Technology Integration in SPPS

A Bring Your Own Pencil Initiative???? That's crazy talk!!!!  

creattor.com

Several articles have popped up about tech integration using the pencil allegory.  The idea?  Substitute the word pencil for tech integration and see how the comment sounds.   

At some point pencils didn't exist; they were a "new technology" too.  And I'm sure some educators saw the potential of pencils to be used as a tool in the classroom.  And I'm sure they carefully tested the waters... the teacher tried the pencil for a year or two to get used to it, and when the were comfortable, got one pencil for the classroom to share.  If one pencil made a significant impact, they increased it to 2 pencils the next year.  Next came a whole lab of pencils the teachers could sign up for!  Or maybe not.

So as we consider tech integration and you hear comments or make statements yourself, substitute tech or tech integration with "pencil."  See how it sounds.  Will we laugh at this one day?...soon?

For example . . .

• "Kids can't take those iPads pencils home!  Other people at home will USE them!"
• "Our students use technology pencils really well. They have a technology pencil class 30 minutes a week."
• "There's no time to teach kids to use computers pencils.  They need to learn the content!"
• "We have a couple of teachers who use technology pencils with their classes regularly."
• "I hate that the students use technology pencils so much better than me."

Want more?  Check out Steve Wheeler's blog post, the #pencilchat hashtag on Twitter, or this You Tube video.