Need Your Input

Hello all you techies.  I have a question for you.  Teachers in a brand new school have only desktop computers on their desks.  Any other tech they have to buy (including a projector if they want one).  How would you integrate technology into these classroom?  It is a K-12 school and most of the teachers are first year teachers.  It is also a school that accepts students that have been expelled from other schools.  It is also a high minority low income population.  How do we close the digital divide.  Your comments are welcomed.  Please no judgmental comments.   Thanks

What I Did On My Summer Vacation Part I

 What I did on my summer vacation.  This summer was very eventful from many standpoints.  One after a series of layoffs my district was able to bring everyone back that was laid off this year plus bring others back and hire others due to growth.  Most of the summer was spent getting ready for the marriage of my oldest daughter in August.  She is a new teacher this year too.

However, during two weeks in July I participated in the best professional development in my 25 years of teaching.  I was honored to be selected for the 2011 Cohort of MERIT.  MERIT stands for Making Education Relevant and Interactive through Technology.  It is hosted by the Krause Center for Innovation at Foothills College in Los Altos, CA.   The program director is Rushton Hurley with teacher in residence Steve McGriff.  MERIT is essentially 10 days of technology tools boot camp with excellent speakers sprinkled in along with teaching what we learned to the whole group on the closing day.

During MERIT I met over 40 excellent teachers from California, Italy, Ireland and El Salvador.   One of the highlights was when the 6 "out of towners" stayed at the hotel and we were able to drive back and forth together, east breakfast and go to the coffee house.  Made some lasting friendships with those people.

In my next installment I will describe the MERIT two weeks in more detail.

Live Binders!

I recently found a great tool.  Live Binders.  Found at LiveBinders.com it is essentially an online binder.  You can create Tabs and SubTabs.   You can fill your binder with a Google Search or on your own.  The tabs can be moved around to suit your needs.  You can embed photos, YouTube videos, Google Docs, Google Forms, Google Presentations, pdf's, websites, even blogs.  It is one of the best tools I have found.  I keep everything I do in class in one.  I also give students access to the binder.   Binders can be made public or kept private.  The neat thing about the privacy feature you can add an access key so only those you want can view it.  

Additionally, it is EASY to learn.  I have taught it to colleagues in a half an hour.   So far they have used it without problem and have asked only on or two questions.  The creators are very responsive to issues and are quick to fix any.

Finally there is the LiveBinder It tool you can add to your bookmark bar and by clicking it you can instantly add a web site to an existing binder or even create a new binder.

It is one great tool.

OK World Here We Go

Welcome to the first post of Dave's Tech World.  I will be discussing new tech tools for the classroom here and if they worked in the classroom.  Somedays will just be the rambling thoughts of the day.  I would appreciate your comments and referrals if you like it.  If you comment all I ask is your don't do it anonymously.  Some days you may not agree with what I say and thats good.  What I am looking for is good civil discourse on the use of technology in the classroom.   So here we go.  Coming up next a discussion about Live Binders.