A Plea For a Projection Device

School has been out for almost a week now and I can't stop thinking about how I'm about to lose my portable class Smart Board and the projection device that goes with it.  I knew it was an extremely strong possibility that it was going to happen but a small part of me was hoping that others would forget. You see in my school of 23 Divisions we have two Smart Boards.  One is mounted in the lab and one is portable.  I have had the portable one stored in my room for first term.

Last year we decided as a staff that the portable smart board was not being used enough because it was such a pain to move from room to room.  Maybe it wasn't so much the moving of the board, but the re arranging of class furniture to get the board in and out of classrooms.  After a lot of discussion it was decided that each term we would store the smart board in one teacher's classroom.  Others could come and borrow it but the reality is once it's in a classroom it doesn't really  move from there.  When the discussions were occurring I had mentioned that I would like to have it in my room (after teaching in Australia in 2009 with one in my classroom there) but I didn't want it in term 1.  My students would be too young then and not ready to handle it.

Funny how things changed for me and my thinking.  Twitter totally changed that and so when I returned to school in September I quickly scooped up the white board and its accompanying paraphernalia (laptop, and projection device).  Things didn't go as well as I had hoped for the Smart Board though as the laptop brought nothing but trouble.  A lot of lessons were scrapped and a lot of time was wasted trying to get things working.  Two visits from the school district tech team and I think things might be working better now.  But, in reality it doesn't matter.  My term with the board is over.

I'm okay with the technology moving into a colleagues classroom.  It's good stuff and it needs to be shared. Others need to learn with it too.  But I have grown accustomed to having the projection device available to me at all times.  When we are learning a new concept I can quickly plug into the projection device and show a relevant clip.  When new blog posts are up on our class blog I can easily share them with the class.  When we are working on commenting on our blog comments, and other blogs we can easily do it together over the big screen.  When a twitter chat is on we can use it to project the feed.  The spontaneity of being able to quickly and easily project what's on our laptop or iPad anytime through out the day was a real treat.

So what am I going to do?  For one thing I'm going to start booking the portable projection device.  I want my Friday mornings to continue to be class commenting and blog review time.  That isn't a spontaneous use of the equipment, it is planned and we've done it a lot this past term.  The problem is when I can't get the projection device (or the rumblings start when people notice I'm booking it out EVERY Friday  morning) I need another plan.  Plan two is to book the laptops.  If we can't blog and comment as a class, we're going to do it in groups.  Laptops will do.  In reality either option will be fine.  I'm also going to do my best to think ahead and book the projection device at other times too.  In reality though this is tough to do and in all fairness I know we have a policy in place limiting how many times in a week, and how far in advance you can book the equipment.  I certainly want the equipment to be shared equally between those that are utilizing it.    But most of all I'm going to write a proposal to my administration to lobby for a projection device stored in my classroom.  I would OBVIOUSLY share it with others when we are not using it but it would be stored in my room at all other times.

This fall I have made a real effort to integrate technology into my classroom.  I have been avidly learning from others via Twitter.  I have created a class blog, given my students their own individual blogs.  We have used technology to help us with our reading, our writing, and our math skills.  We have read and commented on blogs around the world.  We have exchanged postcards and Christmas cards with students around the world.  We have taken part in and started twitter chats with other primary classes.  Technology has helped us learn how to share and to take turns.  And we are only just beginning to embrace our technology.  It has taught us how to think about things differently and show our learning in less traditional ways.  There is still so much more I want to do with my class.  So to take a step backwards by losing technology is breaking my heart.  My class and I have grown too accustomed to it.  With the introduction of the class iPad the last two weeks before school holidays (and it's accompanying attachment that has made it simple to project onto a screen) there is now even more that I want to do with it.

Hopefully my plea will fall on the right ears and I will be able to get a projection device stored in my classroom.  Fingers crossed everyone!

Teaching A Comic Lesson I Learned on Twitter

This afternoon I showed my class a YouTube video of a student in Ontario, Canada teaching his former class how to draw a cartoon character.  I've never met this student but I actively follow his previous teacher on Twitter.  I think at first my class was a bit skeptical to be learning from a boy in a classroom across the country but they were just as curious to see what he had to share.  The way the teacher filmed the video of her "young teacher" made us feel like we were sitting on the floor with her class too.

In the end it was probably one of the best directed drawing lessons we've done this year.  They were so curious to see what he was going to do next.  They remained on task at all times, and the language between one another was music to my ears.  In the end each made their own special "peanut" person and they were all so proud of their final products.

This lesson is another big change for me.  In the past I have rarely utilized YouTube with my students.  I always thought it wasn't worth the time and it was too much of a hassle to set up.  This lesson confirmed for me that I've got to use the resources available to me to their full potential.  I will once again credit this change in my teaching to my new love, Twitter.

If you're curious to see what we did please check out our class blog post here.

Technology Frustrations

It's been over a month now since I wrote my last blog post. It was never my intention to go so long between posts. There really is a lot I want to share.  I've been struggling with something which has made it difficult for me to write a positive post.

Since joining Twitter in July (yes, a line I seem to use over and over again because its impact has been that huge on me and my teaching and learning) I have jumped in with both feet to utilize technology with my class to the best of my ability.  I've created, for the first time, a class blog which includes a direct link to  individual student blogs; I've utilized our school's laptops and extra computer lab time; I've integrated our school interactive smart board; I've signed out our district ipods and ipads; and I've helped those at my school to utilize technology too.  I'm proud of all those things.

My school district is really keen on getting us technology savvy to help better meet the needs of our students.  I love that about my district.  I have been attending a technology dinner series entitled Engaging the Digital Learner Series listening to some amazing speakers.  I've put my school on the list to get wireless technology sooner rather than later.  I work in a forward thinking district and I'm really happy about that.

My biggest source of frustration is the technology that is available to me in my classroom.  I've adopted four iBooks.  The iBooks were saved from a trip to computer heaven and are long past their due date, so I don't complain about them at all.  We can use them for very basic things but not much else.  I don't expect them to perform consistently because they are so old (notice I wrote iBook, not MacBook).  I also have an eMac which is a bit better than the laptops, and an iMac G5.  The iMac is the best computer in my room.  I've managed to wiggle a lot of computers into my classroom which is a good thing. I've also been able to get the school's one portable smart board to be stored in my classroom for this first term.  It comes with a brand new MacBook laptop and its own projection device. I thought I was really l lucky to have this interactive white board in my room.  So why am I so frustrated?

My computers are constantly crashing.  When I open up our class website on the iMac G5 more times than not it crashes and quits Safari.  It's a hit or miss if I can open it up any other computers in the classroom.  My students are keen to blog during their writing time but by the time we get a page up and running way too much time has passed because they are so slow! My school board also has control of what goes on our computers.  When we received new PC computers in our lab they installed an old version of Microsoft Word so any document created in a newer version of Word won't open at school.  I am constantly being told that my software is out of date and any upgrading has to come from the district.

And the interactive white board.  The board itself has been awesome but the laptop that accompanies it has been nothing but trouble.  While it is brand new, it freezes all the time.  It's been re-imaged and while things improved for a while it is still totally unreliable.  I've planned so many lessons utilizing it to have to scrap them because my technology has failed me.  I now get excited when the lessons on the interactive white board actually work because it is such a rare occurrence.  

The school laptops have also been a source of trouble.  On some of them there are some strange restrictions that won't allow my students to log into their personal blogs.  Sometimes they pick up the wireless network available for me, and other times they don't.  This is so frustrating.

I don't want to complain any more because I know that I have it better than most in my school, and most in my district.  My school is not yet a needy school because we have a full 30 computer PC lab, and 30 laptops available to us. However when you look at our technology, and how out dated it is becoming, I can't see how we'll ever be in the 21st century.  What we could use, and what we can actually afford are way too far apart.

So I will continue to do what I can with what I have but a big part of me will continue to dream about the day when the technology works as it should.  My question to you is how do you deal with your technology frustrations?