For students with thriving tech districts, there are other opportunities available. For example, my students just recently "went to the Louvre" in their art class. Obviously, they didn't go to France. But their art teacher used the Smartboard and took them on a virtual museum tour. They're able to use interactive technology to experience almost anyplace you can imagine.
We've done this with Google Maps in our class, during our Community unit - we "walked" to each student's home, without leaving our classroom. We "walked" to the police station, fire department, etc., using Google street view, on our Smart board. We planned our route, before we took our actual walk. The kids had a virtual experience first.
I found the statistics about Internet access amazing - in 1999 64% of classrooms had internet access, and ten years later, 93% did (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012, p. 21). Ten years have radically shifted the way we teach. Having access to the internet makes instruction signifcantly different - we use web-based tools, research, email, and more without thinking about it.
As much as I gripe about not wanting my students to have tech, I cannot imagine teaching without it. I find it interesting that the book states tech has not yet brought about an instructional revolution. I would tend to agree, and feel like we're just on the verge of that. I think much of that is related to the teaching demographic and comfort zones. As new teachers learn new skills, new tools, and bring in new technology, things change. We have many, older, teachers in our building that still use paper newsletters, send home paper signup forms for conferences, etc, because that's what they know. The reality is that one email newsletter and a sign-up genius is MUCH easier for teacher and parent, but the learning curve is beyond that teacher's comfort zone. They use what they know. I think that a whole new generation of teachers will have to age out before we see a tech revolution in the field.
Application
1a. A year after teachers & students were given laptops, materials and wireless internet service, we observed little to no effect on classroom instruction. There are several possible reasons for this. The first is that many teachers are simply resistant to change, particularly when it is implemented in a top-down approach, by administration, without input from the teaching staff. We also believe they may have some learning curve issues that they have not overcome; the laptops are new equipment that the staff is unfamiliar with, and perhaps they were not adequately trained on all aspects of using the computers. Finally, we believe there may have been insufficient software/instructional material provided to them that restricted their ability to use their laptops as an instructional tool, or their understanding/awareness of instructional material may have been limited.
1b. To mitigate this in future deployments, a teacher/administrative panel would have worked better to collaborate in the implementation. It would then have felt like a joint project, rather than a requirement from the admin team, and might have been better received. It also might have worked well to use some of the staff meetings to highlight applications and some of the ways staff was using the tools to give teachers some ideas about how it can be used effectively. Some additional software might have been good, but many issues may have simply just been related to needing to expand their thinking. Having some brainstorming/teaching sessions could have really helped.
Application
1a. A year after teachers & students were given laptops, materials and wireless internet service, we observed little to no effect on classroom instruction. There are several possible reasons for this. The first is that many teachers are simply resistant to change, particularly when it is implemented in a top-down approach, by administration, without input from the teaching staff. We also believe they may have some learning curve issues that they have not overcome; the laptops are new equipment that the staff is unfamiliar with, and perhaps they were not adequately trained on all aspects of using the computers. Finally, we believe there may have been insufficient software/instructional material provided to them that restricted their ability to use their laptops as an instructional tool, or their understanding/awareness of instructional material may have been limited.
1b. To mitigate this in future deployments, a teacher/administrative panel would have worked better to collaborate in the implementation. It would then have felt like a joint project, rather than a requirement from the admin team, and might have been better received. It also might have worked well to use some of the staff meetings to highlight applications and some of the ways staff was using the tools to give teachers some ideas about how it can be used effectively. Some additional software might have been good, but many issues may have simply just been related to needing to expand their thinking. Having some brainstorming/teaching sessions could have really helped.
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