If you remember one thing in your entire life about using technology in education, it is this... "Don't jump in with both feet and try to revolutionize your program in a day." Rome wasn't built in a day, as they say. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Or, my personal favourite (can you spot the "Kids in the Hall" reference?) - "Snowflake becomes blizzard." Haha.
I know as well as anyone how intimidating and how baffling various technologies can be. I was a moderately hard-core computer nerd in high school (wrote a program where you could play Yahtzee against the computer... rolling dice, score cards, etc.), but circumstance saw me wander off and not use a computer at all throughout university. Well, a lot happened between 1989 and 1995. I was in teachers' college and had a single page assignment to submit. I was sure it was due tomorrow, but no.... as it turns out, I had about three hours. I figured that "everyone else is doing stuff on the computer. I'm good with the computer. I'll do that." What an experience! I had never seen Windows 95. I had never seen Word Perfect. I had no idea what reveal codes were. Two hours later, and I came out further behind than I was when I went in. I ran home and got out my manual typewriter (no, I'm NOT making this up!), bashed out the paper, and drove back to hand it in. I went from hero to zero in five and a half years. That experience in the computer lab was humbling to say the least!
But at the same time, this is important. A student entering university has never known a world without Windows. A student in grade 8 has never known a world before Windows XP. A student in grade two has never known a world without the iPhone. While older people sometimes have a hard time imagining what computers can do, our kids are often surprised about what computers CAN'T do.
Start with something simple - something that is pretty close to your comfort zone, that you will feel confident with, and that you know you can do. Keep it simple. Don't force it by using technology for technology's sake, but apply it to something real. Consider the voice memos app found on virtually all iDevices. It's dead easy to use (hey, they kid'll show ya!), and has some powerful and authentic applications to enhance your programming or assessment.
One step at a time, keep moving up... but keep moving. You'll get there.
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