Ed Tech Musings

I am on vacation looking out at a gorgeous Lake Michigan sunset, and thought it would be fun to do a stream of consciousness blog of unrelated topics.

*I find it hard to "unplug" on vacation for two reasons. I enjoy checking for sports scores, texts from family, Facebook, etc. And when I do it is pretty hard to avoid peeking into a filling email box or voice mails  2) I don't like the idea of being crushed or hit with bad news when I get back. How about you? Can you, must you unplug?

* I am genuinely surprised and happy that iPads hold value over time. We are collecting iPads from students on Monday for a buy-back. We are also also selling several of our three year old models. Apple put us in touch with a third party buyer who leads us to expect the following prices:

iPad 3 (Class of 2016)- $145.00

iPad 4 (Class of 2017) - $ 175.00

iPad Air (Class of 2018) - $ 185.00

* I have tried for the last five years to proselytize Mercy teachers and my graduate students about Twitter as a powerful source of professional development. Finally, I have achieved a convert in my Madonna EDU 6270 course. She followed  @cwhinsch,  @markbarnes19,  @sjunkins,  @kylepace  and @rmbyrne and she concluded, “Through this experience, I have found "Twitter to be a great social media site to further my knowledge on technology and education.”

*I am anxious to see the results of our recent iPad survey of staff and students (described in Thursday's post). I think we did a great job developing a survey instrument and administering it comprehensively. It is based on the ISTE standards which are rock solid.

*I love being able to place digital signatures and text on the many pdf documents I receive that require a sign-off. Saves me the hassle of download-print-scan. I can open the document sign, send and store to Evernote.

*This past school year, I took many visitors into our classrooms to see our technology in action. Generally I simply asked a big group of teachers if the kids would be doing an activity with their iPads that day other than taking notes or testing. I never asked anyone to "put on a show" and always felt proud and uplifted after visiting the classes.

It turns out that I am so full of musings that I will publish the rest in my next post.

Taken by moi at the Little Traverse Bay, MI  (June 18, '15)