tech+planning

It was enlightening to see how Jamie H. put together a pitch for faculty input on the deployment of instructional technology at Knight Fundamental Academy, (soon to be "Knight Academy at Hallett"). Her memo, I think, delivered the feel of "please buy into this endeavor" by really letting us know what you want out of technology at our school.

I asked several teachers, after the "Mimio" presentation on Interactive whiteboard use, and the nearly universal reaction was, "I want one!"

What was not demo'd, and is, in my mind, a key element of the "teaching/presentation station, (below), is the document camera. One of the key uses I see with this is the digitization and projection (i.e. sharing/collaborative revision) of student writing. It will also eliminate the use of transparencies and old (20th century) overhead projectors. It seems obvious to me that __in the first year__, we cannot outfit every one of our classrooms (i.e. ten) with a $3400 tool, as we just don't have $34,000, (at least not all at once!) __1 Teaching/presentation station__ Includes cart: $500; 1 teacher laptop computer: $1,000; 1 data projector: $650; 1 document camera: $500; 1 Mimio interactive whiteboard system: $750 = $3,400 (more or less)