Teachers at my school are somewhere between being the sheep and the shepherds. In my division, Lower School, teachers have actually reached the point where they are asking for hardware, rather than being "introduced" to hardware they are expected to use. It's a lovely moment I am trying to savor. This spring, teachers in first and fourth grades have requested document cameras. Fairly frothing with excitement that they had requested something of me, I quickly agreed to research it and provide one or two for a pilot program. Of course, I will stand by my word, but after doing a bit of research I remain unconvinced that the document camera will be used as little more than a 21st Century Overhead projector. I guess that can be ok, since all technologies should be improved over the years.Ben Rimes over at The Tech Savvy Educator posted about the topic recently and he's mostly in favor of them, citing an article by Leigh Carter called "Today's Learners Thrive with ELMO in the Classroom." He's right, it's a convincing article on how it can be used. I'm still not sold. But then, I guess that's my job: helping teachers to see beyond the obvious first uses of the tool. *Sigh*.
Image credit: www.visualedtech.com
