Helpful Technology

After Chelsea's and Leah's Blogs on being unsure about using technology in the classroom, I think of my (mostly) positive experiences with technology right now at Room 9.  I agree with a lot of points made in the earlier posts, like that tech is always changing and that it is hard to keep up with, that older teachers seem weary about trying it, and that sometimes it does not work.

I have seen that technology can be a wonderful asset in the classroom... when used properly!  All the 6th-8th graders have their own laptops, except 2 because their parents:

A: won't sign the permission form or

 

B: don't have the the $ to pay for a case and the $50 deposit & they won't fill out the scholarship

form. 

These two students have a hard time keeping up with the other students because, although they have a laptop at school to use, they don't have one at home to do their homework on.  The other issue is that the laptops do not always come to school charged and students often forget their chargers at home.  These two problems are really the only issues I have with using laptops in middle school.  How can we ensure that all students have access to laptops and that they come to school fully charged?

Beyond those minimal setbacks I have seen wonderful use of laptops in school.  The students use laptops in every subject: science (national geographic online), art (research), literature (TeenBiz), and  math (online math games).  I feel that the use of laptops enhances the learning and the students love to use them!

My master teacher told me that he spends A LOT of time in the beginning of the year investing on teaching the students to use computer programs, but that it pays off later when he can do really cool projects.  He also uses the the digital projector for more than just projecting.  He takes pictures of the students and saves his work to make changes on.