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"I put things in their perspective of the world," Funk said. "It brings the old school to a current-day school."
Funk was one of 16 Douglas County teachers chosen to be in the inaugural Digital Educator program in August 2005. This school year, 32 additional Douglas County teachers were chosen to receive the digital toolkit. Added to that, 60 teachers, one from each Douglas County School, will receive a laptop and training on teaching with technology.
"We have all schools represented," said Kim McMonagle of the district's IT department. "It creates a grass root effect."
Digital toolkit recipients pick from a menu of items including special keyboards, digital cameras, iPods and laptops. Teachers receive about $3,000 worth of equipment, and also receive training from experts and mentoring from each other.
"In addition to having a lot of fun with technology, by impacting our teachers we are also getting to our students," McMonagle said. "A lot of what we do gets to best practices for 21st century skills."
In Funk's class, students spend a little time in the beginning of the year learning to use the new equipment. Funk demonstrates using a Smartboard - a whiteboard that shows a computer screen Funk can manipulate using a pen - how to type up a lab. He shows them how to create diagrams to represent needed equipment and format procedural steps.
Funk's use of technology branches out beyond laptops. iPods are used to record study guides students can add soundtracks to and then upload onto iTunes. A digital camera is used to record mistakes made during labs to improve accuracy.
"I feel I'm actually keeping up with the kids right now," Funk said.
Since the manuals for most of the equipment were not written for seventh-graders, Funk's class uses iPods to record simpler instruction for operating items such as the GPS device.
Using the technology, Funk addresses the needs of auditory and visual learners. On the Smartboard, Funk can project the best class work for others to learn from. He can also pull up examples from other classes with a quick click of a tab.
For auditory learners, the lesson can be uploaded onto iTunes after using software to add intro music.
"They can put in videos, they can put in digital images," Funk said. "When they hear their own voices, you should see their faces. ... It's kind of uncontrollable the excitement it drives."
The technology also improved Funk's teaching skills. He can pay more attention to students as they work instead of taking notes, since he can simply save the screen after the students finish. He creates digital lesson plans he can evaluate by using iPod voice recordings from year to year.
Despite his technological expertise now, Funk was not a digital geek his whole life. He entered teaching in 2000 after working as a swimming coach and quickly realized, compared to his students, he was behind the curve.
"I kind of struggled that first year in elementary school," Funk said. "That's when I made the goal I have to change, I have to catch up."
The Digital Educator program is sponsored by Apple, the Douglas County Educational Foundation, the Douglas County Federation, the district's staff development department and the district's IT department.
Contact Joan Gandy at jgandy@ccnewspapers.com.
