SAN FRANCISCO--Stepping into the second-grade classroom at Cesar Chavez Elementary School in San Francisco's Mission District, one thing was clear. In many ways, school hasn't changed.
The books, the pencils, the paper. None of it looked very different than my second-grade class did 25 years ago.
But Teachscape, an education company focused on using technology to develop new ways of thinking about learning, wants to change that; and it's giving teachers the tools to watch, listen to, and share the ways they teach.
This tech tool, which was announced by Teachscape today and which I recently got to see in action, is intended to help improve teacher effectiveness and the quality of information available about teacher practices.
The Teachscape Reflect is a 360-degree multimedia classroom video panorama and audio system that gives teachers the ability to review (or "reflect" on) their own teaching methods and student interactions when the day is done and their students have all gone home.
The idea is to help teachers identify strong-points and needs for improvement in their teaching techniques--introducing technology into the classroom in a whole new way.