Please help me spend some money :-)

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by James Dykstra on January 16, 2008 at 9:33am

I've been watching some of my students play with their little portable Nintendo DS game consoles. These things are, apparently, also web capable. At about $150 each, you might be able to do some really interesting things.

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Permalink Reply by Michal on January 16, 2008 at 9:38am

Here would be my wish list for my district:

A podcasting kit - a set of good quality headphones w/microphones, MP3 players w/recording capabilities (so students can record and/or just listen to their podcasts), and software to edit them.

A digital camera for each classroom - decent enough quality to take decent pictures, but not so high dollar that you can't hand them to a student and send them out to take photos (I would love to see my elementary teachers add one "job" to their weekly "job list" - that of classroom reporter who is in charge of digitally recording the week - but I digress...)

A document camera w/projector, on a cart & ready to use on a whim (my teachers won't bother if they have to plug stuff in or set it up - ARGH!)

Magazine subscriptions with good technology integration ideas - are there any out there? I used to get one called "PC Teach It" which was great, but they are out of business.

Some GPS systems - I saw where one school did an Easter egg hunt using these and the students had to find their eggs with through navigation - it was VERY cool!

I can't wait to see what other responses you'll get!

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Permalink Reply by Kevin H. on January 16, 2008 at 9:58am

Mike
I still think two Blue Snowball microphones would be a good place to start.
And also, we can keep talking about flash video cameras for student movies.

Good job posting this here. Plenty of great ideas out there, I am sure.

Kevin

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Permalink Reply by Kathy Epps on January 16, 2008 at 12:33pm

To extend your video equipment , you might get a green screen, and software into the Macs and PCs that will let you layer video tracks - something like Essential tools for iLife, or Final Cut Pro.

You might look at a set of Palms, and Vernier probes and sensors, to extend mobile computing beyond the classroom.

Or, if the computers are always in use, you might find a class set of AlphaSmart Neos useful for text work. They are industructable - so great for younger kids, and can bluetooth work to a "real" computer for formatting or to a printer.

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Permalink Reply by Bill on January 16, 2008 at 1:39pm

I would spend it on used computer equipment - teaching students about "how we could be more green" starts with districts who could actually teach students about re-use rather than buying the latest and greatest. Besides the price points at $200 goes along way...

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Permalink Reply by Kay McNulty on January 16, 2008 at 4:51pm

Some portable equipment, such as ipods with voice recorders. It's nice to be mobile.

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Permalink Reply by Mike F. on January 16, 2008 at 5:13pm

Wow, I am overwhelmed at the responses already. Kevin are you seeing this? We're going to have a tough time deciding. I knew this would be the perfect place to post my question. Thank you everyone who has responded so far. We have about a week or two before the money is processed and available for us to begin purchasing equipment so I am sure we will have even more responses. Keep 'em coming!

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Permalink Reply by Kevin H. on January 17, 2008 at 2:15am

I guess a lot of people have their wish lists inside of their heads.
Lucky for us, Mike got some money.
Maybe we could host a Classroom 2.0 party and blow it all on virtual beer!
:)

Kevin

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Permalink Reply by James Edward Charles Webber on January 18, 2008 at 5:25am

Portable laptops for classes for teachers use within school ,and learners use out of

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Permalink Reply by nlowell on January 16, 2008 at 9:02pm

I'd buy every kid and teacher in the school a 4gb usb stick and load it with PortableApps - OpenOffice, Firefox, and the Gimp. That would leave more than enough room for them to save data and all that - free them to take their work with them and work where ever there's a machine. Software is free. Sticks are cheap. And you'd probably have enough left over for a nice Rode NT1-A or two, a Zoom H4 or two, and a decent preamp for recording.

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Permalink Reply by Kevin H. on January 17, 2008 at 2:14am

This is an intriguing idea.
How do you get the portable apps on the usb flash drive?
Does it work for all flash drives?
Any help or pointers would be helpful.
Kevin

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Permalink Reply by nlowell on January 17, 2008 at 4:31am

This is one way:

http://portableapps.com/

You can buy them with the apps already installed too

http://www.u3.com/smartdrives/

I have both and find that the PortableApps suite is more useful than the u3 group. U3 acts as more of a dongle than a useful enduser suite (altho I DO find that I use the WinSCP rather a lot in my work as sysadmin).

The limitation is that this is basically a PC suite. I haven't found a mac version.

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