Those Darn Whippersnappers!

Educational institutions, especially public schools in the United States, have been slow to implement social technologies into the classroom.  Recently however, there has been a surge in using technologies in the classroom. Here’s a link to an article in the Issaquah Press talking about how schools in my old school district use these technologies in the classroom. One teacher even used a Ning network for his class to get them discussing the Presidential race last year. This post  isn’t about just social technologies but also features innovative ways to bring new technologies into the classroom. After reading the article above it spawned some creative ideas on how Microsoft Tag could be used in the classroom. Most of my conversations with Tag uses before this focused on more of a business context and the thought of using Tag in an academic setting hadn’t occurred to me.

So how can Tag be used in the classroom? With an increase in kids having cell phones, especially in high school, Tag can bring a whole new dynamic by allowing students to connect to the vibrant content in or out of class. Here are a few examples-

1. Print Tags on stickers and place them on homework assignments.

2. Place Tags around the room on drawers, maps, lab equipment so students can receive dynamic information instantly.

3. Use Tags on specimens, skeletons, and other organisms and networks in laborites.

4. Set Tags around the school so students can find out what is for lunch, when the next dance is or other updates. The best part about this is schools only have to print them once since the data on the backend can be easily updated with new content.

5. Send them home to the parents so they can place the Tags in their car, home, or at work so they can get up-to-date information on what is going on at school.

6. When I was writing this blog Stratos Vlasakidis mentioned using Tag at school for kids ID badges, check it out.

All of these options to use Microsoft Tag can link students to videos, websites, discussion forums, messages and much more. Just these few options could be leveraged at schools to help them be more environmentally friendly and save money on printed materials while putting rich content at the finger tips of the students, teachers, and parents. Plus I’m sure if students start using this kind of technology their creative minds will come up with new ways to utilize 2D Barcodes.