There is a fine line between epic failure and a mosaic of digital beauty in the online world. I have found in my years of supporting countless computers in an ever-changing web landscape, nothing is ever what it seems. What worked yesterday is never guaranteed to work today and when you plan for tomorrow there is already someone out there looking two days ahead. I have always been a proactive Technology Support Specialist where I work and have been a part of some of the most innovative changes our county has ever seen. Using a critical thinking mentality we have always been able to anticipate almost every major scenario, both good and bad, and have a contingency in place without fail.
This is why I am here now, writing words on a blank canvas of white. It was an idea at first, something birthed in whispers from teachers who didn't know where to start or who to ask. Sure we have always tried to help our teachers succeed in all they do, but we have never truly been an integral part of their teaching strategies or been a part of that process where we helped them fit the technology into their teaching model.
Our district has roughly 2500 computers in it, all of which have at least Windows XP, and of those, 500 are Windows 7. Our high school has 12 labs for student use, some are comprised of laptops, but most are desktops. Using the annual technology inventory we provide for the state and a recent survey done by Brent Williams from Kennesaw State University, we have a very diversified portfolio of good, useful, and relevant technology.
We have managed to stay ahead of the game in a myriad of ways just by creativity We use a recycling program from the CDC that allows us to acquire computers that they would otherwise scrap and use in our own schools in any way that we are able. We have gotten desktops and laptops, monitors, network printers, and even medical equipment for our Health department. All of this has been at no cost to us. We also repair and upgrade our current computers for a fraction of the cost for replacement. This takes some skill of course, but our Technology department luckily has been grounded in this tradition of half-life operations. Finally, we work with a vendor to purchase refurbished machines at a highly reduced cost, with a full 3 year no questions asked replacement warranty. These machines also come with Windows 7 at a minimum so we remain modern in that aspect of our deployment and replacement model.
With all of this said, we have been able to perform the End of Course Tests through the Pearson Testnav software 100 percent online for 6 years now. That is every department at our high school, including Special Education and Math, for every testing window. At any given time we have up to 14 testing environments going with an excess of over 400 students testing simultaneously as well.
This brings me back to my opening statements, we are in uncharted waters now. We are at a place now where we are finally able to gain new technologies to enhance our classrooms in ways we never were able to before. SPLOST dollars have been dedicated to the deployment of these new technologies and because of this a renewed zeal has begun to slowly take hold in our schools. We have teachers eager to embrace this technology and they want to have the answers to the questions they all ask. These questions are not new. They are questions that have resonated for years, through pursed lips of a dedicated group of professionals who take our children and mold them into tomorrow's leaders, tomorrow's innovators.
For so many years our teachers have been asked to do more and more. Think about it, with every change of leadership, from the top down, a host of new standards and measurements floods the desks of our men and women who instruct our children. Year after year they are asked to give more and more. Thirty years ago they were expected to teach our kids to read and write, count, and tell us what the continents are. Now, in this day and age they are asked to be that and so much more. They are asked to be mediators, mentors, confidants, bully stoppers, moral instructors, bastions of safety when our children don't have proper clothes or food. In the 21st century a teacher is more than just an instructor, they are a literal lighthouse for our children.
That question I mentioned is the one that resonates even now as you read my words. And honestly, its not even what you think it is. It's not the obvious one we all think they would ask. It's not, "When is enough going to be enough?"
It's not, "What else do you expect me to do?"
No, the question our teachers ask silently is a simple one. It is one grounded in an obvious fact. Technology is the future and that future is here now. There is nothing we can do to change that. It's like a tube of toothpaste. Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, there is no way to get it back in. So that question on the lips of our educators? Are you ready for it?
I am going to pull a Ryan Seacrest here and explain one more thing so you understand why this question is so simple. With the rise of new technologies and the countless number of companies out there that have offerings to our teachers, just making a choice of what technology to go with is a daunting task to say the least! Not to mention the fact that no matter what technology you choose, there is a learning curve with it. Whether its the IPad, or Samsung Galaxy, the Nexus 7 or 10, or any of the countless interactive whiteboard suite of products out there on the market. Each one of these technologies has a host of interactive products that go with them (Or software packages such as the Active Inspire for Promethean, or SMART notebook for SMART board.) All of these have a particular learning curve associated with them and in the case of any of the interactive whiteboard products, their software packages require some form of in-depth training to get the best use of their offerings.
The number one commodity of a teacher in this day and age is Time. The grains of sand that run through an hour glass with each passing second, precious moments lost never to be gained again. Now, back to that essential question...
"What technology can I use that is easy enough to not take weeks to learn and hours to set up for use in the classroom but help me engage my students in ways never done before?"
The link at the bottom of this blog is a Tech issue I wrote for our High School letting our staff know what we have going on this year alone. I used a website called Flipsnack.com to convert the PDF I created to a cool looking flipbook that anyone can do.
That very question is the one I will strive to answer with this series of blogs. In the coming weeks I will share videos, links, and web 2.0 resources that, I have seen with my own eyes, revolutionize the way teachers engage students in the classroom. So in closing I leave you with the one thing that drives me in all of this...
"Why just plan for tomorrow when we can go light years beyond?"
Aaron
http://share.snacktools.com/ACE7A797C6F/fztjyjjh
No comments:
Post a Comment