At school, there was a request that we show more student work. Uhm, ok…I teach tech classes like programming, digital video and digital photo. Operative word being “digital”. The students do their work and upload it to a blog or submit the code. Did they really want me to print out code and post that?
To comply, and to rebel a little, I created my wife created this bulletin board!
It is the envy of the school! (ok, maybe just Patrick) But I did not stop there. No my good people, I did not. I amped it up and posted digital works on an archaic touch screen kiosk that was saved from the scrap heap.
Ok, ours is not that sleek, but it works well.
It started to grow on me and I started to see more and more uses.
But, what was more interesting was how people were drawn to it like a moth to a flame, burnt by desire (sorry for the random Janet Jackson lyrics). Peoples’ arms would go up wondering “What is this?” “What is this for?” “Oh, look its Jonny” The point being, it worked SO much better than any printed work could have
That is not to say printed material doesn’t have its place. It does. But this pulled people in.
It is a touch screen too, albeit an old inaccurate one. In programming, I can have the top game of the quarter placed for people to play on Thursdays (last day of our week). Video assignments and photos from Digital Photo can play in a loop, and much more.
Go digital, go green!
Now all we have to do is calculate which costs the environment more. Printing a dozen photos or running a kiosk all day. I smell an integration project 🙂
Technology in the Classroom 