As some of you know, I went to bed on Friday with $69 left to raise in my quest to get to two-thirds of the total cost (with tax) of Glass sponsored rather than shipping Glass back to Google. I woke up the next morning with this tweet in my stream:

@pronovost Dude, I will cover your last 70 bucks.

— mark hall (@mhall209) July 20, 2013

Not only did I reach my goal, but I did so with help from an educator, Mark Hall (@mhall209), who has chosen to work at a school that many would avoid, much like our district has been in the past. But now that we have a set of Google Glass…

I really hope you didn’t expect me to take that somewhere. While Google Glass is an exciting experiment, I don’t expect it to be more than that right now. I’m sure a few of our teachers and students will have novel ways of using Glass to support their educational experience, but please don’t blow this out of proportion, as student learning is far more important than the latest technology tool or toy.

That said, I want to send out thanks to the amazing people and companies who have chosen to support Glass. I also want to let out a sigh of relief that no company chose to sponsor me that I don’t believe in, as I definitely was worried I was going to have to write up reviews on products I don’t believe in with a disclaimer that they were a Glass sponsor.

Jessy Irwin (@jessysaurusrex), was the lead voice on moving the Glass project forward. In fact, before she jumped in and supported Glass, I figured the project was dead on arrival. Then she jumped in, sent news of my project to everyone she could, and the money started piling in. Ok, so maybe it wasn’t that easy, but she did kickstart (see what I did there?) me into believing this was more than just a way to make sending back Glass seem not as difficult.

Nolan Amy (@nolanamy), founder of Plickers (@Plickers), was the next to kick in. Which actually fit very well, as his product was my inspiration for trying Google Glass in the classroom. We also spent some good time together at ISTE, bonding over educational practices and 90s/00s rap.

I would record my lessons in the classroom, instantly assess my students with @Plickers, and quickly share work with parents! #ifihadglass

— Robert Pronovost (@pronovost) February 26, 2013

Lisa Butler (@srtalisa) was the next contributor and perhaps the one I’m most excited about. Why? Because she asked me (ok, told me) to be the Google Glass Genie for her middle school tech club. That means I get to meet them, hear their “wishes”, try them out and then report back. How much fun is that?

Karl Lindgren-Streicher (@LS_Karl …and yes, this is going to look a lot like if I made a list of #eduawesome people, because there is major overlap) gave and asked for me to come to his classroom to share about Glass. Major win for me, because I’ve been dying to visit his classroom all year.

Amber Teamann (@8amber8) gave and asked for me to do a Skype session with her teachers about Glass possibilities. Again, a win for me, as I would’ve done this without any sort of contribution.

Erin Klein (@KleinErin) and Jen Wagner (@JenWagner) both gave, with Jen leaving these requests:

• Document the journey.
• Be honest with pros/cons.
• Stick to a “no-Glass” time!

Again, a win for me… I now have to document my Glass experience honestly (note to all future sponsors who want me to put a rosy spin on Glass) and commit to non-Glass time, which I feel strongly about already.

Ali deGuia (@AlideGuia) asked for a 10 minute Google Hangout to answer staff questions, which sounds like a lot of fun, but not as much fun as Robanne Stading’s (@tchlrn_ak) request for me to make a video postcard with Glass for her class, which I could become the educational version of this Google Glass video:

Amy Lin (@heyamylin) and the Edcanvas (@Edcanvas) team contributed, asking me to work with them to develop awesome apps for Glass. Again… being on the forefront of Glassware and working with a company whose product I use for our district’s Teacher Resources website because it makes everything more visually accessible? Woohoo!

Finally, other awesome people including Jennifer Kloczko (@jkloczko), Ruth Hook, Karen Alden, and Gary Arcudi (of SP Controls and @TeamDoceri) signed up to support as well, with nothing asked for in return. And no, that doesn’t mean new favorable reviews of Doceri, although those who know me know I’ve loved using it for at least a couple years now.

Yes, technically I haven’t collected the money from these sponsors, as I wanted to share my thanks first, which means they could back out from their support… but given the #eduawesome people on this list I don’t expect that to happen.

P.S. I think I’ve made it in the EdTech world… DirtySexyEdTech wrote a whole post about me and the EduGlass saga!  😛

P.P.S. No, I haven’t raised the full amount, but am hoping to. If you would still like to contribute, please click here.