I gave Flip cameras to a group of students. Why is my goofy-looking teacher handing us these things. I told everyone to get used to the cameras because they would be filming a laboratory this week, “Is Yeast Alive?”. What do you think happened in my class with those cameras?
Students filmed each other flipping the bird to one another – and worse! When it came time to film the laboratory, against all odd it went worse. My classroom looked like a post-apocalyptic building, test tubes with sugar and yeast tipped over and spilling on the floor, with students capturing the glorious details with their – you guessed right – Flip cameras.
When I reviewed the footage I was a bit disappointed. My hopes for an organized, well-planned lab where students filmed instead of wrote data were dashed. I wanted to record this because it represents an important moment in my growth as a teacher. Technology must be more than anything else usable. Give teachers and students the world and more in technology, and everyone involved from administrators to parents will be disappointed by the results.
What went wrong? The technology wasn’t designed for students. It was not usable. Good teachers – those better than me – know this intuitively or from experience. I want to share with you on Study Designed what worked for me as a young teacher. Follow me on my Ed Tech adventure and learn something along the way.