Enthusiasm Pays!

Today I spent a half a day at one of my elementary schools. More and more teachers are coming to me and asking for ideas for integrating technology into their classrooms.   Since I have been taking my Web 2.0 class, I have found so many great tools on the web and am having a great time using them. I think my enthusiasm for these tools are rubbing off on the teachers around me.

I found some interesting Watercycle videos on You Tube for my 3rd grade teachers and linked them to a wiki so the teachers could just log on to the wiki and play the videos.  For one of the teachers, that was the first time she saw the academic potential of YouTube.  I guess she spent a lot of time the evening I sent the wiki address (http://watercycles.wikispaces.com/) to her looking through YouTube for other resources for science.

I am now using wikis to schedule our tech work.  This way all of us who are responsible for repair and troubleshooting knows what needs fixed and who might be the lead person on the repair.  I am also using a wiki to keep track of who has signed up for our three day technology computer camp.  The advantage of the wiki for these kinds of tasks is that it can be accessed from any computer 24/7 and edited by any member of the group.  We’re not tied to our desktops or the computer we use most of the time.

MLTI Student Tech Team Conference

I attended the MLTI Student Tech Team Conference with my students last Friday. At this conference the students got a chance to choose three project based courses that deal with cutting edge technology. I told the students to choose what THEY want to learn about and attend those courses. They were so excited! They don’t often hear a teacher tell them that they can learn whatever they want to. I’m wondering how they will use the knowledge they gained on Friday. Will they share with their fellow learners back at school or will they keep their learning to themselves? If they share with their fellow learners we will have students who are quite competent. My hope is that they will share what they learn and everyone will know a little more about computers than they did last week.