'Most of my posts are about ways that technology allows me to enhance instruction. But mobile devices have become integrated to my role as an Associate Principal. I really appreciate that now I carry excellent microphones and cameras virtually wherever I go. Recently, this has included a Regional track meet and league championship softball game; an English tea and an iPad Open House. In each case I was able to snap off photos and send them to Facebook or share them with others in the school. When Ann Jamieson was told during her gym class that she was our "Teacher of the Year", I was the only one on hand with a camera (iPad). My photo was used on the school web site and in the school paper.
I took a day off last week and was unavailable to do an interview with a student who was working on her science Challenge Based Learning project. Fortunately, I could still help her out with the voice memo feature of my iPhone. She emailed me questions, and I emailed audio answers.
None of this is rocket science of course. The kids consider this perfectly ordinary. But it's kind of "out there" for and old-fogie administrator. And I have found that snapping pictures is a very social business around school, and gives me a pleasant way to interact with the kids when I am making the rounds.
In a 1:1 iPad school, the possibilities are marvelous for a classroom teacher, particularly with all students armed with an HD video camera. Though our laptops were outfitted with cameras and mics, they were larger, heavier and much more awkward for snap and shoot activities.
I admit the usages I have described are pretty prosaic, but they have made my job more interesting and fun. If others at school have the same experience, that can't be a bad thing.
1 comment:
I snapped some pics at the adviser group party, choosing my iPad over my camera because of the ease of getting those photos to a destination, perhaps Evernote, where they could go immediately into a notebook. I could also choose Dropbox; in either case, my photos of advisees will be much more organized and retrievable than they have been in the past. And recently, inspired by one of your posts, I declared for myself an iPad photo taking-and-sending practice day and took a picture of each class and emailed it to the students. One of my frosh insisted that her class should become my desktop (on the laptop, because yes, I am still using it the most), so voila! It is so.
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