Welcome to English class; I'm your captain. Go ahead and settle in for an enjoyable 45 minute cruise.
Amazing Things That I Noticed:
•Kids making Google Docs and sharing them with me with little help
•Kids importing Word documents into Google Docs
•Kids uploading screen shots into Google Docs
•Kids wholesomely occupying themselves while I helped other students
•Kids helping kids troubleshoot computer problems
•Kids demonstrating tips to upload, troubleshoot, created, and import (i.e. hooking themselves up to the projector and showing groups of people at a time)
•Kids not toting around binders.
Interesting Questions That I Was Asked:
•When will our textbooks be online? I think my mom paid that same amount of money for my books as she did for the iPad I got for Christmas. Would it come close to evening out if we had iPads that contained our textbooks?
(I don't know; maybe we ought to do a project on it and see what we find)
•Why do you still have those smelly paper dictionaries? You don't really need them anymore, do you?
(No, I guess I don't.)
•This desk system doesn't seem to work in here with all these computers out all the time. Wouldn't tables be safer? Can we have class in the conference room?
(Why, yes they would. AND I don't know; I'll ask.)
•How long do you think this will work?
(I don't know; I hope forever.)
•Will the other teachers go paperless?
(I have no idea. Hopefully we can work out all of the kinks for them so that if they do choose to go paperless, it will be an easy transition and YOU GUYS can help them.)
I love the questions and I love all of the awesome stuff I saw today. Literally, I stood in the back of the classroom like a cruise director, pointing to this and that letting them learn and problem solve on their own around the a short story we read today. It was amazing.
The One Question That Wasn't Asked:
•How is this gonna help me in the future?
Ponder that, my fellow educators...
Ok I have to admit I am a little jealous....
ReplyDeleteThe two issues that immediately come to mind with mass adoption of this system are classes like math, where you really need a drawing tablet or something, and battery life, which would especially be a problem in systems where students used their own laptops instead of a classroom having a set everywhere.
ReplyDeleteBut hey, I'm sure that this will serve as a fabulous example for teachers everywhere and this system will see widespread adoption just in time for me to be out of college. >_>