Welcome to the Classroom of Tomorrow!
I’m on my school’s Technology Committee, and at our meeting to today we had a sales rep from Tequipment (the SMARTboard people) come and show us all the sweet stuff we could get for the school with our technology budget next year. Highlights included:
- Personal remotes for each student, which they use to “click in” answers for questions I ask them on the SMARTboard, which in turn compiles their responses in useful ways. That way you can instantly see what percent of students understands each questions, and you can also see exactly which students missed each question. For those of you who went to MIT with me, it’s like the PRS system used in Physics TEAL.
- A tablet-style mini-SMARTboard. It’s basically a tablet PC that connects wirelessly to the SMARTboard, so you can stand anywhere in the room and write on it, and whatever you write shows up on the board. It makes me think of that scene in Matilda where she uses her mind powers to make the chalk write on the board by itself - I want to get it, hide in the closet with it while someone else is teaching, and then make weird and cryptic messages appear on the SMARTboard like I’m the ghost of the brother they murdered.
- A personal teacher audio system. The teacher gets a wireless head mic, and the room is set up with a bunch of speakers. I am obsessed with the idea of being able to boom out “STOP TALKING!!!” in surround sound, without even having to raise my voice. Plus, I would look like I was performing live in concert, and it would be awesome.
I have no idea if we’ll actually be getting any of those things, but it’s sure fun to imagine what my classroom would be like next year if we did…
March 30th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
One time in high school our chorus teacher blew out her voice and for an entire semester she had to talk using a karaoke machine. Good to see technology has advanced beyond that.
March 30th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Tell me how much the personal teacher audio system is and we’ll buy it for you yesterday.
March 30th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
okay clearly you do not know anything about matilda. she used her mind powers to make it look like ms. honey’s dad was writing on the chalkboard. who the heck is this murdered brother???
March 30th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
uh… WHO doesn’t know about Matilda??? Ms. Honey’s dad was the Trunchbull’s brother, who she murdered to get his money and house! Matilda made it look like he was haunting the Trunchbull when she tried to take over Ms. Honey’s classroom.
Duh.
March 30th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
If only you could also deliver a mild electric shock when appropriate….
March 30th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
My dad has used the first two, with success, in his middle school. I think the tablet sounds most useful… writing notes on the board from anywhere in the room would be pretty awesome.
March 30th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
I freaking love Matilda.
I’m jealous!
March 30th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
yeah! you should have a cyborg arm too. like beyonce!
March 31st, 2009 at 3:16 pm
ooh and if you have beyonce’s robot arm, then you should make your students call you ms. fierce.
March 31st, 2009 at 7:06 pm
aka sasha fierce aka our hot dad!