Please describe the technologies that you have available at home and in the classroom where you are teaching (if you are teaching). Do you have all of the technologies you need or are there technologies that you would appreciate having? Have you seen other teachers using technologies in your building? Finally, explain any talk you've heard about technology from students, teachers, or administrators . . . or is technology largely missing from your experience thus far. Would education be different if you had more access to technology? Finally, explain what you hope to get out of a class like this.
I did my student teaching last year at Grand Haven High School, a district fortunate enough to have a community that is financially able to support the education of its youth. GHHS is loaded to the gills with technology some of which I was a little intimidated by at the beginning of the year, but which I because extremely comfortable/excited using by the end of my time there. There are smart boards in every classroom using Promethians ActiveInspire software. The capabilities of these programs and hardware are nearly endless. While I still say Smartboards are basically a "gimmick" to hold kids attention, they work. With Smartboards you can really bring a presentation to life. Additionally, perhaps the best part about Smartboard tech is that your students will love using them in front of the class. Its pretty cool to see kids fired up about learning. It seemed as though the vast majority of the staff at GHHS used their smartboards on a daily basis in some capacity, which was good to see.
At home, I have my own Apple laptop as well as an iMac (older) and all of the normal goodies (MS office suite, Photoshop, iPhoto/Movie, etc) so technologically speaking I've got my bases pretty well covered.
As far as this class is concerned, I don't necessarily have any expectations one way or the other. I know that I'm going to learn a bit more about incorporating technology into the classroom, but beyond that I'm just gonna roll with the punches, and see what comes my way....
I haven't used an interactive white board beyond a demo once in a class I taught, but we observed hundreds of hours of classes last year and noticed that the interactive white boards were used more than any other technology in middle and high school classes. So, they certainly have sustainability in schools. We also noticed that teachers had a wide range of how they used the devices and how students used them and every teacher learned new ways to use the boards as the year progressed (I assumed they either had additional trainings or talked to each other). So, I am not sure "gimmick" is the right term, but they are certainly more feature laden than a chalkboard. ;~)
ReplyDelete