Hi! Jaspar Here.
One Thursday, I was at my practicum school. My SA was busy, and so a guest teacher was in for the day. There was an inquiry block time set aside where students would do online research for their chosen country culture assignment. Before the time, me and the guest teacher went to find the Chromebook laptop cart and made good our request made earlier to borrow it at the proper time. We checked the cart’s contents, plugs, and left.
When the inquiry block came, I wheeled the cart in, plugged it in, and handed out the laptops. Right away, students reported problems such as computers not turning on, not connecting to the internet, missing software or even hardware. A small group of students had perfectly functioning laptops, and they had to share with usually one and sometimes more classmates. This disparity of assess even within the classroom created an environment of frustration for some, but others, particularly lower-level students, enjoyed being part of a group and having the expectations shared among many people.
Part of this problem, I theorize, is because laptops were seldom used tools in our class and here were taking the place of a visit to a large, well-stocked library. Weston, M. E., & Bain, A. (2010) argue that technology needs to become a cognitive tool that is built into the very foundation of school communities. They argue that questions of whether to use that technology should be met with puzzlement because the technology is so ingrained that not using it would be unthinkable, like pencils and paper are today. So, my class’ problem was that the laptops were still taking the place of something instead of encouraging new formulations, and students had not learned basic internet connection strategies and were not comfortable trouble-shooting other basic software problems.
Next time, I would prepare to be more knowledgeable to show students how to solve basic software problems so that they can troubleshoot themselves, and also spend more time checking out the hardware/software beforehand. That said, I can see why some teachers don’t like engaging with tech. The promise of turning on, connecting to the internet, making sure the proper plug is in the laptop for 24+ different laptops is daunting.
Thanks for reading!
Also, please complete the one question poll about tech usage in your classrooms!
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