Renewed basics for teachers?

A colleague arrived at my door recently with one digital device in each hand: an iPad in one and a Bluetooth keyboard in the other.

In the box with the keyboard, there was a USB cable... I am not sure what the purpose of the cable was, but she wanted help... she could find where the cable plugged into the keyboard, but not into the iPad.

After a big sigh, I explained to her that Bluetooth is a wireless protocol... no need to plug anything in... I also explained that an iPad is not a laptop like those that have become familiar over the last few decades.

I also was cleaning up some old files recently and found a 3GB movie file that I helped a colleague rescue a year and a half ago... she had been told that the netbooks we received with a grant would be great multimedia computers. She had then used the machine to create a 45-minute video and the 3rd party video editing software that was added as part of the grant that paid for the machines only allowed her to export as an .avi file.  Surprise, surprise, the video caused the netbook to freeze, and we worked several hours to save the video so it could be available at the open house.


I get the desire to have new and flashy toys, but we need to become aware of the capacity of devices before we buy them and attempt to use them.