1. Don't try to 'control' the students. Engage them, and you will have them 'eating out of your hands.' :-) Set guidelines, but don't take technology away as a punishment.
2. Start small, and then build, but do remember to push yourself out of your comfort zone.
3. Give yourself permission to 'fail.' Every experience is a learning experience - a project may fail, but learning has taken place - what did you/your students learn?
4. You don't have to be the expert. Let the students become the experts in their own areas. Your class will soon be full of experts. A common comment coming from me in the classroom when a student ask me for help with their technology is, 'I don't know. Room 205, who is an (app/site/etc.) expert?'
5. Let the students have choice and you will be 'wowed' with their creativity. Start with the outcomes and let the students choose how they will show their learning.
Suggestions that have worked for me:
1. When signing up for class sites, always use the same login and password, so everyone can remember.
2. When having students sign up for their own sites, have parental permission. I send a 'permission note' home in September that gives me permission to have them sign up for an email address, a Dropbox and any educational site I deem appropriate. I also have the parents give me permission to turn everything over to the students when they leave my class.
3. When having students create an email account, have them use the same guidelines. ie. studentnamelastinitialroom#@gmail(hotmail).com - johns205@gmail.com Give them their password and have them use it for email and ALL sites they sign up for. In this way, I have access to their accounts at all times. At the end of the year, I have them change their passwords.
