Laptops or Paperweights
Laptops are a fantastic thing. I’m using one right now. Their potential is almost limitless, but it is all in the eye of the beholder. As a teacher in training, I have been trained to use laptops to their greatest potential, which is always changing and expanding. If you asked me how well I thought I could incorporate laptops into my classroom, I would definitely say there was a place for them; however there are other less-technical ways of achieving the same results. In my first student teaching placement, my class had access to a laptop cart every afternoon. When I first began student teaching, I made a lot of use of the laptops, but as my time in the classroom wore on, I found more personal and interactive things to do with the students, not on the laptops. The classroom was equipped with a smartboard and students loved coming up to the board, manipulating problems and using the smartboard. After several weeks of not using the laptops, I was pleasantly surprised to see the laptops being distributed and students logging on. I found out that the class was going to take a math benchmark test on the computers, in an effort to save paper and help give teachers additional feedback, as to how long students spent on each problem. Not far into the test, it seemed as though old-fashioned paper tests would have worked better as half the class lost internet connection at least once during the test. Luckily, the test was designed to auto-save student progress, but time was still lost as students had to log off and log back on to re-establish an Internet connection. Do I think minor problems such as Internet connections should stand in the way of using technology in the classroom? No. Do I think valuable classroom time can be lost if technology does not work correctly? Yes. Is the trade-off worth it? I think so.
The most important lesson I learned in my first placement is that teachers need to be flexible! Expect the unexpected! Anticipate technology hiccups and be prepared with old-fashioned methods to teach students. We are in the age of technology and we should embrace it. The iPad 2 came out this past Friday and I can for-see more and more of these devices making their way into classrooms. Eventually classroom-wide pen pal writing will be replaced with iPad face-to-face or Skype conversations. Money is an issue and will always be an issue, determining when technology reaches classrooms, but change is constant and it is the responsibility of teachers to change and adjust with technology, using it to the classroom’s greatest advantage. I look forward to using technology in the future, but I will always have hard-copies of worksheets and games in a binder, to grab as a last resort. I hope schools who offer laptops to students will overcome minor aches and pains of using technology, such as dropped Internet, as computers can be incredibly useful in enriching children’s learning experiences. Teachers just need to use their imagination on how to best utilize technology in their classrooms.
One final thing to note. Students with disabilities were allowed to still take the test with pencil and paper. The idea behind this is that students are taught from a very young age test-taking strategies for paper tests. Student cannot underline key words or facts on a computer screen. The idea of taking tests on computers may almost be a dis-advantage to students who were never trained on test-taking strategies for tests on computers. Does one way vs. another benefit or impair different test takers? Are students with disabilities given advantages other than the already established advantages, such as extra time? Is it fair to all students?
Feel free to begin a list of how you might choose to use technology in a classroom, if you were a teacher or if you are a teacher. Thanks.
