Rethinking existing technology

I have been meeting with teachers over the past few weeks to discuss the implementation of iPads in their classrooms.  As I always do, I start each meeting asking how things are going...how is the wifi in each room, and anything else tech related.  I want to give teachers a platform to vent, ask questions and share with me both frustration and confusion.

The responses often start out, "Things are ok, but..."  Being a problem solver, I love to entertain these statements.  Tell me what could be better, tell me what isn't working and we can work together to fix it.  So, recently what keeps coming up is that teachers have these scanners that we purchased a few years ago.  They love these scanners.  They use them all the time.  They scan student work, they scan assessments, they scan pages of a book to show on their smartboards.  They seem to scan everything.  Now that we are fully Windows 7, many of the scanners don't work.  We actually knew this was going to happen.  It happened years ago with our printers when we moved from Windows 95 to Windows XP.  Drivers just aren't updated as often.  I guess it's a reason to keep on purchasing new scanners.

So I came up with a very good solution.  We don't really need to buy new scanners.  I told the teachers with the 5 ipads in their classrooms, they now have 5 new scanners.  They said, "What?  Really?"  Yes, really.  There are many ways to use iPads or any smartphone as a scanner and make it relevant to instruction.  Here is one easy solution:

 Google Drive - Install google drive on iPad

• Once installed, you can open the app, click on +
• There you can use the camera to snap a photo (scan)
• It will automatically appear in your google drive to access from any computer.  If you have a computer connected to your smartboard, you can then open the document there and present it for all to see.

 In fact, any classroom can do this even without an expensive ipad.  All you need is a smartphone.  You can follow the steps above and have your scanner.

Today, technology is changing so rapidly.  Very often, where there used to be a device to do something unique and specific, today there is an app.  Think of all the devices that are contained in one smartphone:

1. Scanner
2. Phone
3. Computer
4. Fax
5. Movie player
6. Music Player
7. Clock
8. Alarm
9. Calculator
10. Video game player
11. Camera
12. Video Camera
13. Calendar
14. Photo Album
15. Flashlight
16. Compass
17. GPS/Navigator
18. Address Book

Plus many, many more.  See link:  99 Devices and Services your smartphone replaces

The important lesson here is to be able to know what you want to accomplish and use the resources of what you have to get it done.  It doesn't always mean spending more money on new technology.  Sometimes the technology is already there and doesn't cost anything.


Follow me @brian_seligman