Complete Coverage

Low-Hanging Fruit

Has your principal been after you to “integrate technology into your curriculum”? Overwhelmed by an increasing emphasis on test-score improvement, ever-growing curricular objectives, and increasing class sizes, many teachers see “technology integration” as just one more mandate from the central office.

It doesn’t have to be that way, though. You can look at activities you’re already doing to see whether a technology “upgrade” can motivate students, reinforce learning, and reach kids who may not be responding to more traditional approaches. Even for neophytes, there’s plenty of low-hanging fruit on the technology tree that’s fun and educationally effective.

Consider digital cameras, for instance. Good ones, meaning those with at least 3.2 megapixels, an optical zoom, an LCD preview display, and a PHD (“push here dummy”) mode, are now readily available for less than $300. Every school media center should have at least a few for classroom use. If you snap a picture and download it to your computer, you can edit it with simple software. (Windows XP and Mac OS X automate importing pictures to the computer, and both operating systems...