From the Keys

          It has been liberating to work with a laptop instead of a desktop computer.   Web 2.0 has been a breath of fresh air for technology facilitators in Carteret
County.   We are usually the ones providing technology staff development opportunities to our staff, it was an absolute pleasure to be one receiving staff development that we could go back to school and use with our teachers.   

The convenience of having the laptop to carry from classroom to classroom (or out on the school grounds!) helps to immediately document and create activities and projects as the teachers and I collaborate.  Of all we learned throughout the year, the faculty was most excited and looking forward to using the Global Positioning System (GPS) as a tool to another fish IMPACT collaboration school-wide activity that integrates media and technology with middle school standard course of studies.    For the lesson description and activity please click on the link below:

http://www.carteretcountyschools.org/bcms/IMPACTFISHGPS.htm

 The laptop initiative has enabled us to receive staff development to move us forward.  I believe my efficiency level has improved greatly because I have information at my fingertips wherever I am; unfortunately, I can’t access the Internet or the server unless I am in the media center where we have a wireless router.  I can’t count the number of times I have been in collaboration meetings outside of the media center and needed to use the Internet or retrieve information from the server for the project we were working on.  Once BCMS goes wireless school-wide, I believe it will enable me to me to do twice as much, twice as quickly.    Next year, I would like us to continue to have technology facilitator staff development activities that inspire us to find new and better ways to provide learning opportunities for our teachers and students.  Brainstorming, sharing lessons and best practices when we are together as a group, collaborating for the upcoming year would be a great way to assess the technology and staff development needs at each school.   At the rate technology changes, I am so thankful to have been given the hardware, the staff development, and the time away from school to learn new ways to integrate technology into the classrooms at BCMS to better prepare our students for the future.

At the end of the day of many interesting sessions, I am thankful that Carteret County Schools has given me the opportunity to participate in this conference. As a facilitator for the use of technology in schools, I am continually challenged to find ways to enhance learning. I was able to read, learn about, and use new hardware and software that is on the market today (and I won an Epson Scanner, Printer, Copier–yeah!). It was a pleasure listening to presenters: Will Richardson, David Warlick, and Leslie Fisher share their opinions on education and the role of technology in that process.  At this point, there are several thoughts that I keep coming back to:

Technology is an essential tool in the success of life-long learners.

Successful teachers are facilitators that model safe, ethical educational uses of technology to communicate, collaborate, and inspire students.

Assignments and quests should be relevant, interesting, and challenging to students.

Multitasking is second nature to young people whose generation is comfortable and eager to use new technology for videoconferences, podcasts, blogs, wikis, social sites, etc.

Teachers need to create opportunities for students to experience these learning tools in an educational setting where social appropriateness and their responsibility to create a positive, pro-active approach in a world full of challenges. It is our responsibility to provide guidance and information skills necessary to sift through a vast amount of information that is at their finger tips. They need to develop their “voices,” and I look forward to helping them do this.