This is my fifth consecutive year as an elementary school teacher. The first two years I taught in central Florida in a very large county. Every classroom in our school was equipped with a SmartBoard, projector, document camera, and at least four student computers. In addition, each teacher was given their own laptop. These laptops could be used at school, at professional development meetings and at home or anywhere it was needed. Our school also had a student response system that we could check out and use.
Currently I am teaching at a school in a smaller county in Virginia. Each classroom still has a SmartBoard and projector, but I have only seen one document camera in the entire school, and one student response system. In addition to our student computer lab, we have a class set of laptops for student use in the classrooms, an iPod cart with learning applications, and a couple of iPads that the teachers can check out and use at school.
Comparing these two schools it would appear that on one level there may be a barrier related to funding. I also believe that another barrier may be the willingness of some teachers to learn the technologies. Teachers sometimes feel as though they have so much to do already with the demand of testing and paperwork so finding the time to learn something new that is not required gets put on the back burner.
I do not believe that there is always just one barrier. Sometimes the funding is there but not the participation.
Alisha,
ReplyDeleteIt is very difficult to adjust to having little technology after having so much available. I've been in this situation, too. I went from having a district laptop issued for my use to having a loaner laptop I couldn't take home with me. I went to another district in the same state with many fewer technology resources. However, I am glad to note that I encouraged our administration to invest in technology. Before I left that district, they had mounted SmartBoards in all of my school's classrooms and were working to mount projectors in all classrooms.
I transferred to a district that had built new schools with projectors and Promethean boards in all classrooms, and I was issued a laptop to use at school, home, and so forth. I was overjoyed! Sadly, many teachers were not using the resources to the fullest. Some used them to post assignments rather than allowing students to interact with the technology.
I agree that teachers often feel overwhelmed with paperwork and other duties that they don't have the time to learn something on their own. Even with training, it's sometimes a challenge to lure teachers into trying new technology.