There have been some interesting articles recently related to the use of “Smart” Boards and use of student responders. District 228 continues to try to grow in effectiveness in using this technology.

The Geneseo School District has considered itself a leader in educational technology for several years now.  Currently all of the elementary and MS computer labs are being upgraded and we are replacing the elementary teacher laptops.  Use of SmartBoards and Promethean systems has grown and a goal of the Board of Education has been to put as much technology in student and staff hands to promote efficiencies and more effective instruction and enhanced learning.

The concept of One to One computing (where each student has a laptop or some type of individual electronic device) has been researched for quite some time.  It appears that there are new technologies that may accelerate the District’s ability to build into this infrastructure.

The attached link will take you to an issue about how the Netbooks could be a vehicle to expand individual student use of technology.  James Roodhouse, a leading technology expert and thankfully one of our District employees, has begun to seriously examine different options.  I expect that we will dive into further research with staff, students, parents, community members and Board members to see what the future may hold for One to One computing in District 228.

Rich Voltz, the Associate Director of the Illinois Association of School Administrators, has created a very interactive, collaborative site for superintendents using Ning.  We are “piloting” this in District 228 with an administrative book club and also with the Tech Support Team.

For those of you who are seeking a place to more privately interact in a professional learning community-like setting, it may be worth exploring.  Ning is free and very easy to use.

It has been interesting to see how the candidates this election have utilized web 2.0 tools to raise money, create awareness of issues, and even text running mates.  This NY Times article gives a different picture about how a voter can be involved in creating excitement about the campaign.  Gives more credence to why we need to be astute in teaching students how to discern credible information on the Web.

We are very fortunate in District 228 to have an outstanding, hard working and dedicated group of technologists.  I always find myself very encouraged about our infrastructure and ability to provide high-speed, high quality technology access to students and staff.  This year we are embarking on several very ambitious projects to improve our infrastructure even more.  We will be looking at some new ideas for training staff this year.  You will hopefully see even more use of blogs and within District, we will expand our use of iChat to save on travel and increase communication between staff.

20080829-tech-team-notes

You can read parts of our discussion if you’re interested.

Using Jott on the iPhone with WordPress. I am using my iPhone and Jott to create a blog post with WordPress. I am hoping that this works just fine. listen

Powered by Jott

This entire post was completed on an iPhone. Nice new app. I don’t know, but I like the 2.0 upgrade. Anyone else?