Team+8+-+Seamless+Access+to+Technology

Welcome to The Collaborators WIKI Page



The theme of our section of the e-Zine will be related to the topic, "Seamless Acess to Technology Equipment." Some things we are thinking of including are the importance of technology equipment to instruction, immediate access to that equipment, and the value of limiting instructional transition time.

1. Provide testimonials to positive and negative experiences with and without technology equipment. 2. What piece of equipment could you not live without. 3. How can scheduling of shared equipment be improved. 4. How many of you would feel comfortable in setting up equipment for use in your classroom. Testimonials:

It's pretty basic, but I couldn't live without my powerpoint presentations and my webquests. I have been experimenting with interactive power points, inserting video and sound, and linking to webpages. I had been looking for a documentary movie about the early labor movement and couldn't find one, so I am designing a power point show that will hopefully fulfill the same need.

1. I am addicted to my tech equipment. Kids are much more engaged when lessons are presented on SMART boards 2. I couldn't live without my projector. I use it constantly to project SMART lessons, Power Points, movies/clips and the document camera. 3. Plan ahead so each person can count on the equipment for a particular lesson. 4. I feel very comfortable setting up most equipment. If I don't know for sure, I play around with it and try.

Dear Collaborators,

The positive aspect of using the equipment has improved throughout the year. At the beginning of the year I talked to teachers as a group in the faculty meetings, met with them individually and used all the equipment in my library lessons. I had a wonderful time using all the new equipment in my lessons. The students responded very well and were excited and on task with what I taught them. However, I did not see any excitement and very much interest in using the equipment at the start of the year by teachers. Now,here it is spring and I can't keep up with the teachers high interest level and wanting to use the equipment all the time. So it took almost all year. I noticed a huge jump after the AIMS testing. I don't know if that relates to the increase in equipment or not.

In order to schedule the use of equipment, that is solved by posting a blank weekly schedule, broken up by the hour, outside the library. It is on a laminated sheet and I just change the dates weekly. It works very well, teachers know they need to sign up and if they don't and someone is using the equipment when they would like it, they quickly learn to schedule their time. It also helps me to see who is using the equipment and I check to see what types of projects they are doing.

The one piece of equipment I could live without would probably be the document camera. I actually thought I would use it all the time, I did originally but decided it just didn't fit with what I do in the library. I have shared it with other teachers and next year, I will be lending it to a teacher for the year. Please check out our Power Point Below.

[|The Collaborators.ppt]