-tictech message:
Thought I'd take a few minutes and share what's happening in technology at
our school so far this year.
We have recovered from having lost 9 of our 50 student levy Dells to bad
processors. They were replaced, and they seem to be fine so far. We still
have no idea what caused the problem.
Classroom teachers are much more comfortable with their computers this year.
Most everyone hooked up their own, made all the connections independently
(everybody has 5 in their classroom, and a printer). Several reactions of
"Huzzah, all on my own!!" were witnessed. Our U-Wired student wasn't back
until the 9th, so it was up to those who wanted their computers rolling to
get after it on their own. In retrospect, it was probably a good thing he
wasn't there.
Several are using their TV viewers - with good results, and with the same
pride in accomplishment, mastering something new.
Our lab is up and running again, with most classrooms signing up for a
couple of times a week, some for more. Teachers are on their own in the
lab. So, this is a big leap for some, but you can just feel the confidence
building.
Teachers are being pretty realistic about what they can accomplish and
manage with their computers right now, I think. The big challenge for most
is figuring out how to manage equitable access to their computers - so that
all kids have equal access, and so that they don't have to move to a
"stations" model for classroom instruction.
A technical horror story aside: had a teacher tell me after school today
about how a couple of her kids actually pushed floppies into the cd drive -
the lab has Compaq deskpros with the cd drive that you just slide the cd
into.... yikes. These kids weren't messing around, just an honest mistake.
This will keep our U-Wired guy busy for a while :)
My third graders, as always, have come in more tech savvy than the group
from last year - with the notable exception that they have no idea what to
do with a keyboard! They just started their first web assignment today, and
are writing on their computer twice a day (sloooowly).
Had a fun moment a couple of weeks ago, as I was helping a rookie teacher
get her classroom computers set up. I noticed she had brought in her own
hub from home so she could place the computers where she wanted. I
explained/showed her our home page on the net and our LAN version. Her
first question was, "So, what web authoring tools do we have here?" After I
recovered from the shock of having been asked this for the first time ever
(!), I helped her set up Netscape Composer, which she was real happy with.
The next day she had her classroom home page set up, with individual pages
for all her kids, all loaded on the right place on the server. I set up the
links on the school start page, and she was in business. She's right out of
the UW, and really cranking with the tech stuff in her second grade
classroom. Big smile here.
Would love to hear how it's going in other places - Mark
Mark Ahlness
mahlness@attbi.com
Arbor Heights Elementary
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Sep 16 2002 - 20:11:27 PDT