Technology and Diversity

The issue of technology and diversity can be thought of in different ways. I initially took it to mean diversity amongst special education students. Since that is what I teach that was the first thing that came to mind. On the other hand I work in a school that has a very mixed ethnic population so it could be useful for many.

I think that technology be a great tool to help diverse populations. There are programs available that can help students learn different languages, academic skill practice and even assistive technology devices. After doing a search on technology and diversity on the Internet I found that technology does have potential for all students but it isn't always utilized.

I found that there are some issues that should be thought about when considering what types of technology to use and what groups to use it with. One of the key issues is to make sure that these students have equal access. Often students that are unfamiliar with technology may shy away. Without encouragement and help these students may not feel comfortable which could impede their comfort and skill level. Another issue is that technology is often geared towards test-taking practice skills due to the high stakes of standardized testing such as the CRCT and ITBS in Georgia. Using technology to practice test-taking skills limits there use and provides a narrow focus. You also need to be aware of cultural issues. Some cultures focus on family and interdependence. Technology make create independence which is not as acceptable. Other cultures may not favor girls becoming as technology literate as their male counterparts.

Relating technology to the special needs population. Many students can use technology that is available to their peers. It is important to create expectations for these students and to not just assume that they can't do something. I also found and have used assistive technology devices. Many of these types of devices enable students to communicate or responds in ways that weren't available years ago. It is important to utilize these devices and make sure that they stay in working order. It may also be a good idea to show all of the general education students what the device is, what it does and why it is used. That will create more acceptance.

On a final note. When I first started teaching in 1992 they were just beginning to talk about cochlear implants. (If you don't know what that it I'll give a quick explanation. A student that receives a cochlear implant has to have invasive surgery. Wires with up to 24 electrodes are would through the cochlea. There is an internal part and an external processor that takes speech sounds and turns them into electrical signals and sends them to the brain.) Students either were oral or deaf. If you could hear you learned speech and if you couldn't hear you learned sign language. Now almost 20 years later that is no longer true. I have had numerous deaf students in my program that are learning oral language due to having a cochlear implant. Being able to communicate orally completely changes their future. This technological invention has made a major impact if the Deaf world.

Electronic books

I’m not sure why I am so sad about the prospect of e-books. I can certainly see why they are convenient. They are easily portable, don’t take up much space, are instantly available and you can carry multiple books in your e-book reader at once. My current school (elementary level) uses on-line encyclopedias, but has print versions as well. I like Christopher Harris’ thought that children born now will be “bilingual” in that they will be able to read print books and e-books equally well, although I’m thinking as the cost comes down for e-book readers, technology will win out. While walking through a high school recently, I couldn’t help but notice the number of students with mp3 players attached to their ears. I can see where electronic media may encourage students to at least listen to books (or textbooks?) if they could upload the information to their iPod or mp3 player. The John Green article mentions e-books that include videos in place of illustrations. This seems to be a natural progression for e-books, but as a result, will this create generations of children with ADD and no imagination? David Lankes makes an argument for e-books and e-readers as a social activity. He points out several advantages to e-books: how they can evolve to encourage virtual book clubs and real time discussion. This could be used in schools also, possibly in a rural area so students can connect with others reading the same material and discuss it through their iPads. For now, I see the cost of obtaining e-books and e-readers and replacing lost or damaged ones as cost prohibitive for most school systems. I have recently heard, though, that Davis Academy is aspiring to provide ALL their students with an iPad! For me…I still want to walk into a book store or library and smell the books and feel their weight and touch the paper, but I’m sure I will eventually come around. Maybe.

Here's a story...of a lovely lady

Since my 10 years of experience in education have been with preschool students, I have had a limited amount of opportunities to work with the technologies that are popular in schools. Digital storytelling is one of the technologies that I am most excited about using in my future job as a media specialist. The textbook promotes digital story telling as a way to connect the story teller and his or her audience emotionally. It states that the combination of video, still shots, music and the story teller’s voice brings great meaning to the story. Digital stories can be used to represent student knowledge in science, social studies and language arts. Having students create a digital story gets them more involved in learning and helps them retain the information longer because it becomes more personal meaningful to them. Digital stories can be shown by a media specialist to reinforce a classroom lesson, or the media specialist could lead a multi-week project on teaching students how to make a digital story and having them create one (possibly in teams) and present it at the end of the unit. Having students create a digital story taps into higher forms of thinking such as analyzing, synthesizing material and developing and expressing their own opinions. The University of Houston’s Digital Storytelling web site points out that digital story telling can accomplish cross-curricular objectives. In teaching students how to create a digital story, you are teaching “library” skills such as research, writing, technology use, and proper use of citations along with the subject content. There is an incredibly comprehensive amount of information on copyright on the website. It has multiple articles on the legal ramifications and fair use. There is also information on where to obtain copyright free music and other resources. If you haven’t looked at this link that was provided on the digital storytelling website yet, check it out. It has a fantastic and easy to understand visual representation of the 7 elements of digital storytelling. I am thinking about making a poster out of it so the students can refer to it as they work on their digital stories. http://www.jakesonline.org/seven_elements.pdf

Technology Training at Kell HS... Trainees Wanted

At Kell High School in Cobb County, the staff's knowledge in technology varies widely. Some teachers are very skilled with technology, often becoming early adopters of the latest and great technical instructional tools. Others, however, are quite the opposite, and instead view technology as a hindrance to their teaching. In fact, a few teachers at Kell either refuse to use email or do not know how to use email and will call another teacher to have him/her send an email on their behalf. According to the technology specialist "IT guy" who spends some of his time at Kell, the ability levels seem to coincide with age. The younger teachers are more technologically advanced and more willing to learn new technology while the older teachers are often technologically inept and afraid of experimenting with technology.

And it's not because Kell High School/Cobb County doesn't try to train teachers on technology. Just recently, during an early release day, all teachers were required to attend a one-hour training session on using iRespond units since it was mandated that all teachers use the response systems for check-point tests for EOCT (end of course test) classes. One teacher I talked to said that the technology training did not provide very adequate explanation of how to use the systems and he left still very confused. Being a younger teacher, he basically taught himself how to use the systems since he was required to use them for a check-point test. He said that he had to go help many other teachers who were struggling to set-up the systems even though they attended the training session.

While this training course required attendance of all teachers, the majority of technology training sessions are optional and available throughout the day for the teachers to attend during their planning periods. The teachers I talked to about this topic said they rarely, if ever, attend these optional training classes (which are typically offered by the county and not the media specialists) because they have more important things to do during their planning time. It's during their planning that they try to grade papers, respond to parent's inquiries/concerns, and plan for upcoming days. Rarely, do they feel they can justify spending time on technology. As one teacher said "Even if I do attend the class, if I don't work with that technology immediately, I will forget it by the time I have a free hour to try out the technology on my own."

The Kell High School media specialists have some "tech tips" available on the school drive, such as how to use the LCD panel and importing images to PowerPoint, but at this time they are not sure how often the "tips" are used and if they adequately fulfill the goal of aiding teachers in learning technology.

Through my field experience and questioning of teachers, there always seems to be one common theme when it comes to technology - lack of time. Teachers are burdened with so many tasks in so little time that they feel overwhelmed if they try to also add technology to that "to do" list. One way I think to overcome this is to allow for multi-tasking during training sessions. Perhaps the trainer can offer free lunch as an incentive or allow teachers to bring lunch so they can sit through a "lunch-n-learn". This way, teachers using their lunch period to do what they normally do, eat lunch, but while learning new and exciting things. Also, if the trainer advertises the training session so that potential attendees learn that they could save time by learning this new technology, I think attendance to technology training would increase dramatically.

Technology Training...At My School????

Back in the olden days we used to have a Teacher Technology Specialist (TTS) who provided training. I know because I was that person. I got a monthly stipend to serve as a support person to the rest of the teachers and to provide technology training. Sounds great right? Well it was...until the county stopped doing that. Years ago DeKalb paid a para to do technology. They decided to make them become A+ certified and they also got pay raises and became known as Technology Support Specialists (TSS). That was great for them because keeping up and maintaining the technology has become harder and so they should be paid more. Unfortunately that meant they cut out the teacher TTS. They know have the TSS sharing schools so that she is only at our school two days a week.

Since then there really hasn't been a lot of technology training within my actual school building. The media specialists didn't know how to use the technology and the TSS didn't have the technology training knowledge. There have been a few times where a person has come from the Technology department to give a quick training on how to use the Smartboard and how to use the iMac computers. One hour for each really doesn't do it in my opinion.

We have a new media specialist this year that came from a high school so she does have a lot of technology knowledge but since the county cut out all media clerks she has had very little time to do anything extra.

My county does provide training in order to earn PLU's in order to keep your teaching certificate up. I went last year and attended a class on how to use Smartboard's. My county has technology staff that mainly do tech training classes that are available to all of the teachers in the county. I learned a lot from the class however since I have minimal access to Smartboards I've forgotten a lot of what I learned.

I like the idea of having technology people train us because they consistently do it and so they are knowledgeable and efficient when training you. You have to commit to attend all of the classes in order to earn the PLU credit. What I don't like is that when you are back at your own school and experiencing a problem that person isn't right there to help you. Instead you have to email them and wait for their response. They will come out and help you also but again this doesn't really help when you need them right then and there.

There are a few teachers that use technology often so they typically are the ones that everyone seeks out. This can get kind of stressful for them because they are supposed to teach their classes and then troubleshoot for others. It can become time-consuming and frustrating in some instances.

I think that I have learned a few ways to help make this easier on teachers. The idea of creating Tech Tips is a perfect way to have some handy tips readily available to teachers. If they are in a Word document or PDF teachers can print them off and follow them step-by-step. Another great idea would be to make a video or podcast showing the directions visually. I think that if I had a visual refresher I would quickly remember some of what I learned about Smartboards from last year. I would have a Teacher link posted on my media center website so that teachers could pull up the suggested help tutorials whenever they need them.

I used Disney clip art-so sue me!

The Copyright Act is taped over our copy machine at school right at eye level. Teachers see it multiple times per day as they make copies or walk through the work room. It is the media specialist’s responsibility to try to enforce it. I believe that most people at the school are not aware of what the Copyright Act entails and are not aware of Fair Use, either, but have no interest in learning about it. Most teachers believe that they will never be tracked down for copying images off web sites and using them for newsletters or lessons or for making a zillion copies from a textbook, or even keeping videos recorded from TV longer than 10 days. Before I started the media program, I remember a school event where the media specialist developed and played a slide show to a Sarah MacLachlan song. THE WHOLE SONG. I bet she didn’t even ask Sarah’s permission, and yet she was never sued or thrown in jail. It was the end of the school year, and the slide show was of fifth grade students at various times throughout the year. The song was “I will remember you”. Parents of fifth grade students were invited to the event as well. After beginning this program, I remember a professor tell us that instead of using licensed popular songs for events like these, we should use music that was specifically created for these events and was available on the internet for free. She gave us a couple web sites to check out. I went to the site and listened to the music, and let me tell you, no fifth grader I know would be moved to tears by listening to that music while watching pictures of themselves with all their buddies since Kindergarten. I think the point is that we should be respectful of other people’s property, but not to the point where we deny our students the education and emotion that popular media can evoke.

Video Distribution Systems at McCleskey Middle School

McCleskey Middle School in Cobb County has a video distribution system, however, it has been malfunctioning for the last two weeks due to a lightning strike. When operable, there are two components of the video distribution “headend” unit. One side connects to the school’s Comcast cable receiver and displays cable television up to channel 13, while the other side plays DVDs or videos. Because the school does not currently offer school news or subscribe to ChannelOne, the video distribution system is mainly used for cable as well as PeachStar and GPB Digital Education programs. The teachers at McCleskey Middle School do not have much input into the video distribution system other than submitting requests to the media specialist to have certain DVDs, videos, or programming played through the closed circuit cable system.

Cobb County is technologically advanced compared to some other school districts in Georgia, and as a result, the Video Distribution System is not currently utilized as much as it was in the past. For instance, each room is equipped with a DVD/VCR player so teachers can play DVDs and videos whenever they desire. Each room also has an LCD projector that can connect to the teacher’s laptop, so teachers use on-demand Discovery, PBS and other GPB United Streaming educational videos via the internet rather than contact the media specialist for assistance. When Comcast moved from analog cable signals to a computer-based digital video system in 2009, McCleskey lost many of its channels and decided not to pay to receive more channels. Currently, the signals only go up to channel 13, therefore, denying access to important channels like The Weather Channel and PBS. According to the media specialist, the video distribution system is only used when videos and programming needs to be broadcasted to multiple classrooms at one time.

I believe on-demand streaming is going to quickly become mainstream in all schools. This new technology allows so much more customization for each classroom and allows the teacher to play educational videos on his/her own schedule. If the teacher wants to play 10 minutes of one GPB program and then immediately follow it with 30 minutes of another, he/she can do so with digital streaming because it offers so much more flexibility.