The Wireless TabCam Streams, Records, Presents, and Shares

TabCam, a wireless streaming camera, works with iPads, Android tablets, and computers and can present live video with annotations, highlighting, and more without “being tethered to the camera.” The device captures lessons, which can be used for future reference and for use with substitute teachers and students who were not present for the lesson. The advantage of having a wireless device that has a battery life of eight hours can’t be underestimated in a mobile classroom. Take a look at the videos, which describe using TabCam for flipped and blended instruction. The price on the Touchboard site is listed at $527.99. Kathy Hagar, a Director of Technology on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, tells us that she purchased several at a price of about $515 each and that her teachers love them. If interested, do a query on the AVer site.

Lighthouse Coalition

The Coalition of Lighthouse Schools is a group of educators, school administrators, and IT professionals who are working together to implement one-to-one digital learning in their schools. Coalition members, mostly from charter and independent schools, are integrating Apple mobile devices into their school curricula and are eager to collaborate with others who are also integrating 1-1 programs in their schools.  The networked educators work with Apple Computer representatives in order to better prepare their students for the future. The group is hosting its iSummit, July 24-25, in Atlanta.

Is the Chromebook for Your Students?

What is done on a Chromebook is stored in the Cloud. That means, for the most part, that your students need access to the Internet to make it work. The storage, and the fact that you’d need to use Chrome OS apps, seem to be the basic differences between Chromebooks and laptops. The CNET Community has a good discussion going on this topic, which you’ll want to browse if you are looking into using Chromebooks with your students. Some of the advantages of Chromebooks listed by those responding to the Chromebook question include: low cost, speed, automatic file backup, and no worries over viruses. Disadvantages listed included: inability to use Windows applications, slower for storage, Internet access needed, can’t be upgraded, looks like a laptop but isn’t, and is like a dumb terminal. So, is a Chromebook for your students? It depends on how robust your wireless network is and what you are planning to do with your students and technology.

Can BYOD work?

BYOD: Sometimes it seems overwhelming, doesn’t it? How can teachers possibly handle a classroom filled with different types of digital devices? In some ways it’s not much different from working with a classroom filled with students using similar devices. It’s what you want student to do with their devices that’s important, not what they are using. For success with BYOD, however, you need to consider:

• What types of devices are acceptable, since not all devices may be able to access or use the software or apps needed for your course.
• Whether you want to allow smart phones.
• If your network is ready to handle all the devices swarming into your school.
• How students with their own devices get access to software. (Who pays for it and what are the legalities?)
• What happens when a personal device won’t work? Should your IT people work on it? Does your school have devices for students to use when their devices don’t work?
• Does your school have devices for students who do not have their own or forget to bring them to school?
• How do you manage use of different devices in your classroom?

Rocky Transition to eTexts/Online Learning?

There’s lots of hype about electronic textbooks and online learning instead of printed texts, but who knows where we are when it comes to this transition? Surely, it will happen someday. It’s inevitable that in the future students will be able to access exactly what they need in coursework from their mobile devices. But what about in the school year 2012-2013? Some teachers have written their own books, district committees are working on them, and publishing companies are trying to provide courses as soon as possible. For the most part, teachers won’t be throwing away textbooks, but instead supplementing print material with free and for-pay online resources.

Some school officials say that to use electronic materials in their schools, they have to realize a cost benefit. With the cost of mobile technologies combined with the cost of broadband, etexts, and software, will schools save money at this time? Some schools opt for BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and only provide devices for those who cannot afford them. Schools in Vail, Arizona, don’t buy print text anymore; instead, they spend their money on digital technologies. This way, Vail students and teachers can access educational resources whenever needed. These include open educational resources, and shared online lessons and video. However, like BYOD, this method means that teachers must be knowledgeable, not only in their subject areas, but also in transforming their classrooms to a new type of learning.

Think Locally About Ed Tech Needs

Maybe you are thinking about purchasing some of the latest technologies for your school or classroom and decide to look for research on the product or methodology.  Chances are, you won’t find it. With the speed of changes in technology, research can’t possibly keep up. Good research takes time (usually years), and if you wait for it, the ed tech world will move on to new products and ideas before you are able to make a decision about what to purchase.

In order to help school leaders with decisions about educational innovation, Laura Devaney, Managing Editor of eSchool News, in her article How Can Research Inform Ed-Tech Decisions?, offers ideas from Stanford’s Larry Cuban, North Carolina State’s Glenn Kleiman, and Harvard’s Chris Dede. Kleiman suggests that schools follow their own research to find what needs improving and what “approach is the best fit for [their] context.”  According to Dede, if school leaders decide to give all students digital devices, they need to remember, whether there is research or not, that good results probably won’t happen without staff support, staff development, and curricular changes. Cuban suggests that the first question school leaders should ask is: “What is the problem to which an iPad or a laptop is the solution?”

The bottom line seems to be that educators can’t expect to find research to justify purchases of technologies, and that even if they did, they may discover that their local needs don’t fit the research. It’s time to ask the right questions locally before seeking answers and spending money.

Haven’t we been saying that one-size-doesn’t-fit-all in education? That’s what Kleiman says as well.