Friday the 13th & the Mimio Teaching Interactive System
 |
| Photograph By: Deborah Sanders |
As I pondered this week as to what I’d write for my free choice -- this “dreadful day” Friday the 13th, 2011 arrived. I began my school day as normal -- signed in, extracted my mail and began to sift through it. There was a memo in my mail that would change not only the course of this day, but would forever change my classroom teaching environment. I was going to attend a training session on the “Mimio Teach Interactive System.” I’d heard about this exciting tool and what it could do. However, getting the opportunity to attend training for this equipment, was a treat.
The training presentation was highly interesting to me especially because I have never had a Smartboard in my classroom. Typically, I have always purchased the items needed to enhance the learning experience in my classroom (as my budget allowed).
This system was presented to a group of education professionals as an interactive system which can be mounted on a magnetic whiteboard. This tool makes it feasible to move for storage or from classroom to classroom. The Mimio Teach Bar is positioned on the whiteboard and the MimioHub or wireless receiver plugs into the USB port on your computer. This makes it possible to access the MimioStudio software that teachers can use to create student-centered, engaging, interactive lessons. During this presentation, I already began visualizing lessons using the ordinary projector visuals as I currently do, versus using this new tool to create new versions of student interactive visuals at their fingertips.
Picture this, I’m wide-eyed and bubbling over like a kid in a candy store. I turned to a colleague sitting next to me and asked how she liked this tool. She turned to me and responded: “I don’t like it!” I felt my face drop. I asked, “why?” and she responded, “Our children need more one-on-one interaction.” As she continued to talk, I heard her but, I was still stunned at her initial response and I questioned myself: “How could she not see the enormous impact of this tool in our teaching?” As the meeting came to a close, I had no idea of what was yet to come. I was then asked to follow the secretary and to my surprise and delight, I was given a Mimio Teach for my classroom! I returned to my classroom cradling my new tool lovingly, yet I was still pondering her comments. I decided to return to her to ask additional questions.
I began by stating -- I think we can agree to disagree but I’d really like to know: “Why you feel the way you do?” She replied, “I just want to state that I’m not against technology.” Our conversation continued and she expressed further comments regarding “touching - and instant gratification that is desensitizing our children. Our children need sand. There are classes with no sand in the classroom. They need to feel it, smell it and see the actual changes. This is what forms more curiosity for our children. I just think we need to assess the needs of the children and see where we are lacking. Did we check to see if other districts are using this and what improvements did they have, if any? We need to look at how we (teachers) have treated technology in the past. Teachers are given new technology and not enough training is being administered. Will we have additional training? How is this system going to align with the district’s goals. We need to survey teachers and parents then look at this product as a group -- then document the data. Then we paid for a product in which the presentation was not customized to our needs. We were shown a presentation which was meant for Kindergarten and 1st grade. We should not have to go into their Software Website and search for pre-made lessons. This is the responsibility of the presenter before it is shown to us”. Finally, she responded -- “We have areas that are lacking -- fix the problems that need fixing.”
Needless to say after leaving her, I felt some points were valid. However, my passion for infusing technology into lessons was not changed and I know some of my colleagues do not share my passion. Although I respect her insightful thoughts, I am still somewhat biased on this subject area. What are your thoughts? Please share.
No comments:
Post a Comment