Sunday, December 12, 2010
Rvising my GAME plan!
Wow! What a difference a week can make. I realize now that many of my lofty expectations have to be demoted a notch or two. I was able to have a brief word with our journalism teacher who happens to have her finger on the pulse of technology-based instruction. She often has hes students using the prized laptop collection. She mentioned that because of the inconsistencies with the availability of internet access, it might be difficult to really launch such an ambitious project, nevertheless, she was willing to consider it next year.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
It is discouraging not to have the technology available to meet your goals, but I really think you are preparing yourself for what is sure to come in the near future. Small steps will get us there eventually! Your podcast plans sound great...and feasible; and even if you have to table the other lesson until next year, at least you will have developed it. You can be the one who initiates these innovations in your school...the fun teacher with the cool ideas for technology integration. :-)
Diane,
Just today, under a directive from my principal, I was trying to have students take an online state "look-a-like" assessment. What a cluster! Forty minutes into my 88-minute class period, four students still couldn't get their laptops to log on, and several others who had gotten logged on were tossed out of the system! Our tech person just shakes her head helplessly. The district folks say that the network is fine, servers are in good shape, and our school's signal looks "strong and healthy." Yeah, whatever.
In Kansas, all students are required to take our state assessments online. Last year was a nightmare, with too few computers and many, many glitches. This year looks as if it won't be any better. There is so much pressure on us for our students to perform well on these ridiculous tests. Seems that it would be a lot easier for us to ride our little assessment bikes if we didn't have to constantly deal with technological wrenches getting caught up in our spokes.
In any case though, Ms. Sherrie is right. We'll keep taking the small steps (and falling and getting up again)until we get where we're going. I am not ready to give up and can tell that you're not either. We may not be amongst the big names out there, but we are trailblazers just the same. Hang in there!
Trina
Diane,
The productive uses of technology has grown so much on us that sometimes we forget they have shortcomings. How do you feel when you have something important to do on the Internet but then, you realize the Internet is down? I can tell that your disappointment brings you back to reality that we can do so much with technology but if we do not have backups then we cannot go a step further. Since teachers realize that technology will fail at times then we should ensure we consider implementing alternatives in case of disappointments. What can I say? Whether we depend highly on technology or not, there must be purpose in use of technology and when it fails, we must redirect our students’ attention to another alternative so as not to frustrate them. The technology support personnel may not be the answer to all our problems so we must get on with the lesson without dwelling on the complexities of technology tools.
K. Kerr
To Sherrie and Trina:
Thanks so much for your encouragement. I truly desire to teach all these technology-based lessons. And I am quite passionate about engaging students in meaningful learning activities through the use of digital technology. Next semester I am hoping to collaborate with the computer science and business teacher to have our students in common work on power point research presentations.
Post a Comment