{"id":1607,"date":"2013-04-12T16:53:37","date_gmt":"2013-04-12T16:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edtechteacher.org\/blog\/?p=1607"},"modified":"2014-04-08T11:26:00","modified_gmt":"2014-04-08T11:26:00","slug":"how-can-standing-in-place-be-interactive-or-how-we-sold-our-interactive-boards-and-redefined-our-classrooms-from-jen-carey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edtechteacher.org\/how-can-standing-in-place-be-interactive-or-how-we-sold-our-interactive-boards-and-redefined-our-classrooms-from-jen-carey\/","title":{"rendered":"How can standing in place be interactive \u2013 or \u2013 how we sold our interactive boards and redefined our classrooms – From Jen Carey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jen Carey is LIVE blogging for us from the<\/span>\u00a0EdTechTeacher iPad Summit USA<\/a>. You can also find these posts on her site –\u00a0<\/span>indianajen.com<\/a>.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Tony Perez<\/a>\u00a0of the\u00a0Atlanta Girls School<\/a>:\u00a0How can standing in place be interactive \u2013 or \u2013 how we sold our interactive boards and redefined our classrooms.<\/h5>\n

I saw Tony speak at the last iPad Summit and today was eager to hear more about what the Atlanta Girls School<\/a> was doing. I love the fact that Tony starts out this discussion by being honest \u2013 that this was not an easy transition, and in fact he categorizes it as a \u201ctale of whoa,\u201d at least in its early stages.<\/p>\n

The Atlanta Girls school is a young school that began as a wireless school, so it started out in an innovative framework and continues on that path today. The reason that they are able to do what they want to do is because they have a top down model of using and integrating technology.<\/p>\n

Tony shares the fact that they do not make technology changes without real, pedagogical and curricular reasons to do so. As much as we may be “gadget people,”\u00a0<\/em>we need to have a reason to implement change. Tony says that in 2009, he was told \u201cthe Promethean board is the most under utilized technology resource we own.\u201d<\/em> They had made a huge financial investment for \u00a0Promethean boards<\/a>, though they\u00a0require a sophisticated skill set for ready application in the classroom. As such, many educators were not using them. Teachers felt as though they did not have the time to self-train, master the complex software suite, and then update lessons when the software updated (sometimes making them obsolete). I feel his pain here. I\u2019ve never been a Smart Board<\/a> or Promethean Board fan for this very reason.<\/p>\n

As iPad evolved to incorporate cameras and mirroring, Tony found that it could take on the roles that the Promethean Board was meant to fill. Though it initially\u00a0“wasn\u2019t quite there”<\/em> because of the need to be tethered via the HDMI cable, in 2012, the new iOS 5 unlocked content from iPad and provided the portability, versatility, and creativity that he needed for his school. He then showed us this amazing NAIS viral video<\/a> made by his students:<\/p>\n