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| Source:Flickr user duncan |
I work in a seriously progressive district and yet when I walk the halls of excellent schools, and sit in excellent classrooms with excellent teaching going on, I see
ZERO technology being used. I see less today than I saw 5 years ago. I see $3000 projectors being used to display a worksheet. If there is any technology, it is rarely in the hands of students. What is going on? #seriousquestionpeople
2 comments:
Progressive doesn't mean that they are willing to spend the money on technology (or true training for teachers to incorporate technology into teaching). And truly, it takes money, as well as the willingness to make time available. I can compare my former school in PBC (West Boca HS) with my current school - a private school in the heart of Silicon Valley. At WB we had doc cameras and projectors, but the laptop cart had 3-year old laptops that got no technical support and were sloooooooow. I had a desktop computer only. The computer labs? Yep, testing so often that it was hardly worth it to try to schedule classes to go in there. No money for iPads unless a teacher was inclined to chase the grants (in his/her spare time, of course).
My current school is a 1:1 iPad school. Most kids have their own. In fact, a few of my students this year have the 12" $800 iPad Pro. The school has iPads to loan to students who do not have their own. I got a brand new MacBook Air and an iPad for my own classroom use. Much easier to use technology when everybody's on the same page. And today my students get to use the new zSpace 3D augmented reality consoles because my school had the funds and the willingness to spend $50K to buy them. And I don't have a schedule-crushing scope and sequence to get through, so I can take the time to let my students "play".
Don't get me wrong, I loved teaching at WB, but in my opinion, the district has a long way to go to really be progressive.
Hi Kim,
Thank you for your comment. I appreciate your perspective and would love to know more about not having the "schedule-crushing scope and sequence" to get through. Do you have expectations? I'm sure you do, and I'm not sure the problem is lack of "stuff" as your comment implies. Just lack of using it. It sounds like you have lots of interesting technologies to use with your students. Thanks again for leaving your thoughts here.
Lee