The tech situation in my placement is, how do I put this, confusing? The teachers’ computers are
from about 2002 and are probably workhorses but don’t have USB ports that can
accept flash drives which results in,
“Sorry student X, you’re going to
have to email that to me. Oh, you don’t have internet at home? Got it. Let’s
see if the Media Center computers will accept your drive.”
This happened and I wasn’t surprised. I was bothered by it,
but not surprised. What bothered me was that the school couldn’t support the
student’s work, not that the student doesn’t have internet at home (hey, they
have a flash drive and a computer, that’s more than a lot of other families). So,
what do you do? Encourage your students to handwrite everything? Make them use
their lunch (= break/social time that they need) time to go to the library? If only the
library was open before and after school every day. Argh! Every time I think of
a brilliant idea to solve this I forget about things like, human capital. Is it
fair to have the Librarian ready for students at 6:30am and then expect them to
stay sane until 3pm? Something has to give and it's your class instruction time. Unless of course you've saved every strange attachment for your CPU and know what goes where (see below).
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| http://weknowmemes.com/2013/03/if-theres-a-will/ |
Scenario II involves NWEA testing. It isn’t working as well
as I think they hoped it would. This school has a couple laptop carts and a
small desktop lab in the library. They both seem to get a heavy daily workout
but are surviving. Unfortunately, I heard some tough stories in the teacher’s
lounge about it taking over 30 minutes for some kids to log in to their tests.
Teach support gets things moving but I have a feeling there are only a couple
folks for the entire district and I can imagine that they are about to lose it.
Some of the teachers were talking about how IT person Bob (name changed to
protect the innocent) hates them because they are always calling.
One person talked about submitting a ticket (request for IT
service) for something non-NWEA related during NWEA and getting this call, “We
can’t process this until we have more teachers place tickets for the same
issue. It might be user error.” This teacher tried getting this machine to work
on different days, at different times, etc and finally had to get other
teachers to try (and fail) so they could get tickets submitted. The machine
and/or software isn’t working.
We have one or two Kindle carts and at least one iPad cart
which I think is pretty cool. Unfortunately, the Kindles don’t do as well on
the wifi as the iPads so they don’t get used often. Isn’t it ironic that they
have the devices but the infrastructure isn’t supporting them? I’ve tried
getting on their wireless with my phone and it times out every time. I have to
rely on my smartphone’s 4G 3G 1G data when on lunch and wanting to check Facebook
my homework spreadsheet on Google Drive (seriously, I check that more than
Facebook!!). It takes FOREVER and it works better in the interior lunchroom
than in the classroom that has exterior walls. CONFUSING.
Enough negativity. EACH ROOM HAS A SMARTBOARD! Also, the
teachers are allowed to use them. Apparently there are some districts that are
so concerned about the cost of replacing projector bulbs that teachers are
afraid to use their projectors and smartboards. Not here, not us. In fact, the
smart board caused a bit of panic the other morning because it wasn’t turning
on. WHAT WOULD WE DO? I’m being dramatic, we would have used the chalkboard
and… wait, I’m not sure we would have been able to play the AUDIOBOOK! Oh wait,
we could have read it. So, chalkboards and humans can get stuff done that
technology can also get done. But sometimes, for the sake of one’s voice, it’s
nice to have an audiobook.
I think we’re lucky to have the technology and devices that
we DO at my placement. I just wish that we were better able to use it to enhance student learning. NWEA testing took three solid days for some
teachers, 2 for others. Taking time from a student’s lunch hour or other class
instruction time to deal with a flash drive that is too new for the teacher’s
computer doesn’t enhance anything. I
wonder if any schools out there have reached a happy medium? I’m looking
forward to reading how my colleagues post about tech in their placements. I’m
also curious about how this issue may or may not affect my opinion about
schools/districts when starting my job search.
Eliza I appreciate your comments about using technology to enhance learning rather than using it to use it, and also the mention of teacher's being afraid to use the technology because replacement parts are not included in the budget. I recently experienced just that thing. My mentor teacher told me that her bulb was about to burn out, so she's been limiting her use of the projector. I said - can't we just replace the bulb? She explained that the school's budget for technology had been cut this year, so there isn't enough money to do that. I thought maybe we could buy a replacement. I didn't realize that they cost between $350 and $400. I'm sure someone would be willing to fund that, but then again, it's teacher time that will be used to draw up a proposal, or look for funds in some other way. Or would it? Maybe the students would be willing to get involved. I've seen them be pretty effective when it comes to things like that. Anyway, I had planned my first lesson incorporating a lot of visuals, and some short online video and audio clips, and I felt like I had to modify my lesson, and just print out some pictures and read to the kids myself. I did do that for my first lesson, then used the projector for my second lesson - making sure to turn off the overhead the second the video clip ended. Just an additional note - when I was working with a sub the other day, we were supposed to watch part of a movie on the sub computer. Well, that didn't work, because the sub computer was too old to read the DVD and kept rebooting every few minutes. We finally resorted to THE DVD PLAYER of all things :) But yeah, a lot of wasted time just figuring it out.
ReplyDeleteOh Ms. B!
ReplyDeleteA. I love your sarcasm- it made my morning.
B. My placement is not having those types of problems BUT I know that the high school I graduated from is in addition to probably thousands/millions of schools. 24 hours ago it was unknown whether or not my high school (CCHS) would have money to not only update technology but fix the leaky roof at the high school. They had to submit proposals to the community (2 of them) that will make the school "safe, warm, dry, and smart." When I was in high school, only about three of my classes had a projector and it was old. We used overheads for everything and had ancient tube tvs on carts that had to be reserved months in advanced. The computers in the "media center" were from like 1999 and took forever to get logged on and the internet OMG the internet was so slow. Research was impossible and printing was a joke. I don't know what they are doing now- from the articles in the local paper concerning the bond proposal- not so much better. From discussions we've had with other teachers and Rory even, fundraising and grant writing sounds like the best idea if the community is unwilling to support their local school (which was the case for my school district for the past 10 years or so). Especially if schools want to compete with each other and not lose students to schools with larger budgets and more technology as a result.
Heres the article about my high school's proposals-if you're interested.
http://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index.ssf/2013/11/columbia_school_district_bonds.html#incart_river_default
I love/hate the sentiment expressed in the photo you included. It seems to be the case far too frequently. I am hugely guilty of simply rigging an outdated system to work rather than moving to the "newer/better" technology. In our classroom, the very first day, we learned that the dongle (or in your case, the dongle of dongles pictured) did not talk to our projector. Over the summer, the school cam through and modernized everything. Suddenly, the school had HDMI A/V equipment in every room. Day one, it didn't work, so we snaked an old cable through the ceiling and hooked up the old system. For better or for worse, it now works. We have no clue if the "new" system functions now. Perhaps it's time to check...?
ReplyDeleteSmart boards - I cringe at the thought the question "what do we do when our smart boards don't turn on" is even a question! I don't honestly know if I've ever I seen a smart board, let alone used one. I think I'd be the teacher that uses the wrong kind of marker (do you use markers?) on the smart board. I can't be trusted. Leave me the not-quite-so-intelligent ones and I'll be happy.
I used the smart board today and it was fun. That being said, I sometimes daydream about using the chalk board. The sound of the chalk sliding across the green board, the wisp of dust floating down, the fingerprints on the rear...
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