A+Letter+to+my+ITDA+Mentor

August 25, 2011

To My Future ITDA Mentor,

I want to be in the course because, back in February, a teacher friend of mine introduced me to Wiki-spaces and suddenly a whole world opened up for me that completely transformed the way I approach what I do as a teacher, and as a Chair. Up to that point I had never thought of myself as a particularly technologically oriented person.

After that introduction, I started working with other sites such as Evernote and Raz kids, Spellingcity.com, Math Playground, Math Manipulatives and an ELL site called Ello. I would like to develop a program that uses these sites, plus Wiki-spaces and applications such as Museum Box, Voice Thread, iPads and Smart Boards. I think Dragon Speak (an application which turns speech into text) would also apply well to the kids I work with in LST. I find that these are all powerful educational tools.

My motivation for participating in this program is based on my desire to expand my skills and capacities in the areas of applications, programs and technologies. I expect that this course will give me the opportunity to network with colleagues and help me become more comfortable and fluent with Web 2.0 applications and the like.

I want to work with our iPad Pilot Team to study the following Inquiry Question:

"How might the use of Web 2.0 technologies such as Evernote, Wikispaces and the District's eIEP help me improve the communication link between my teachers and I so that I can design a program that effectively implements my student's IEPs."

I look forward to working with you.

Chris Walton Maple Green LST, SBT Chair, iPad Pilot Team Member, Assembly Coordinator