One to One Entry

I believe that one to one entry is the way to go for every school.  My district is currently thinking about implementing Bring Your Own Device and I think this could be a difficult process.  One to one is not the most cost effective approach, but it allows the district to provide each student and staff member the same device. Mr. Shockey mentioned that you should look at your district and decide what is going to work within your district and begin with a vision.  By creating a vision you can decide why your district is implementing the change and how that change is going to enhance curriculum and increase student achievement.

In order to implement one to one I think you need to get input from your staff and your students.  Our district is really pushing to implement bring your own device, but I am not sure that they have put together any sort of technology team with teachers on it.  The teachers and students are the ones that are going to be working with the device and I feel they should be the ones to help with the implementation.  I also liked the idea of having a trial period before the actual roll out.  This would allow for a teacher and students to actually work with the devices and see how well internet connection and bandwidth is working within that classroom.
Another advantage that I see with one to one is that it is going to save districts money in the future because they can purchase textbooks online.  I also think this is an advantage for the kids because they do not have to carry a backpack with tons of books, they can carry one device with all their information on it.
    The technology implementation is going to vary from district to district and the type of devices used are all going to be different, but the most important thing to keep in mind when planning the implementation is why you are changing and how is it going to benefit the students. Careful research and planning before you roll out is going to make the change much easier and leave less room for extra costs and embarrassment within the community.

Edtech

I attended a tech camp last summer and created a twitter account during that week in class.  I tweeted classmates and used it during that week, but never continued to use it after the class.  At the time I really didn’t like it and find it very useful for what I needed in my classroom.  I learned a lot of other stuff that week and never really worked with twitter again.  This class is making me use twitter and maybe that is what I needed last year in order to really understand and get use out of it.  After working with it for three weeks now I am really starting to see the advantages and the amount of useful information that you can get within minutes from it.  The amount of information is not the only thing that is an advantage, but being able to see other peoples professional opinion and advice on educational topics is also another great reason to use twitter.  Twitter allows you to connect with other professionals in your specific area, have professional conversations, and exchange great information on a specific topic that you are interested in or need more information on.  

I logged in on a #satchat and discussed vision in schools and I could not believe the different viewpoints that each person on the chat brought up.  There was a lot of people that were tweeting so I found it a little hard at first to keep up and read everybody’s information.  Spam kept interrupting the chat at times and that kind of ended the chat after a half hour or so.  The chat still overall provided me with useful information and allowed me to find a couple good resources for my final paper, which talks about ways to revisit and introduce the schools vision to student and teachers in the building.

I would like to use twitter and be able to get the use out of twitter like my technology director at Amboy High School.  I had a conversation with him discussing the type of video equipment my Multimedia class should be getting for next semester.  Do we buy just one expensive camera and holster or do we purchase multiple, less expensive cameras?  He got back to me the next day with an answer, because he used twitter to get information from other educators in high schools that could provide him with what they are using in their schools.