I think I threw the baby out with the bathwater today. I took a picture of my document camera and added it to Instagram. My caption was something like:
I’m going old-school today, and using a document camera.
See, I have an Apple TV in my classroom and I love being able to use AirPlay wirelessly. It feels like I’m teaching in the future when I type on my laptop (a laptop just sitting there, without any cables or adaptors), and it appears on my classroom TV. I can just as easily share whatever is on my phone; one swipe and I can walk throughout my classroom while my students see what’s on my phone.
So when I need to sit in the corner of a dark room to write on a piece of paper (aka using a document camera), it feels antiquated. When I shared that picture and thought that thought, I got carried away. I was obsessed with the new and shiny toy. Fortunately, I have some good friends that set me straight. Some were surprised that I considered a document camera old-school, and others thought that documents cameras were new and shiny toys. Either way, I need to remember that.
Any technology–high tech or low tech–can be a tool in the classroom. Heck, at some point a pencil was high tech. It’s no longer fancy, but I still use them in my class. I need to keep that in mind as tools get newer and shinier.
