Preparing for launch

The iPod Touches arrived last week and we experienced a few "technical difficulties" that were not anticipated. I thought I would take a minute to share these out so that if anyone out there is trying to replicate, you can use this information to help make it a little smoother.

Our first road block was the cart. We ordered the Bretford Power-Sync Cart which allows us to charge 40 iPod Touches and sync 20 touches at a time. Originally, Bretford said that we needed to use an Apple computer in order to sync the cart. We had several G4 iBooks that we could use, however, the system was now powerful enough for us to download the 10.4.9 OS so we were unable to download the iTunes that we needed to sync with the cart. Fortunately, we called Apple and they informed us that a PC would work with the cart, so we should be good to go from here on out.

Our next speed bump was syncing the iPod Touches. Before you are able to sync with the Bretford Cart, you must sync each individual iPod Touch to the computer that will be used with the cart. We needed to sync 28 iPod Touches, which took about an hour. During this process, you need to set up each iPod and name it. Again, this only needs to be done once, but it takes a little bit of time - so it's smart to plan ahead. Along with the set up of the iPod Touches, we had to also get them on our network at school. This only took a few seconds to do each iPod Touch, but needed to be done before the iPod Touches were launched in the classroom.

Stay tuned...the project has launched in Mrs. Stacey's Class. Video and updates will follow!

Uncharted Waters....

It has been an interesting couple of weeks. I came across a video on Twitter about what happens when you put an iPod Touch in an 8year old's hand and was immediately moved into action! My brain began racing with ideas of the impact that this tool could have on teaching and learning. After many powerful discussions with my PLN (which I LOVED the push back, by the way...) and a Skype session with Becky Fisher (thank you thank you thank you), we began the process of acquiring iPod Touches for an action research project in 3rd grade.

We approached our Parent Teacher Association at an Executive Board Meeting in regards to purchasing iPod Touches with the money allotted for "Gifts to School". After a fantastic presentation by Megan Stacey (research teacher), the board voted to move forward with this project. I can't tell you how exciting it is to be in a district with parents who are supportive of such a new endeavor. There are not many schools out there who are experimenting with this tool, I'm just thrilled with the forward thinking in this district!

Megan Stacey - Classroom Teacher, Cary Harrod - Instructional Technology Coordinator, Debra Simson - Media Specialist, and I met today to begin the process of planning the implementation of this tool into the classroom after the Winter break. We are trying to begin with the end in mind, yet we have no idea where this could take us. Needless to say it was a little bit of a struggle.

Ideas were definitely flowing, but it's still WAY to nebulous at this point (which we don't want to lose that entirely). A couple of things that I took away from this meeting were that we are attempting to create a learning environment where students are highly motivated and engaged in their learning, able to connect with others, and where knowledge is easily accessible. We also want to promote an atmosphere where students are able to adapt and change their use of the iPod Touch to create new ways of implementing this tool...ways that they can teach us! We want to promote an environment of inquiry and creativity. Finally, we (as action researchers) want to celebrate our mistakes. We don't expect this project to be flawless, but we want to utilize our failures as our greatest opportunities for learning!

Stay tuned as we venture out into uncharted waters...I will be looking to my PLN for an occasional lifesaver!