Technology Inventory

So unfortunately for the students in the class that I interviewed, technology is not being implemented in very effective or engaging ways.

I interviewed a second grade teacher at Farrer Elementary. In her classroom, there were 3 computers for student use, a laptop for the teacher, a TV, DVD player, VCR, and CD player, an overhead projector, and a microphone/audio enhancement for the classroom. Additionally, the school has two portable computer labs which contain enough laptops for each child and is wheeled into their classroom with the computer lab teacher every Tuesday and Thursday.

Although there is a fairly decent amount of technology available to these students, I still felt like the class was disadvantaged when it came to technology. I say this because it seems like the teacher only used technology to assess. They take math tests on the computer, literacy tests on the computer, reading comprehension tests on the computer, etc. As I talked to the teacher, it seemed like there wasn't anything done to enhance the learning or engagement of the students. Just assess, assess, assess. Hopefully this will not turn children off to technology in the future. The teacher said she also used technology in the class by using teacher websites to find ideas for lesson plans and to find more worksheets for extra practice.

One thing that the teacher did seem very excited about was the Prometheum boards that the school will be installing in each classroom soon. I'm not sure what a Smart Board is, but she said it's like that for any of you that are familiar with Smart Boards. Apparently it replaces one of the white boards in the classroom, it projects things from your computer, you can make presentations with it, you can also use a special pen to write on it so it's very interactive, you can type on it, or you can write on it and it will type out what you wrote, you can pull up pictures, information, flags, etc. with it. I didn't actually get to see a Prometheum Board but it sounds like a great technology. I would love to learn more about it and utilize it in my classroom!