Discusion Question
What technology equipment do you have in your classroom? How many student computers do you have? How many of your student have computers with Internet access at home? How often do students get to work on the computers in your classroom? Daily? Weekly? Does your school/district have technology standards that they follow? How are technology issues dealt with at your site? Is there a District Office position or teacher who aids with integration of technology, not just a fix it guy/gal?
OK-I know there are a lot of ?'s, but they are not hard!!!!! :)
Gina
Definitely lots of questions, but very interesting! Ok, so my classroom is the Tech Lab. In the lab, I have 20 desktop computers, 2 smartboards (both on wheels), 6 Sony Handyman Camcorders, 6 canon powershot digital cameras, a scanner, and a few projectors. We also have 3 laptop carts with 20 wireless laptops per cart. I teach all grades and my schedule varies but generally I have about 40 - 60 students a day. On our student tech survey from last year, over 90% had computers with internet access at home — this survey did not include phones with wifi — but many students seem to have that technology too. On average, I would say students get to work in my classroom / tech lab (not including wireless laptops) about 5 times a month. All the other classrooms have at least 2 computers but the laptop carts really increase our capability. Our technology guidelines were given to us by Middle States but we are constantly evolving and growing in this area. Technology issues are what I do. We have a tech guy who is in our building a couple of times a week but otherwise, I'm the one that helps everyone in my building and sometimes the whole district with issues. It's OVERWHELMING most of the time.
Good luck!
Joanie
Hi Gina,
I teach in the 9th grade building of our school district; our high school "one building" is considered to be grades 9-12 despite being in two buildings. Our school district just received a two-year grant "Classrooms for the Future" (CFF) which provided some of our classrooms with more technology resources, such as digital cameras, Promethean Boards, and more wireless laptop carts. This grant started with our English department so we're supposed to share with everyone in the department and of course with those in the rest of the building, but even within the department, many staff are not trained in using the resources appropriately. Our building also has a computer lab, another computer lab that holds an academic support math class, and yet another computer lab that holds the computing classes. Our Media Center "library" also has about 25 computers.
Each teacher in the district receives their own laptop. I do believe that each building also has a technology specialist support person who works more on technical support. With the grant came a CFF coach, but she has been learning more as we go along. We have a district technology specialist but obviously she is busy running around the district. Currently, many of our professional development technology sessions are held during the summer and peer-instructed. I'm hopeful that with the new resources and tools that are entering our district, that our district will start to take a new look at our technology policies.
My own classroom is fairly small with about 12 student desks. (Luckily many of my special edu. classes are small with at most, maybe ten students.) I have two student computers. I often also had a portable Smart Board and projector and one of the building's wireless laptop carts. I tried to have students use technology on a weekly basis, primarily focusing on their wikispace Discussion requirements. I also have to be careful that even if I assign internet-based homework assignments, that my students have the opportunity to work on these assignments at school, whether it be during a study hall, class time, or if they go to the Media Center during open hours after school. All of my students have computers but there are a few who do not have internet access or in general, typically do not even use the computer.
Janell H.
Hi Gina,
My school opened 20 years ago as the "Technology School" of our district. At that time we had 13 elementary schools (k-6), and we were on the cutting edge of tech. The district has minimized to 11 elementary schools, but we are still the one with the most technology, and it is being used. We have digital cameras in every classroom Smart Boards in all our Upper grades (16 classrooms) with 8 in the k-3 grades. Depending on funding, we hope to finish out the school in the next couple of years.
Each classroom has a teacher designated tower and 4 student computers in the K-3 rooms with 6 in the 4 - 6 rooms. We also have 3 document cameras that we share…another hope to get one per grade level, then one per classroom as budgets allow.
Our district is set up with broadband and we have district licenses to Brain Pop, Unitedstreaming and a few others that my "summer" brain can't remember.
We are slowly on our way to teaching our kids the 21st century skills that they are going to need!
~Tari
Hi Gina,
I have a teacher PC and a MAC laptop for my use and 2 student PCs in my classroom. I also have a SMARTBoard and 30 handhelds, which I and four other teachers got through a grant. The 4 other teachers are no longer at my school so I use them exclusively. I also have a digital camera and two printers in my classroom. Our school has two mobile laptop carts, one PCs and the other Macs that we can sign out for use.
Students use computers daily in my classroom. Our district has a strategic plan for technology but it is usually stifled by budget cuts. We share a tech with another building and we have a tech supervisor for the district. We are going wireless this summer, which will be great.
Kate
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Hi Gina-
In my classroom (I teach general music) I have a Smart Board and a teacher laptop. I also now have an Airliner wireless Slate and found that a great new tool. I only got it just before school let out so we haven't played with it much. There are 2 computer labs that I have access to although they are often in use for computer classes so I have to check the schedule to see when I can use the lab. These labs are all PCs. Our school doesn't have a tech person exactly. We have one tech teacher but she is also teaching classes and can't come running when there is a problem. So there are about 4 of us who have tech knowledge that help when we can. It is not perfect but it works most times. We also know who to call when we need help and that too helps. You need good friends in technology!
Mary
FYI- I found a very useful little shortcut for these forums- just put four dashes under the last one and a line across will appear.
Anyway, I think that you have asked more than one question, Gina, but they are all critical ones.
I will look at your first- we have at least one instruction computer in every class, plus one on the teacher's desk that can be shared (it's really for students first), plus an LCD projector and a document camera. We also have 3 labs of about 28 computers each, one in which I will be instructing, and the other 2 which can be reserved by teachers.
In urban Canada, the vast majority of students have Internet computers at home, many will have multiples, depending on socio-economic background. In my school community, there might be only a handful of kids without networked computers at home.
We have a few MacBook Pros for video editing and lots of cameras, both still and video.
There are Tech Standards for our District, and standards embedded across the Ontario Provincial Curriculum.
Rod
mrmuzzdog
In my district, we are just beginning to get more technology in the classrooms. We all have at least one teacher computer and one student computer. Being in the library I also have one devoted to circulation (and a Panther - very expensive handheld computer/scanner that I LOVE) and one devoted as my class use. We all have projectors hooked to our computers. There are a couple SmartBoards at the HS, but none at the elementary yet (I have hopes!), three Mobi's ("chalkboard"), a couple sets of "clickers", one mobile lab (that sometimes works), one large lab, and one small lab. Our new tech coordinator has been awesome in trying to get more at the elementary.
We have 70% of our students listed as having computers/internet access at home - I think this number is kind of high considering how economically depressed our area is (primarily welfare recipients). The students have two 20 minute session a week each to work on SuccessMaker Math and Reading, I take 1st, 3rd, and 5th in for weekly 20 minute sessions of keyboarding, and my 5th graders have 40 minute session of internet research and technology skills the 2nd semester with me. Outside of an occasional stray teacher with a research project, that is about it at the elementary. The HS has a keyboarding and computer skills class required. Our new tech coordinator is trying to get technology standards moving in our district. We have all given her our instruction plans and she is trying to push an alignment of skills and hopefully get more computer access at the elementary level (probably through me - hopefully!) so that we can get the skills in them way before HS. Our biggest hindrance to technology education is computer access.
Our tech coordinator handles what she can as far as issues go. We did have another tech person (recently fired) who did the troubleshooting. Now that that position is non-existent, the district has contracted to our IU to do the tech issue resolutions. We have an online technology form to fill out any time we need something. Well, I think that does it! Good luck! - D
Wow! That is a lot of questions!!! First of all, I am a floater so I don't even have a classroom!!! There is exactly one computer in each classroom for the teacher to use. Our building of 1500 students in grades 6-8 has 1 public computer room with about 30 Dell desktops and 1 smartboard (3 others are used as classrooms for computer classes) and 3 portable laptop carts which we can sign up for on a daily basis. I am not sure of the number, but I would have to say about 75% of my students have internet access (not necessarliy at their won home) which presents difficulty in assigning work to be done online as homework as about 45% of the student body receives free and reduced lunch (many low income families).
We have a technology director for the district and one person in our building to assist in technological issues when he is not teaching his class. He is very knowledgeable and on the cutting edge, but his hands are often tied by the strict internet policy laid down by my district. I think too many sites are blocked which limits what I can do.
Pam Oliveira (pamoliveira)