Groceries to Blogs in Four Short Years!

An elementary school on the outskirts of Topeka is just now having a windfall of technology. The district is upgrading much of it’s technology, and in the near future, the same technology will be in each building. The administration would like to have more technology, however, it is expensive. It is a slow process. For years, classroom technology consisted of a teacher computer, an overhead, a tape recorder, and a shared tv/vcr. The school is investing in the future of their students. New technology is filtering into the school as the old technology gets worn out.

Ms. G has been teaching first and second graders for many years. She is in her late forties and is looking forward to her retirement. Her classroom technology consists of an overhead, a teacher’s computer, two student computers, an old tape recorder (which will not be replaced), a flash drive, a projector with screen, and computer software for reading, science, and math.

The school has a computer lab which has enough computers to accommodate a class of students. The lab is open to the older students who need extra tutoring. The school will be switching over to laptops in the near future. The classroom computers are mainly used for the Accelerated Reading program, and Ms. G complains that the teacher’s computer has a lot of down time and freezes quite a bit.

In the interview, she called herself “an old dinosaur”, and claimed that it is not easy to learn about the new technology in her classroom. She said the teachers are given a short class and some informational handouts, however, she usually does not understand them. She hates to keep asking over and over again about the steps of the new technology. Ms. G said that during the day they are very busy and she can’t ask anyone. She just recently purchased a computer for her home and has trouble with that one also.

I think it is a shame that her classroom has so much new technology but she can not use it. The flash drive would make it convenient to work at home. Do the students suffer because she does not use the technology in her room? Probably not, but think of all the things she could accomplish if she knew how to do it!