Earlier this semester we were asked to look into the
technology available at our placement schools. Perhaps it was because my mentor
teacher is extremely tech savvy and likes to integrate technology in the class
as much as possible, but I was unsurprised by the results. Well, I was
surprised about one question in particular but I’ll talk about that in a little
bit.
As a Journalism class (one block focusing on print and one
block focusing on the web-based newspaper) we spend a lot of time using
technology. Students spend the majority of the class on brand new Mac
computers, editing using InDesign and other tools I’m not quite familiar with.
The students use cameras, video cameras, and recording devices (cellphones or
iPods) to add auditory elements to their articles and so that they can record
their interviews. Needless to say technology is a huge part of our class, all
of these tools are available to us every class period. Students can also rent
or checkout cameras from my mentor teacher for use when they’re not in class.
However (there’s always a however) the majority of these
resources aren’t available to students when they’re not in class. The computer
lab is locked at all times (teachers are the only ones able to unlock it) so
students don’t have access to printing or working on the computer during their
free times. The aspect that I was surprised about was actually brought to my
attention by some of the students and I mentioned this on the tech tools in use
survey, the library at the school is not “open” during hours that the students
feel would be most beneficial to them. I’m not as familiar as I should be with
the structure and hours of the library but if the students have felt the change
in its availability then I must tend to agree.
Overall, completing this tech survey was useful. I do wish that
I could have heard from classmates in other schools to see what the
availability was, how much they use technology, and how they think they could
implement it. It would have been interesting comparing our different
experiences.
Gosh, that sounds like such a lovely environment for your kids. Such great tools! Being at an arts school, our kids have some amazing resources too, including a fully operational radio station, video/audio editing booths, a TV filming/editing suite (with green screen!), a huge new theater with extensive lighting and audio systems, and so on. I frequently see students traveling around the school with still and video cameras, working on assignments for their arts classes. There are also carts of netbooks in every classroom. The caveat there is that it's difficult to get them all to work, and they're not very powerful. We have yet to leverage the netbooks in our class, which I think is a shame.
ReplyDeleteThe library hours is a really interesting and valid point. Do you know if the kids meant after/before school or were they talking about times during the school day? It would be odd if the library closed during the day! In general, I think it's so important to allow kids to have access to such resources outside of normal class hours. At my school, many kids don't have printers at home, and they don't have free periods during the day, so we often have kids asking if they can go print their assignment when they arrive in class. I *think* students can print in the library, but the time issue makes that difficult sometimes. I'm struggling with how to solve this one myself...
I agree that it would have been great to have class time to talk about this topic!
Reading your post, Catherine, I wondered whether the issue was that the idea of staffing the library at the optimal times for the students hadn't fully occurred to the school administrators, or whether the issue was a staffing issue (limited amount of time during which a school librarian or media specialist was available).
ReplyDeleteIn far too many places, these days, the issue is the latter one.