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**Welcome to our group. ** **We are the TBD Techs and our group is Bob Brackett, Dionne Griffith, Tammie White, with Tracy Hardin dropping in unexpectedly to bring membership to an even number. **

Bob Brackett could hear students laughing, talking and shoes shuffling down the hall. This was the sound Bob was so eager to hear. As soon as the bell rang he was a little nervous and excited but knew it was time to start his new journey in his new career. He was all set to start teaching 5th grade social studies for the first time. This would be my first day at Carver Rogers Elementary and promised to be a good one. After the end of the day Bob was happy about how the first day went. He was thinking of all the new technology he wanted to incorporate into each lesson and how well the students would respond to it. Bob gathered his things and headed out of the classroom. As he approached the end of the hall, he could hear two women talking about the new interactive whiteboards which were added over the summer. They didn’t have much training on how to use them.  Bob approached the two ladies and said, “I’m sorry to interrupt but the whiteboards can be very simple and valuable to use in the classroom. At my last school in Maryland we had several on-site trainings about using them and incorporating them into any lesson.” One of the teachers extends her hand to Bob and said, “Hello my name is Tammie White and it’s very nice to meet you Bob. I teach 5th grade science.” The other teacher did the same, “Hello I’m Dionne Griffith and I teach 5th grade math.”  As the three continued to discuss technology and how useful it could be in the classroom, Dionne suggests Bob teach some of the other teachers how to use the interactive whiteboard. Tammie agrees this would be not only beneficial for the teachers but to the students as well. The three decided to meet tomorrow bright and early to discuss how they would start. As the trio broke up, Bob heard a “pssst,” from around the corner, yet when he looked in the direction of the sound, no one was there.  Tomorrow finally arrived. As three techies started to spit out all the positives about the integration of technology, they hit a brick wall of sorts. It was the wall of fear. They realized some teachers and students just refuse to open their minds to the possibilities of technologies out of fear. Tammie immediately thought of Mrs. Brown, who had been teaching for 42 years. Her classroom has a COW, but she does not want to bother with using the laptops during class. Instead, she still requires her students to handwrite their assignments. Then, there is Mr. Chua. He only uses his Promethean Board to broadcast the morning announcements. Furthermore, there are numerous students who are not allowed to use computers, the Internet, or anything considered technological. Why? Their parents are to blame. Facing the Wall of Fear, the three set out to focus on eradicating the fear associated with technology. They wanted to be clear that technology should only be used to enhance learning and teaching. They needed teachers, especially, to realize the traditional learning setting needed to meet the diverse learning styles of 21st century students. These students are accustomed to Web 2.0 tools, and many do not have the attention spans required for reading books or listening to lectures. Again, as the group dispersed, Bob heard a beckoning “pssst” from down the hall, and this time he say who it was. I was Tracy Hardin, one of those out of state teachers who was certified to teach Middle Grades Math and Science through an “alternative” method. He could sense she was not eager to bring attention to herself. She looked around nervously, before she started to speak. “Bob” she said nervously, “I have some information to share with you about Mrs. Brown. . . she admitted to me privately, she has no idea what Web 2.0 or even cloud computing are.” She further expressed even some of the most tech-savvy teachers are a bit confused by the concept. Some of them thought Web 2.0 was a web based software program to be used with classroom devices. It was like an “Emperor’s New Clothes” mentality, many teachers didn’t get it, but they did not want to admit it for fear of looking foolish. At the next faculty meeting, Bob, Dionne, and Tammie presented a mini-professional development workshop showing teachers and administrators how to infuse technology into the various subjects, including a short slide show explaining [|Web 2.0 and Cloud Computing]. Teachers and administrators completed a Teacher Technology Use Survey detailing their technology needs on the Internet which automatically tallied the results. After the meeting, Tammie, Bob, and Dionne were crowned the school techies, and planned to meet to discuss the survey results. Thanks to a grant, they will be able to pay teachers supplemental pay for attending monthly, after-school professional development. <span style="display: block; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 115%;">Being the type who likes a challenge. Bob set his sights on Mrs. Brown first. He knew that, even if forced to do so, she would resist professional development session for something she deemed unnecessary. She now had been informed about Web 2.0 and Cloud Computing but would likely still be resistant to change. But Bob had been here before. At his first school, Bob's mentor teacher was a similar case. George Pettigrew still had a barrel style mimeograph machine in his classroom that he used for making handouts. Although the odor of that ink brought Bob fond childhood memories, he had known there were better more efficient ways. Although it had been a small victory, Bob had helped George convert all of his old masters to Microsoft Word. Once he had seen how easy it was to keep these files updated and realized how much easier hitting the print button was as opposed to cranking his mimeograph, George began word processing all of his new documents. He needed to achieve a small victory like this with Mrs. Brown.

After a couple of days of brainstorming with his new-found team. Bob arrived at a simple solution. Being a newcomer at Carver Rogers, He would elicit the help of the wily old veteran English teacher to help improve his students' writing. That afternoon, a distraught looking Bob entered Mrs. Brown's classroom. Mrs. Brown, who had been teaching since before he was born, immediately recognized a young teacher in need of guidance. "What's wrong?" she asked. Bob began his response by complimenting her reputation as the school's strictest grammarian. "I want my students to be able to write about and discuss the concepts we study. I feel it is very important that they can clearly and succinctly express their ideas. As of yet, I can barely get them to write answers in complete sentences." began his reply.

"Oh dear," Mrs. Brown replied, "that is a problem. They know better than that. They would never try that in my classroom." At that moment, Bob knew he had her. If all went according to plan, he would begin setting up presentations for Mrs. Brown's Promethean Board with some of his students' writing that needed editing. Better yet, if that was successful, he hoped to have his students' research paper work spill over into Mrs. Brown's classroom later in the year. Once she had demonstrated the use of such schools in her classroom, perhaps she would even be willing to try out collaborative exercises with her students such as working in Google Docs© or communicating through a classroom wiki. As he left school that day, he was grinning from ear to ear. He needed to get home and email Dionne and Tammie about his success. He also wanted to let Tracy know he was thankful for the insight on confusion many teachers have about Web 2.0 tools and Cloud Computing. He could let the others know she was not so bad for an “alternative” teacher. Oh wait, he could just use his iPhone.