I have an idea for you today…  and a challenge.

But, first a little diversion because I need to tell you about Terry Freedman.

Terry does a lot of really cool things in and for educational technology (he’s in the UK, but he and his work get around all over the place).  I don’t know him personally, but I’ve come to appreciate and admire his approach to all-things-ed-tech by the work he does.

And, what he does is interesting, intriguing, and most always thought-provoking.

One of Terry’s latest offerings is called 31 Days to Become a Better Ed Tech Leader and the title itself is pretty self explanatory.

So, check Terry out.

Now, back to the idea and the challenge:

If you’re an ed tech coordinator or the go-to ed tech teacher in your community, I’d like to challenge you to create a course (paper-based is fine) to help all the UN-tech teachers in your area.

And, to borrow Terry’s title, I’d call it something like “31 Days to Using Technology in Your Classroom.”

Here’s what it would contain:

The entire course will be 31 pages long (okay, maybe 32 if you want a cover sheet), with each page devoted to a specific technology tool and how it can be used in the core curriculum (language arts, science, math, and social studies) courses (if you’d like to see a free webinar about integrating technology into the core curriculum, check out Core Curriculum Projects — the next session is running on the 28th of April).

Then, on each page here’s what you’ll have:

1. A description of a tech tool, preferably something free.  See Richard Byrne’s incredible Free Technology for Teachers site (<– this guy is a freebie man like none other, and you’ll love his work!) if you need some hints on getting started.  Keep the tool’s description brief but show the teacher where to get it and how to get it started, if that is required.
2. Have a one-sentence description of how the tech tool can be used in language arts, math, science, and social studies.  Keep it simple and straightforward.
3. If you know someone (particularly a teacher) who’s already using the tool, ask him or her for a comment to include on your page.

That’s it.

Do one a day, send them around to your teachers as you complete each one, or store them up and give them out as an ebook when you’re all done.  (I prefer the sharing-as-you-go approach.)

And, who knows, if you come up with something really interesting/good/fun/useful, we might even be interested in publishing it for you or wrapping it into an online course that we could offer to teachers throughout the world.

So, who’s already doing something like this, and who’s up  for the challenge?