Week 2- Getting the ball rolling

    Now that I have been given the okay to start piloting robotics, it is time to make sure that the technology that I have will work for the project.  I was at a standstill with the Kindles, since I did not have the ability to download the required applications needed to program the robots.  This week my supervisor delivered the loaner robots we would be using for the pilot, which of course was very exciting.  There would be enough for groups of 2 and 3 to work together collaboratively with the robots.  

    Now for getting our devices on board to launch.  I contacted our district's technology coordinator, who signed me up for Whispercast training and gave me permissions to download apps onto not only the kindle fires in my classroom, but in the entire school. 

   This opened up doors that went beyond robotics.  See, the school purchased Kindle Fires a few years ago, but did not have anyone trained to best use them.  Thus, their academic use was limited, so much so that books could not be downloaded for them (the main reason for their purchase).  Now that there was someone on campus who knew how to set up the Kindles for academic use, students could get the most out of these tools. 

   I also got the chance to introduce one of the students who will be involved in the project to Jackson, one of the Dash robots.  I handed her a Kindle Fire with the Wonder app downloaded, and let her experiment. In five minutes the student was wandering the halls with the robot at her heels as she manually controlled Jackson with the Kindle.  When she showed my school's administration, the realization that our Kindle Fires were going to work for the project made them excited; this put much more room in our budget to purchase actual robots, instead of having to worry about devices to operate them.

    I plan on introducing the robots to my Pilot group late next week, and I can't wait to share our experiences!