I had a plan to roll out the iPod Touches tomorrow, Thursday, September 10, 2009, to my classes. The plan was to begin the roll out by introducing the iPods to the students with 1 iPod per group of 3 to 5 students. The two classes I will be mainly working with have almost 25 students per class. I feel that 25 iPods on day one is too much to successfully work with. With about 5 iPods out on day one, the project will be more manageable. This will allow me to float about, keep tabs on the equipment, and let the students ease into the overall situation. After a few tries with group work, I will gradually increase the number of iPods out until we build up to a 1 to 1 situation.

The reason for the delay is technology and sensory overload. Over the last two days I rolled out Google Apps for my classes, Evernote, and Diigo, along with all of my students signing up for the class wiki. I did this in the computer lab next to my room, because many of my students have not used this amount of technology in a school setting in awhile.  I believe that it is better to introduce the new programs on a familiar piece of equipment, such as a conventional desktop. This lets the students experiment with the new programs while not having to worry about the unfamiliar uses of the iPods too.

Oh, we also started a project about the upcoming G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh. The project requires the students to work cooperatively with the new tools to create a presentation about each participating country. Each group has a member country that they are responsible for. The format is open to any type of presentation, except a paper. They may create videos, audio files, PowerPoints, screencasts, Glogs, wikipages, or any other format or combination of formats for their projects.  The projects are an open format so the students can work in a format that they are comfortable with and claim ownership over. It is an aggressive project, but my students are running with it.

The students are also working well with the new programs and helping us deal with any of the issues we are encountering. Overall, we are moving full speed ahead on all fronts and I do not want to lose momentum. Another day in the lab will clear up any lingering issues with the new programs, and we can then introduce the iPods to the students while still continuing with the projects. This slight delay will allow us to move forward with a new technology platform, the iPods, while using a newer group of programs that the students are grasping and using more effectively every day. I feel this will give us the best chance for success on all fronts.