Good and Bad Uses of Tech in Public Schools? 143
skot asks: "I am a high school math teacher and recovering journalist working on an article about innovative (and insane) uses of technology in the classroom. I have seen schools plunk down thousands of dollars on handheld computers that teachers and students basically use as notebooks - fancy, expensive notebooks. I have also seen teachers try to forbid their students from using the internet in a research project. I'm sure many Slashdot readers have lived through experiences like this - and more. If you want to share your stories, I'd love to hear 'em."
Damn kids (FP!) (Score:2, Informative)
I've seen it first hand... inaccurate facts in papers... "but it was on the internet!"
Re:Damn kids (FP!) (Score:2)
Trusting where your sorce blindly is just plain bad.
umm... yeah... (Score:2, Interesting)
see, I have encountered the opposite problem. Professors who say "information gotten off the internet is less good than information in books"
and therefore, my printout of a Supreme Court opinion (from the Supreme Court Website, mind you) got me docked, because this source would have been better gotten from the library reference series that contains these things. Incidentally, since the case was very new (the opinion about 2 weeks old -- from MPAA v 2600, by the way) it was not available in printed
Good use vs. Bad use of computers (Score:4, Interesting)
Having the teacher give the give the lecture as a power point presentation with a LCD projector. The slides can then be published on the web for later consumption
Bad:
Holding a lecture in a computer lab and having the class "follow along".
Good:
Requiring that students use a mix of sources in thier papers, including electronic and print.
Bad:
Not grading them on their sources "Bob's Website of SuperFun Stats says that..."
Good:
Requiring that students turn in a digital copy of thier papers along with a print version for markup.
Bad:
Not running plagarism checking software on those digital copies.
Re:Good use vs. Bad use of computers (Score:2, Insightful)
Having the teacher give the give the lecture as a power point presentation with a LCD projector. The slides can then be published on the web for later consumption
Bad:
have the teacher try to give a powerpoint presentation, but not get power point, or just being really unfamiliar, and thus slow.
i really hate poorly done powerpoint presentations that teachers just done because they feel they have to
Re:Good use vs. Bad use of computers (Score:2)
Re:Good use vs. Bad use of computers (Score:1)
I had too many business classes that were taught on PP Slides that were RIGHT FROM THE PUBLISHER. I mean...why even pay the professor when he is just an intermediary between us and the publisher.
Those classes were skipped whenever possible. All you had to do to get a 4.0 was to show up on review days and see which slides to study.
Re:Good use vs. Bad use of computers (Score:2)
Erh, believe me, if the professor wasn't needed on top of the slides, he wouldn't be standing there, sonny. Surely s/he'd rather be in his office surfing the web for pr0n^H^H^H^H research material than stand up in front of students with an attitude like yours.
By the way, have you ever thought about the fact that most courses use textbooks RIGHT FROM THE PUBLISHER, instead of in-house notes? Why is it acceptable for the textbook but not for the PP slides?
Re:Good use vs. Bad use of computers (Score:1)
In my CS classes, the teachers HAD PREPARED their own notes, and the textbook was just a reference (sometimes obscure).
As to my attitude, school becomes more and more expensive every year (it isn't inflation, it's lack of state funding in MN). Yet, we still just get powerpoint presentations for lectures. No wonder classr
Re:Good use vs. Bad use of computers (Score:2)
The don't do that simply because books are meant to be read on your own, but PP slides have been designed to be used, guess what, in front of an audience.
If a publisher has gone out of its way to select the salient points of a topic, embellish them with well thought out colours and charts, made expensive animations, why would that be inferior to some slides put
Re:Good use vs. Bad use of computers (Score:2)
I view professors as a way of getting another viewpoint. If you go to a class where the PP slides are structured and presented exactly like the book, you're missing out. Sometimes information has to be presented in two or three different ways before you really get it. If you can't follow the textbook, the class with the publisher's PP slides won't be any better.
The fact that it was that way when you went to school does n
Re:Good use vs. Bad use of computers (Score:2)
Sure, and if the slides are awful one shouldn't use them either. However (1) slides are usually prepared by somebody other than the author and (2) what the professor _says_ is still a lot more than what is written on the slide.
I agree that certain things should be done live on the board to get the true feel of it. By the same token, other things such as animations of an algorithm or the chart of a function are mu
Sources (Score:5, Insightful)
That's one of the most exciting things about the web. When I was in K-12, it always bothered me to see my classmates accept everything they found in standard reference works as the purest gospel. Nobody recognized that dictionaries and encyclopedias are written by fallible humans, subject to peer and political pressure, cultural bias, and a permanent tendency to oversimplify. When I see kids educating themselves via the discordant voices of the web, I envy them a lot
Re:Sources (Score:2)
Re:Sources (Score:2)
Re:Good use vs. Bad use of computers (Score:2, Interesting)
Begging for cheaters. (Score:4, Interesting)
This brand of stupidity exists independant of computer technology. I've had professors give take home exams that were:
1) Closed book, and
2) To be completed in 1 hour, honor system.
That's the teacher's way of saying, "Honest people deserve lower grades in this course." Situations such as those are the only ones in which I've ever cheated in school. I don't consider it to be any morally different from cheating on an in-class test, but I certainly didn't hesitate to open up my text book and find the answers.
Anyway. I realize this has nothing to do with technology, but there you are.
Re:Begging for cheaters. (Score:1)
Re:Begging for cheaters. (Score:2)
Re:Begging for cheaters. (Score:1)
I am a student at Univ. Calif., Irvine
at UCI, this sourt of honor system would not work, in my opinion, as well as that of many of my fellow students.
At Harvey Mudd (sp?) in Claremont, CA. it is a common practice for final exams to be given this way. I have yet to find a student that would admit to having taken even five minutes longer than allowed, or having opened a book or looked online, or asked for help.
Also, nobody admitted to ever being asked for help on such an exam
Re:Begging for cheaters. (Score:1)
You go ahead and get your A. I won't really be mad at you, but you'll know that you cheated, and I will to. And that really makes the difference.
I agree completely. I'd still prefer a system in which we all get grades that reflect our understanding of the subject material.
Fiber (Score:5, Interesting)
My mom teaches at a public elementary school, and they have a "technology committee" that decides all things technology for the school. That's ok, except that none of them are career IT'ers, and none of them have much training in IT except a seminar or 2 about things, or maybe a couple cisco classes.
So lately the committee has decided that in order to solve all it's network ills, they need to install fiber throughout the entire school! Woo hoo! Right? Theoretically it's a good idea, but in reality, they don't even need it. They're external internet is a T1 (1.5mb), so even a 10mb network will swamp that. Internally they don't even use the network for much besides the internet... just a little storage for the teachers who know, and a few apps here and there. Stuff 100mb ethernet would handle fine.
Seems pretty stupid to me, and a big useless expense. Especially with all the layoffs and budget crunches going on. I'd rather see them spend the money on a new PC for each teacher, or some classroom spending money. <sarcasm>But they're the technology committee. They know what's best.</sarcasm>
Re:Fiber (Score:2)
Re:Fiber (Score:1)
It's fiber to the classroom, AFAIK. I agree, running fiber out to the farther buildings would be reasonable, especially looking at growth, but the school district is in a town of 10K people, and isn't growing very rapidly. I think the whole reason they're wanting it is because a lot of the existing network is chained hubs, running at 10mb. It's a little slow for intranet stuff sometimes. But instead of just upgrading stuff to 100mb (hubs/switches mostly), they want to replace it all with fiber. It's overki
Re:Fiber (Score:2, Insightful)
Basically, elementary school kids IMHO don't need to be using computers
Re:Fiber (Score:2)
I definitely agree that we should pull computers out of primary schools (K-3), pos
Re:Fiber (Score:3, Insightful)
Handhelds = Cheaper Than Notebooks? (Score:2)
Jason
Re:Handhelds = Cheaper Than Notebooks? (Score:1)
Re:Handhelds = Cheaper Than Notebooks? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Handhelds = Cheaper Than Notebooks? (Score:1)
SuDZ
Effort and utility (Score:2)
So what are those biases based on?
The net seems to obscure the fact that many people contribute to an idea. This is especially true of research.
As for the palm computers, many people think that they are being thrifty if they get something for one purpose. But everything is backwards in terms of computers. The more general the cheaper the product, yet the more general the more powerful it is.
Re:Effort and utility (Score:2)
Because publishing a book takes a certain amount of effort, and it's thus likely that someone with at least half a brain cell at least skimmed through the contents once, unlike most of the crap you find on the net
Re:Effort and utility (Score:2)
And I happen to do tech writing. I can tell you first hand I've seen nothing but plagiarism from partners in certification manuals. Big time partners.
LTSP, filtering proxies and mail server upgrades (Score:5, Interesting)
One school here in NZ has their mail server set up to reject all mail from .com domains. Decent spam filter, but it makes it difficult to
communicate with the principal about converting it to linux and putting
more effective and accurate spam filters on it!
One request I've seen is for a configuration of squid (or some other cache/proxy server) that can (a) cache a large number of pages on a certain topic (gathered by hand if necessary) and then limit the access of the students to only those pages.
Another popular item for schools is an ltsp setup [k12ltsp.org]. But you *have* to let them know that despite the word "terminal" in the title, these are not dumb terminals per se, but rather a thin client arrangement, more along the lines of the old diskless sun workstations! You don't want them going out and getting a bunch of old VT100's and thinking they'll be able to bring up a graphical display on them! (well, maybe if you put them in tek4014 emulation mode, but it's it's not exactly what they expect!)
At the NZ Open Source Society [nzoss.org] we're focussing on schools as a highly appropriate place to place open source deployments, on charity. Think about it. If you donate your time at market rates, you can claim it back on your taxes at a rate that's still a living wage. This is an excellent way to reduce your tax burden from a windfall in previous years, keep busy and expand your skills in a lean year, and do something good for the community--all at the same time.
A friend of mine's kid uses linux exclusively at home, and when the kids on the schoolbus found out, they backed away from her in shock and informed her that linux "was illegal" and she could be arrested "for being a hacker using that." An idea brought to a school near you by the MS FUD Factory.
This is the level of misunderstanding of open source in the schools, so it's an important mission to at least dispell some of the FUD surrounding it.
CORRECTION! NZOSS is HERE (Score:2)
Re:LTSP, filtering proxies and mail server upgrade (Score:2)
For your web filter, you might want to have a look at SquidGuard or Dan's Guardian [dansguardian.com]. I implemented both test-wise at a school, and they liked it.
It's OK Re:LTSP, filtering proxies and mail ser (Score:2)
No, she should tell them that it's OK. Her parents are licensed Linux users, and the license (GPL!) covers her too.
Frankly.... (Score:3, Insightful)
You should know how to do things without the machines (IE, by hand) before you learn to do things with.
A good example is math. Many people know how to do "2+2=" on a calculator so it spits out 4, but these days I watch kids freak out as I work (say) 3/492 on a piece of paper. They are awed; I am scared.
Simple (Score:2)
int x;
int y;
int z;
x = 3;
y = 492;
z = x / y;
cout "z = " z;
- : output : -
z = 0
Re:Simple (Score:2)
float x;
float y;
float z;
to ensure flexibility in your knowledge base?
Re:Simple (Score:2)
int x = 5436 / 93458;
cout "the value of x = " x;
the value of x = 0
Re:Frankly.... (Score:2)
My younger co-worker (who will probably read this and laugh) and I play darts. He is young enough that he could use a calculator on the SATs so didn't need to do math in his head. Bottom line is that I do the addition because it is not a trained skill for him. As far as I can tell the only disability suffered is the ability to do simple math in his head. I would bet he can do more complex math than I can anymore because it has be
Re:Frankly.... (Score:2)
I was punished repeatedly in school for doing math in my head. Often I had correct answers marked wrong because I did not show my "work".
The school system is only an instrument to keep people dumb.
Re:Frankly.... (Score:2)
I used to get in trouble for having my hand up with the answer before the teacher had finished writing the problem. "There's no way you know the answer, you haven't written anything down yet."
I used to fight with teachers over showing work, because I tended to group multiple steps together. Why show 10 steps to solve an equation if you can do it 4?? Got to the point where I would write a generic example with all ten steps at the top of the page, then just put a note "See
Re:Frankly.... (Score:1)
I agree whole-heartedly (as if my heart has anything to do with the process except providing my brain and fingers with blood)
I was greatly disturbed when my highschool math instructors informed me that, sans a TI-82 or better calculator (at the time, about $75 - $80 -- its a graphing calculator) that I would be at such a tremendous disadvantage that I'd likely not pass the course.
See, we learned how to do matrix multiplications, we learned how to graph some pretty spiffy functions, we learned
Re:Frankly.... (Score:2)
Honestly, it was covered back in alegebra II, but it wasn't used much. One or two tests, then on to bigger and better things. When you get a scientific calculator for $10...
Last time I had to do it on paper I used an iterative method, fairly slow but workable. (This BTW, was on a physics final where my calculator was broken on the way there... I managed to pass. Lacking trig tables
Re:Frankly.... (Score:2)
Re:Frankly.... (Score:1)
Or, at least, we learned the commands to do so on the calculator.
My Algebra 2/Precalculus teacher did it right. He made us make sure we knew how to do it without first (multiply rows by columns, a logarithm is an exponent, etc), then show us how to use the calculator.
The funniest part was his exam
Re:Frankly.... (Score:2)
The winner was supposed to get a free pizza lunch at the end of the year, but he forgot, so I got $10 instead. Was so nice to know I paid closer attention to detail than the reside
Re:Frankly.... (Score:2)
Re:Frankly.... (Score:2)
I'm one of those (rare?) people who was nearly held back in grade school for math (had to get tutoring after school), still can't do the basic math (add, subtract, mult., divide, etc.) well, yet have NO problem at all with the advanced stuff...
speaking to you with Physics degree in hand...
Re:Frankly.... (Score:2)
Re:Frankly.... (Score:2)
technology is not an excuse for ignoring the literacy part of computer literacy or following directions or critical thinking.
Re:Frankly.... (Score:2)
If the point is to awe kids these days, yes, I need paper. "Wow, you know how to do that without a calculator?!" And if I'm still not sure, I break out the calculator and then run the problem. (Then again, that's something my dad taught me....)
We're basically talking the same crowd who never learned to read an analog clock because they've always had digital clocks to tell them what time it is.
Re:Frankly.... (Score:2)
I had trouble figuring out if the big hand was the short fat one or the long skinny one, they both had about the same surface area!
Re:Frankly.... (Score:2)
With some of the responses in this part, it seems people have forgotten that you divide by the number to the right of the "/" sign.
Re:Frankly.... (Score:2)
3/492 on paper? I stand in awe in your presence!
Start as you mean to go on... (Score:5, Interesting)
I had the honour of being introduced to computing by Francis Glassborow [accu-usa.org] back in '84 who (among other things) was responsible for:-
Been in education for 13 years now... (Score:3, Insightful)
My personal pet peeve is graphing calculators. Why pay over a $100 for a calculator, when for the same money you can get a palm and load on graphing calculator software?
Only in the last several years has there been a clear move to use the computer as an integrated tool, and not to use it as a reward or a game machine.
Disclaimer: I work at a regional center in Georgia that teaches such integration.
Towards that end, I've seen a lot of neat uses. It takes more than just a powerpoint slideshow to actually enhance learning, though. Having the students do research and then create their own powerpoint is more effective. (as long as they don't use a sound effect for every letter entry...)
The key element is to get the students involved. The instructor can use a tool such as Inspiration to do concept outlines, and then make those available as notes.
I'll think of more examples later...
Re:Been in education for 13 years now... (Score:3, Insightful)
My personal pet peeve is graphing calculators. Why pay over a $100 for a calculator, when for the same money you can get a palm and load on graphing calculator software?
Or you could simply use any standard $2 calculator, a pencil, and some graph paper and have the kids plot the function themselves. The kids would be responsible for using as many or as few sample points as they needed. Instead of mindlessly typing in an equation and watching the gizmo do its thing, the repetition of manually evaluating
Re:Been in education for 13 years now... (Score:2)
Graphing Calculators (Score:2)
however, i think after that point has been reached, there are some legit educational uses for a graphing program or calculator.
b) i came along after all the fancy calculators came out, and didn't use them in college, so i can't speak for anything but their use in K-12. it would not surprise me that they are better suited at a higher level than general software on
Re:Been in education for 13 years now... (Score:2)
Re:Been in education for 13 years now... (Score:2)
That's fine for learning how to graph (which is middle-school level math) But after that, esp once you get into advanced classes, it is a pain in the ass and a waste of time to do things by hand when the graphing part isn't even the problem you're trying to solve
Re:Been in education for 13 years now... (Score:2)
Never used a Hp48, the real deal, have you?
Crazy teacher (Score:4, Interesting)
Needless to say, I didn't really like that teacher much.
Re:Crazy teacher (Score:4, Funny)
Now the interesting thing is that there was 1 working punch card "puncher" and one working punch card "reader" left on campus... of course there was an approximate 2 mile walk between them, so your edit compile debug cycle was
1) walk to puch card writer wait to type up your punch cards
2) spend 15 minutes walking across campus to reader, submit job to perplexed operator
3) take output to quiet room to figure what the hell was wrong
4) Walk back across campus to the writer
I got a good impression on how bad it used to be, so I have learned to take advantage of all of the modern tools in the world to help me do my job. Turned out to be an interesting class, just don't get me started on my assembler classes where I wrote C code, and turned in the compiled output
Re:Crazy teacher (Score:2)
Mod parent up!!! It was actually worse than that!
For example, you left out the step where, after walking across campus in the freezing cold, you have to wait on line with 200 other freshmen (half of whom have the flu--several different varieties brought back from Thanksgiving holiday) in a stuffy, moldy, underventillated, overheated basement room to submit your cards to the card reader.
And the other step where the person three ahead of you in the queue had one slightly bent card, that (because this
Re:Crazy teacher (Score:2)
Yes I did get away with it, all though I used an early optimizing compiler that generated some cool optimization that I had to explain to the TA why I did it (think fast young padiwan). But no, not straight
Re:Crazy teacher (Score:2)
This reminds me of the Monty Pyton sketch "When I was in college, we used to live in a shoebox in the middle of the road..." "LUXURY! We DREAMED of a shoebox!" etc.
Or the Dilbert cartoon where Dilbert says that when he started out, they had to write all their code in ones and zeros -- and Wally answers that when he started out, all they had was zeros.
But the story about letting the C compiler do the basic conversion to assembler for you is a good one! Think fast, young padiwan, indeed!
You forgot the part about... (Score:2)
Re:You forgot the part about... (Score:2)
Re:You forgot the part about... (Score:2, Funny)
His room mate (a jock type) walked in, saw the cards, unbanded them, shuffled them, banded them back up, then left. My friend sat there for about 5 minutes with his mouth open then crashed his head to the table. I almost thought he was going to cry. I didn't stick around to see what happened n
Re:Crazy teacher (Score:2)
you sir are an obvious troll, those printers were chain printers, the characters were on a steel tape that circulated and were struck with a hammer when the character was over the correct column position sort of like a daisy-wheel printer. The printer had 132 hammers, one for each column except the last which was for the linefeed character.
Re:Crazy teacher (Score:2)
2) spend 15 minutes walking across campus to reader, submit job to perplexed operator
3) take output to quiet room to figure what the hell was wrong
4) Walk back across campus to the writer
Solution? Get an English degree and sleep for 4 years.
Re:Crazy teacher (Score:3, Informative)
We had a crazy English teacher in freshman high school. One project, we were not allowed to use a computer to find information. Now, this seemed okay at first, because there's a lot of information in a library. However, she really took the "no computer" as far as it could go - we couldn't even look up a book on the library's online catalog! And since the library didn't have a card catalog anymore, we had to find the books by scanning the shelves.
This is just so sad. Not how "crazy" your teacher was but
Back to basics (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't have any first-hand experience with technology in the classroom but I would like to point out that although American schools have the best technology and computer equipment available to students, we still rank pretty much dead last in terms of math and science education amongst the industrialized countries. I think that fact by itself pretty much wipes out any arguments in favor of cramming our underfunded public schools full of gizmos.
If I were running a high school, I'd concentrate on making sure the kids learn basics. Like how to think. Deep thinking. Independent thinking. Creative thinking. Critical thinking. This can all be accomplished with pen and paper. Give these kids a solid foundation of how to use their brains and they'll be able to pick up application skills more quickly. I'd also ditch all the so-called "advanced" subjects that are all the rage in high schools these days. No more Psychology classes for high school juniors. No Film Studies. Philosophy might be useful since it teaches logic -- a skill missing from most people these days. Math. Science. English literature. History. That's all you need. If they need to do research, then they haul their lazy asses down to the public library. I'm sure some people will claim that there's a lot more information available on the internet than at the public library. The fact of the matter is that high school students aren't going to be doing research at such a deep level that they have to worry about limitations of their public library system.
I know my post isn't what you were looking for but I think these are things that anyone considering the role of technology in classrooms needs to keep in their minds. Learning isn't supposed to be a gimmick. Just use basic tools and work hard.
GMD
Re:Back to basics (Score:2)
Can you provide a reference to American schools having the "best technology and computer equipment"?
I work closely with a couple of school districts in Canada (who ranks in the top 10 WTR science and math), and they have a very LARGE contingent of computer and technology equipment - new computers, networks, etc - including wireless acce
What you're really supposed to learn in school (Score:2)
We've known for 100's of years that the way to teach science is to do science. The way to teach writing is have students write.
Instead, we warehouse kids. Schools solve the same problem as prisons, which is "how to you contain and control a population". The problem of how to develop thinking skills is a distant second or third.
Re:Back to basics (Score:2)
Some of us live in districts in which mantaining a well stocked library is not a primary concern of the town council. If a reasearch topic is something relatively new, there may not be any books on it. Then what?
Time to Pimp... (Score:2)
Co-nect tech product page [co-nect.net].
We usually work with 'failing schools' that qualify for some kind of government grant, although the tech product is ge
tablets (Score:1)
The idea is it's a monkey-in-space experiment. If the s
Re:tablets (Score:1)
I'm going to bring my wireless laptop and see if I can take advantage of the network.
Re:tablets (Score:1)
Religion as a core course... no wonder Catholic school screws kids up so horribly.
Re:tablets (Score:1)
Soph year is bible history.
Junior year is Social Justice, which is basically a preparation for Christian Service senior year, where you get to go out and do community service (hospitals, etc) instead of sitting in class. It's rather cool actually.
And senior year there's also a look at world religions and a spirituality in the arts class that discusses movies.
Re:tablets (Score:1)
Re:tablets (Score:2)
my current experience (Score:2, Interesting)
in this past year, i had 5 very different experiences for my teachers.
in statistics the teacher was very technology savvy, we use graphing calculators and he has written some very good demonstration programs for them, however, for some of the things that the graphing calculator cannot handle, there is a LCD screen in the room hooked up to a box on the net. This is one of the most useful tools in all of technology savvy teaching. he found some java applets on the net and used them for many class lectures.
Schools can take it too far too (Score:1)
Many of the teachers have laptops, but all you hear is minesweeper's beep coming from them every few minutes.
Some science teachers get us to do ppt presentations, but that's a 'treat'.
So, no our schools just waste money. The student pcs are about 155 mhz too...
A few stories... (Score:4, Interesting)
One of our more "Gifted" students used the netsend part of the command line as an impromptu messaging system and taught others to do the same. Then we found you could use a wildcard to send messages to every computer in the building. Then some genius started swearing over it. It was quickly shut down, but it made several of the staff very angry as their computers started swearing at them.
Teachers in comp labs should make sure all moniters are off before speaking. In my high school, the comp lab was set up so that the teacher's computer at the front could remotely control any of the other computers or moniters. My C++ teacher used it to turn off all the moniters, and had the immediate attention of everyone in the room when he did. My "computerized accounting" teacher didn't, and had to repeat directions over and over because people were fooling around while she was talking.
My world history teacher demands printed resources attached to all research papers. He then checks the resources against the paper to check for obvious signs of plagiarism. Yet he still catches people every time a paper is due. Many people figure the obvious solution is to copy a resource and not turn it in, but the teacher also checks against the resources of students doing the same topic. It still amazes me that people still get caught copying.
Don't use so-called "Distance Learning" unless you know exactly what you're getting into. While learning about the electromagnetic spectrum, we did a so-called "distance learning" whatsis with a couple of people who essentially turned out to be artists. They talked about things like the "color wheel," which had no bearing on what we were doing in class. Additionally, the other time we did "Distance Learning" we were constantly having technical difficulties, giving us sound but no image.
Re:A few stories... (Score:2)
1) Apple Remote Desktop - In one click a teacher can lock every screen in a lab and put an end to kids fooling around with AIM while he/she's talking to the class
2) The new iMacs. Recently a university I read about installed 100 new iMacs in a lab. When the professor wants to talk to the class he just tells everybody to "turn their monitors" and all the students rotate the displays 90 degrees. It's a clever and simple w
One thought (Score:2)
Re:One thought (Score:2)
Powerpoint (Score:2)
One of the most annoying attempts at using computer technology in the classroom that I have seen was in my "Usability Engineering" class last semester. The professor had written a textbook for the course, which we all had a copy of and were supposed to read. She then put together PowerPoint presentations on every chapter, which basically listed all the section headings from the book most of us had read. Then she printed out all the slides and gave them to us. And then she spent most of every class sessio
Remember that teaching is the goal, not technology (Score:4, Insightful)
That is something that needs to be done by someone who knows how to teach. This also means that simply installing new tech and showing the teachers how it works is not enough. Money has to be budgeted to provide real curriculum integration. Money to is needed to provide training, and to get the teachers to attend the training.
Unfortunately from what I've seen during this era of budget cuts, these integration inservices seem to be getting slashed early on. Worse yet, when they are offered, they are after hours and teachers aren't willing to attend... even for a stipend.
We have a very good tech infrastructure in our schools and a lot of tools that our teachers could use. Unfortunately only a handful know what's available, know how to use it, and know how to fit it into their curriculum correctly. The worst ones try to make the computer be a teacher instead of using it as just another tool.
I'd be interested in hearing what other schools have done about these training issues.
I'm in shape... "pear" is a shape, right?
Re:Remember that teaching is the goal, not technol (Score:2)
Only in the last 5 years, say, do we have teachers that can show others how to integrate the technology. And they are only effective if they can be allowed the time to teach without being hamstrung by hardware problem solving.
Near me is Gwinnett county schools. Each elementary has at least one integrator and one techie. Now, the integrators do help with troubleshooting, but for the most part, the two each do their appropriate mission.
Gwinnett is the excepti
why computers in school....? (Score:2, Insightful)
Recovering alcoholic drinking? (Score:2)
Sound to me like your 12-step plan is flawed...
Worst and Best (Score:3, Informative)
Best was a home-ec teacher who asked first the best approach to bring her class in for the first time. We explained about proper research, and that the Internet was just another tool for research, not a replacement for the library and other means. And also, that a teacher should do a few searches that they expect the students to do, so they can see for themselves what type of hits they'll be getting. So she came in with magazines and newspapers, and a paper typed up with good search words to use for the research, 3 links that she deemed worth looking into, and a requirement that one of their sources had to come from the library or one of the magazines she brought in. It was very well put together, and the students responded in good academic fashion, unlike the porn kids where it was utter chaos and embarassment.