In the spring semester, I learned of cognitive dissonance and discovered that I had a severe case of it. No longer would I stand idly by and watch as my teaching and my student's learning lagged further into obsolescence. It was time for action!
I knew that industry must be interested in the education of our children as this is where their future employees come from. So I began to solicit grants from our local industries. American Electric Power graciously committed $1500 to my physics classes to purchase laptop computers. In some classes I now have a 1 to 1 computing ratio. I have no class with less than 1 to 2. This may not be a perfect set up, but it is good enough to begin integrating digital portfolios, web 2.0 tools and social tools into the physics curriculum.
During the summer session I gained skills and ideas for using different types of technology in the classroom. I was able to get an idea of what would work and what would not.
At this point, all of my students have established Twitter accounts which I will use to give timely feed back and information. They have also created Google accounts for Google documents and G mail. No more lost documents on the hard drive! In addition to these, my students have created accounts with Mind42 which is a collaborative graphic organizer we will be using for our portfolios.
As the school year progress, I will keep you all informed of the successes, failures, trials and glories of the process. If nothing else, it will be an adventure!
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