Finally got my hands on a Reflect Camera!

Last Monday, I was tasked with teaching my teachers an in-service lesson during faculty meeting. The principal had asked me to share a PowerPoint he had received on classroom management. Because the slideshow contained the same boilerplate material that I knew my teachers would already have known, I decided to kill two birds with one stone: I would teach the lesson as he wanted, but I would also take the opportunity to record it with the Teachscape Reflect iPad system. This would also afford me the opportunity to discuss the system with my teachers (aka, my future test subjects!).

The initial setup was a breeze; however, I am certainly glad that I got the system out and tested it well before faculty meeting. This is because I found out that the account that the district had initially set up for us was changed. While it was not big deal to create a new one, it was better to do it while I had time on my hands rather than in a rush. Once I was in, I noticed that Teachscape had really simplified the setup for the iPad. There is a large, red record button. Press it once to record and press it again to stop. This could not have been made any easier for technophobic teachers. After recording, one other obvious button was marked upload. And that’s it.

The lesson went well and many of the teachers seemed somewhat interested in using the camera. Unfortunately, no one rushed up to me to borrow it for the next day. One of the challenges of technologies such as this is that teachers sometimes nod in agreement that it’s a good idea, but their action stops with the nod—they never see its benefit for their own practice.