Tech In My Placement

In my past life as a research scientist in an ultrafast laser lab, technology was the center of my science world. I programmed experimental interfaces, had to rebuild/fix lasers when needed, and had to work constantly on a computer to analyze data and write for scientific journals. In my own practices as a scientist technology was essential...and at times served as an extension to my own body. Due to my experiences, I personally believe that students NEED to know how to use tech as a tool and will be disadvantaged in the workplace and in their future education if they cannot appropriately use computers.

I have even considered teaching my future children to program at a young age...if you think I'm crazy or that this is cool you should check out SCRATCH. I think it is important to teach children and our students how to use technology appropriately, but that it is key that they understand the power of tech as a tool.

While completing the Tech in My Placement survey I was honestly surprised by the types of tech (from computer labs, to video equipment and software, to even personal tech that students bring to school). I think it is pretty neat how our school has video announcements and a news team that creates and shares stories with the student body. In my own classroom we have a document camera, a projector, and a very old computer meant to be used by my mentor. My mentor teacher bought the projector that he uses (although he was later given one by the district as a reward that he ended up giving to another teacher to use) and got a document camera through a grant. In addition, he bought a personal computer that he uses for teaching purposes. We are very fortunate that my mentor is part of a national fellowship program as they have afforded him different experimental probes to use, in addition to a few bought by the school. We frequently visit the computer lab for our classes, as we do not have laptops in our classroom. On those computers we have instructed students on how to complete basic tasks on Excel, complete online homework, and run Phet simulations. Overall technology is most definitely used in our classroom.

Although we do use a wide variety of tech tools in my placement, I am somewhat disappointed by the capabilities of the computers as well as student training to use technology. It honestly takes a good 10 minutes for students to turn computers on and log into their personal accounts in the computer lab. The software on the computers is too new for the computers that it is required to run on...this turns the computers to muck and makes it incredibly difficult for students to work efficiently on. Once the start-up process is complete, opening an internet browser seems to take an eternity. Especially when you only have a short time with students, it makes it incredibly difficult to use time efficiently.

I am also somewhat disappointed about the training that students have had with technology. I have seen students text at warp speed but they do not know how to type or how to navigate a simple Google search. This week I spent a good three minutes teaching a student the intricacies of a right-click. In my own educational experiences, we had a technology class in which we had to type at a certain rate and be able to use multiple fingers. We had to know how to use the basic Microsoft office package. I know that some instruction is totally manageable to teachers to complete, but I would argue that learning how to use technology is just as important if not more important for students to learn in school to be adequately prepared for the workplace. As a student teacher, I cannot change the whole system but I can try to incorporate more and more well-scaffolded technology uses into my own practices. This is challenging and time consuming but I personally feel that it is extremely worthwhile.

Something I find interesting about my placement is our no cell phone policy. Teachers can choose to allow students to use their self-phones but it is on a strictly classroom-by-classroom basis. In my classroom, we have only encouraged a student to use their cellphone one time and it was when the schools technology was not functioning correctly. Students have their phones taken away on a daily basis. I like to think that there is a positive way to establish norms in the classroom to channel students interests and skills with technology. I plan on trying to incorporate some of this into my student teaching, if possible, next semester and will definitely try to utilize it when I have my own classroom.

But for now, in conclusion, I feel as if I definitely learned a lot by completing the Tech in My Placement survey and it got me thinking about how my students use technology and ideas for what I can do as a teacher to bring technology into my own classroom.