Technology in the Classroom

May 12, 2014

I had the pleasure of observing and interviewing the reading/writing specialist, Mrs. Colby, within the elementary school I work in.  Unfortunately, my school does not have a lot of technology to work with due to most of the technology available to us being 8+ years old.  We have a cart of old Mac Books that teachers are able to sign up to use when they want and we have numerous versions of the iMac around the school.  Toward the end of this past school year (2012-2013 year) Mrs. Colby was able to get the school a cart of Chromebooks which has been wonderful.  

                       

With the addition of the cart of Chromebooks to the school the teachers and students have been taking full advantage of them.  Mrs. Colby said that the cart of Mac Books was constantly giving the teachers problems because they were slow and did not always want to turn on for the students or logon to the internet.  With the Chromebooks they turn right on and connect to the internet without issue and each student in the school has a student Gmail account.  With this cart the teachers are able to sign up for time to use it.  It was stated that each teacher uses them within the classroom at least once a week for activities such as word processing, research, and internet based programs such as Reading Plus and Study Island.

 

For this assignment I was able to observe a third grade classroom working on Reading Plus.  Mrs. Colby explained that Reading Plus is a program for students in grades three and up.  At this point in the school year all the students were able to easily take out the computers and turn them on, on their own.  Each student has their own login information to access this website and it keeps track of their progress as they work through it. 

During my observation I was able to see a range of students at different ability levels accessing this program; they all really seemed to enjoy it!  Many of the students were completely independent in using the program and there were some students that had a lot of questions.  With the students who had questions Mrs. Colby was always right there to help out while at the same time encouraging them to try on their own first.  I asked Mrs. Colby if she feels this program has been beneficial to the students and she couldn't say any more positive things about how it has allowed students to work on their independent reading skills while also developing their reading efficiency, fluency, motivation and foundation.  The students were all completely engaged in what they were doing and you could tell that they were also learning a lot during this time using technology. 

 

During this observation it made me wish that the program started at a younger grade, as I work with first graders and it doesn't start until third grade.  Also, I work with children on the Autism Spectrum and for my students who are more academic I feel that it would be a great way for them to work on their reading skills.  Though my students day looks a lot different than the regular education students day looks, because it is very individualized to each of their specific needs, once the students are in the grade that these different programs start Mrs. Colby is always sure to set up accounts for them so that they have access as well.  It was nice getting to see what types of things the students in my school are working on, when they use technology, because I don't get to see a lot of it working in such a specialized program as the Autism Support Program.  

Interview with Mrs. Colby:

How often do you use technology in the classroom?

·         at least once a week

·         some teachers use them multiple times a week depending on what they are working on in class

What obstacles do you run into when trying to use technology in the classroom?

·         with the old computers they constantly give us issues

·         they are slow and have a tough time connecting to the internet consistently

What is your plan if the technology does not work as you expect it to?

·         thankfully we now have the Chromebooks which do not cause us any issues so far

·         before the Chromebooks if the technology wasn't working sometimes we had no choice but to put it all away and try again tomorrow

·         the classroom teachers are great and always had an alternative activity ready when this happened

What types of technology do you use in your classroom and why?

·         computers and overhead projectors are the most commonly used technology within the school

Do all of the teachers in your school use technology at the same level?

·         No, some are more comfortable using it than others

·         due to the large population of special ed students within the school technology is used at all different levels throughout the school