Technology Fun for a Friday

Our district's Digital Learning Team was invited for a visit on Friday. They came during Smart Lunch, an academic period when half of the student body (850 students) eats lunch while the other half goes to a club, tutoring session, social area, or academic area. The library is an academic area where students work on projects and write research papers, read, study individually or in groups, work on homework, and so on. Plus, they do get to socialize while they work.

Well, imagine their surprise on Friday when one hundred students per lunch (we have an A and a B period) walked in ready to work and they saw this:

To add to their confusion, some of the armchairs had been moved and tables taken over for this:

Students could use the green screen.

They could also use virtual reality googles, play with controlling a robotic ball, and feel the beating of a heart through an Ipad.

Another popular station allowed students to mix their own music tracks.

Although only 200 of our students got to play with the technology during this session, and a few of the seniors are a bit jealous they won't get assigned projects with a green screen (or virtual reality goggles if we get the grant we're planning to write for a class set of those!), the day was definitely a success.

Unfortunately, we've already had to break the news to students who didn't make it to the media center that we won't be hosting this every Friday....not only do we have to share our Digital Learning Team with other schools, but there's the slight matter of AP Exams in the media center next Friday...