Collecting dust

I love it when teachers tell me that I try to make technology enjoyable. I love what I do. I love to hear when teachers comment that after attending my workshop that they feel that technology isn't that bad after all.

Today, I just finished a 1 1/2 hour of in-house workshop as a refresher course on using the SmartBoard. When I was offered this position for the school year 2008-2009, I was told that the school has a SmartBoard. I never worked with one before. Neither have I worked with an Interactive WhiteBoard too.


I finally got the SmartBoard workshop scheduled. I used a very short SlideRocket presentation and used the later part of the workshop for the teachers to actually touch the SmartBoard and play around with with. Though they felt that they "didn't want to mess it up", they ended up planning on integrating it in their curriculum.

The SmartBoard is now out of the closet and will not be collecting dust anymore. I truly hope that I am making a difference here in the lives of the teachers to embrace technology.

Beyond classroom learning

Learning from experts has its advantages. Big advantage in fact. Though our school do not have Video Conferencing equipment as of yet, a lot of enthusiasm was created when we connected with Arctic Explorer, Professor Aaron Doering of the GoNorth! exploration team.

Seven classes (although only 4 confirmed) packed our library/media center to participate in the live web chat with Professor Doering. Representatives from each class came up with questions that Professor Doering answered. We read questions from other schools as well and discussed it afterwards. Questions like "Have you ever fallen off the sled?" to "How do you prepare for such an expedition?" were posted in the chat room. The students left the library/media center with great big smiles and they were still talking about what they learned during the chat. They are looking forward for more of this distance learning experiences.