Students in Hyderabad, India, demonstrating their science fair projects
Digital Learning Inventory
This is an inventory of technology currently available and being utilized at CLMS.
What tools, software, operating systems, and equipment are available in your school and classroom? (including but not limited to: videoconferencing, streaming, photos sharing sites, video sharing sites, document sharing sites, podcasts, blogs, wikis, social networking sites, etc.)
Our school has been completely wireless for a couple of years now; most computers are Macintosh, but there are also a couple of labs with Windows-based operating systems. We also have a Tandberg for videoconferencing in our magnet coordinator's office. Teachers are starting to learn about Dropbox, Wordle, screen recorders, and other 2.0 tools. Until recently I used Delicious as a bookmarking/sharing tool, but the district blocked it, so now I use Diigo. Until this year few teachers used wikis and blogs, except for a technology teacher with whom I shared information about Edmodo, but I have been using them for four years now. Facebook and Twitter are blocked, but my 7th grade students thought Edmodo was Facebook the first time they saw it.This year more teachers are using Edmodo both for idea-sharing and as classroom forums. Our district also has licenses with research databases like Gale/Infotrac and a host of other educational resources, including Discovery Education, which I sometimes use for videos and assignments. I have used Skype in my classroom to communicate with parental “experts”; however all the pen pals we have had over the past few years have been on different time zones. One grandfather did call us from China at three in the morning his time! I have found that Wikispaces is teacher-friendly and great for creating projects. We also have access to the Apple suite of software like GarageBand, iPhoto, and iMovie. I recently won two iPads with a grant, and my students have used them to create movies based on their research. The problem is, the district has made it impossible for me to dock them anywhere, so instead of sharing music and photos, I have to email them to myself all the time.
How does your school make use of school and/or teacher websites?
The school website is maintained on a regular basis, and it has links to teacher websites. The school site is a source of information and news for parents and families.
How are you currently utilizing technology for learning?
I have a Promethean Board with a learner response system, which I use on a daily basis, even though it is not always reliable. I ma moving more towards an app in Edmodo which students can use with their portable devices. The district bough a large amount of Promethean equipment but does not supply maintenance for it. The students in my classes learn how to use it, and they are the ones who wield the pen. Every year for the past three, I have had a computer cart in my room, which I share with teachers in my area. It is stocked with old Macs, and we use them for multimedia projects, research, and testing.
Which websites are blocked by your school's firewall?
Popular social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, Delicious, and sundry others not deemed to be appropriate for middle school.
What websites and tools are colleagues in your building using?
That varies a great deal; we all use district tools for testing, demographic, and behavioral data (we have just started to implement a new site for that); the district portal with a wide variety of resources for students, teachers, and parents; and an electronic gradebook.All of our textbooks have online versions so that students can access them from home if they have Internet.
Many Language Arts teachers use Wordle and some of us use Tagxedo and Visuwords; the Merriam-Webster Learner's Dictionary; teacher-friendly web-hosting sites; blogs and wikis; I also found some really fun classroom tools called Triptico, which the kids love; Survey Monkey; and Spelling City. There are many subject area-specific sites and tools that some teachers take advantage of. Edmodo is endorsed by the district as a blog site for teachers, classrooms, and parents.
Is there a system for evaluating student technology literacy in your school? If so, how effective or helpful have you found the assessment?
No, we have no such assessment in our school, although one does exist for teachers, and it was administered recently. I am not sure of its efficacy since no new technology workshops have been offered for teachers. The teachers in computer classes have such evaluations.
Gather suggestions from students on their ideas for integrating technology into their learning.
Suggestions:
1. Students want to be able to use their phones for quick questions and research; as calculators and dictionaries;
2. they want to become more proficient at digital tools for producing movies and music, and creating art;
3. they would like to be allowed to bring their own computers to school to enhance the technology we have now, for research;
4. they would like to play more educational games; design games; and use televideo like Skype to communicate with other classrooms or other places.
What tools that are not presently available, would help to achieve district objectives?
I am finding that the two iPad 2s in my room are great for simple productivity as well as for information. They are certainly less expensive that laptops, and if we had more of those in every classroom, it would help. I also think that the district should be less cagey about allowing these devices to be synched to teacher computers; right now it is impossible to get music playlists on the iPads because I cannot synch them myself.
Does your school promote BYOD (bring your own device) policies for students?
This is a gray area. In our meetings prior to the beginning of the last school year, we were hashing out the school rules, and one of them was “absolutely no cellphones or electronic devices.” I pointed out that students often have books on their devices, and many have e-readers. Many other teachers weighed in and at the end it was decided that students could use them with teacher permission. This rule is still in place during the current year. Student-owned computers are not really favored because of problems with loss and/or theft.
B. Using your Digital Learning Environment Inventory, develop a solution or suggest an improvement customized to your school/classroom circumstances. Include a paragraph describing:
1. The solution/suggestion
2. Reflect on what you learned from this process
Despite last year's program offered by Comcast, which provided low-income families with basic Internet for a low monthly cost, and vouchers for low-cost computers, many of our students still do not have access. It seems that the obstacle here is relevancy: many parents do not see computers and Internet as being relevant to education. When we conduct events for parents, such as Parent University, Literacy, Math, and Science nights, the concept of technology integration is often ignored or marginalized. What we need to do is seize those opportunities to make parent aware of the essential nature of the incorporation of technology in education, and re-introduce them to the opportunities being offered by large firms like Comcast and Microsoft. After all, it is pointless to have online textbooks if we do not emphasize their central role to the curriculum. This week I attended a Symposium for the Gifted, hosted by the district, in which much ado was made of the district's new stance favoring project-based learning over the constant drive to improve standardized test results. This was literally news to most of the attendees, who came straight from schools like mine where testing is paramount because of district and state pressures. My suggestion is that our school needs to take a stand, broadcast to parents that we are integrating technology into the everyday curriculum, and then offer hands-on workshops to them so that they can see how it works. Two years ago at Parent University I did just that, and the parents were thoroughly engaged, especially the ones who had never touched a computer before. I was able to do it again during Literacy Night, once again with great success. One of our technology teachers just held a fundraiser to re-furbish the antiquated equipment in her room, and I think that more of us should do the same. I asked my students if they would help with a fundraiser to get more iPads, and they were very enthusiastic. Our principal announced this year that she has bought battery replacements for all the Mac laptops, so that should help.
What I learned from this process is that whereas I thought I had very few allies in my school in terms of fighting for technology integration, it turns out that potentially I have the most important ones: the students, their parents, the principal, and other teachers who wish to place our school in the 21st Century. The money is probaly out there; all that is required is the strong conviction that this is the correct path, and the determination to push through without giving up.
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