So far from my experience student teaching at a small high school technology has been an interesting area to explore. By "small" I am talking around 300 students make up the student body. The school is an accredited International Baccalaureate high school, the student body is academically driven and focused. This forward thinking curriculum and academic work ethic I imagined coming with cutting edge technology. That is not the case.
The school has a computer lab and two computer carts and every classroom has a document projector and a smart board, so there is not shortage of technology but the functionality of the technology is more of the issue. There are always at least one or two computers in the computer lab that do not work and the same goes for the laptop carts. In my mentor's teacher's classroom we have only used the laptop cart once but the word in the teacher lounge is that one of the laptop carts is much better than the other and competition is pretty fierce to get the "good" laptop cart. Another issue that my placement school has with technology is that there is not designated "tech" person. There is not a librarian or technology trained person at the school. The lead teacher has been designated this person by default but has no experience or qualifications to be a technology expert. This makes fixing the broken computers in the computer lab and on the laptop carts difficult. The lack of computers has not affected my classroom as much as it has affected other teachers classrooms. But there aren't enough computers for an entire class to do research which some of the other teachers struggle with.
Another aspect of the small school that the tech study help me think about was the school's device policy. There are no phones allowed out in the hallways or used in class for non-educational use. Inside the classrooms it is up to the teachers to decide how they In my mentor teacher's classroom the students are allowed to use their phones as their planners or to take pictures of some of the group work that we do in class. There are also two students who do all of their work on their computers. When working on my tech in my placement survey I discussed with my mentor teacher how he felt about students using technology in his classroom. He said he did not mind as long they were using as a learning tool. This policy seems to be the norm at this school, but in talking with the students there is one teacher who lets them have the phones out and text if they would like. I thought this was interesting. According to the student who I was speaking to the teacher's idea behind his policy is that the students are going to text anyway so he might as well let them text and get back to work then have them spend time hiding the text from the teacher. I thought this was an interesting policy. I would be interested to see how this policy plays out in his classroom.
I have always thought of technology as a distraction but after the cell phone presentation and seeing how limiting a lack of technology can be I wonder if we let student bring their own device if our classrooms may be more productive?
I had the same feeling after Liz's presentation - I'm questioning my initial beliefs about cell phones in the classroom! It sounds like there is an interesting disconnect at your school and I can only imagine it represents many schools around the country. I lam finding the humor and sadness in their being competition over the "good" laptop cart. I've heard similar things about the Kindle cart vs the iPad cart at my placement. One is seemingly FAR superior to the other.
ReplyDeleteYour post leaves me wondering... what will your BYOD policy be when you take over the classroom in the Spring???
Well now I want to know which do the teacher prefer Kindles or iPads?
DeleteAs for my BYOD policy I cannot decide. I like the idea of using them for learning but if we are not using them in class that day I do not think I want to see them out. But the students are also not supposed to have them out in the halls or at lunch so when can they use their phones? I think that if they cannot use their phone all day that is not very fair but I do not want them to use my class time for texting. As you can see I am quite conflicted but I think this will be my policy, there will be time in class when you are allowed to use your phones to learn math and as your planner but otherwise I would like them to be on silent and put away.
I picture teachers fighting like cavemen over the "better" laptop cart. OH EM GEE. Kind of like mean girls in the cafeteria when they only make animal sounds. The cell phone policy for your school seems very inconsistent and as a student I think that would be very confusing. As a teacher/student- I can understand your mentor teacher's thinking and the thinking of the other teacher who allows it. When a student is starting in their backpack pocket or at their crotch for the entire hour- you know they're texting and doing a poor job at hiding it for that matter. I like the idea of treating students like adults- but at the same time-they're not adults. In our Ed classes with students that range in ages from 22-(I don't dare put a number here) we have "Please turn off your cell phone or put it on silent during class." And that having our phone out is not ok.
ReplyDeleteIn my placement, they have their phones out and its only a distraction for some students but when it comes time to take a test or do a writing assignment-these students deliver. Its quite frustrating actually. Im curious what you're BYOD policy will be Sarah? If not in the spring but in the fall when you're in charge of your own classroom.
So cellphones are allowed out at anytime of the day at your placement?
DeleteI cannot decide about my BYOD policy. I like the idea of using them for learning but if we are not using them in class that day I do not think I want to see them out. But the students are also not supposed to have them out in the halls or at lunch so when can they use their phones? I think that if they cannot use their phone all day that is not very fair but I do not want them to use my class time for texting (I have a feeling a lot of teachers feel this way). As you can see I am quite conflicted but I think this will be my policy, there will be time in class when you are allowed to use your phones to learn math and as your planner but otherwise I would like them to be on silent and put away.
It's interesting how schools can have all the resources in the world but no good training. It seems to me that this could be one of those cases where we can just throw money/technology at something and magically, the problem is solved. I can see myself in a school that is fabulously well funded with lots of materials available, but without somebody explicitly knowing what is there, I would not have any idea where to start.
ReplyDeleteWhile "falling back" on cell phones potentially allows students to become engaged, I wonder tapping into the student knowledge about the technology would help. Our high school was also a "small one". We had decent technology available, but I never really saw it in use in the classroom. We did, however, have a pretty robust tech club. Students were responsible for sorting through what was available and making it something functional. Perhaps the students themselves could be a resource for everyone.
This was a very interesting post, Sarah, and one of the provocative questions posed herein is the question of whether it's best to regulate/limit use of cell phones (and potentially drive the use underground, or at least "under desk") or just to allow it and figure that the draw will exhaust itself and the kids will then be able to get about their business. Like you, I'm curious as to whether the decision not to make cell phones/texting into forbidden fruit gets you further ahead than you might otherwise be (and this does remind me of the cultural distinctions sometimes made regarding alcohol consumption, for example--do kids get to try wine at the dinner table?) I also wonder if there are other understandings in play in this particular classroom...perhaps you'll have the opportunity to investigate further.
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