
- I have little experience with SMARTBoard technology, but found the Mimio to be very user friendly.
- I was able to download the Mimio Studio onto my personal computer and work on projects and presentations from home.
- Plus there's also a network of Mimio users online who post their lessons and activities onto the website.
My Wishlist:
~Mimio or SMARTBoard
~Data projector
~Desktop computers- These are great for students to use for projects requiring word processing and can be an adaptation for students with exceptionalities that impact their writing ability.
~Digital Camera- I know I have an old digital camera that I would bring in, have a camera person to show our learning from the students' point of view
~Cogdog (Alan Levine) inspired me through the
DS106 site to get creative, particularly daily with the
Daily Create- we do word work and literacy activities in the morning, so why not make our own daily create focused on our outcomes and indicators, or even just to get going for the day? I'm sure students would be more quickly settled in their desks if a new challenge was presented everyday
~Technology Centre- Inspired by
Royan Lee, I am now able to see how a table and laptops or tablets available for students to use can inspire students, allow for expression, and
create a collaborative atmosphere for students to work at and share.
~A couple of Tablets- iPad? I'm intimidated by iPads, I feel much more comfortable with an android tablet, but I'm not sure if a tablet is something I would actually use, but I'm sure if I had access to one I would use it.
~Classroom Twitter account- as
Kathy Cassidy has done with her class. I would use Twitter and have my classroom daily helper acting as Tweeter, sharing what we are working on.
~Classroom blog- 1 blog for class, or individual blogs, or group blogs? I'm not sure how this would look but I have more than a dozen classroom blogs that I like and cannot pick one to link to.
~Laptops- I'm familiar with these, others might claim that iPads and tablets are so much better, but I would want laptops, maybe even a Mac or two for
iMovie,
Garageband and the creative programs that come with Mac/Apple products.
~Ideally I would want a space to store the school's laptop cart in my room, that way when anyone
goes to use them I know they will be completely charged and always ready to go. There's nothing worse than planning to use the laptops and not having them charged. This could be a problem with
space issues in a classroom.
~Microsoft Office- Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Publisher- these are often job requirements and if we can get students exploring this technology at a young age, they will be great at using it in the future.
