Kyle Brumbaugh, who is the education technology coordinator at Presentation High School, makes a convincing case for moving toward increasing our use of a one-to-one approach. At his school, each student is provided with an Apple IOS, and they are able to experience nearly seamless integration of technology at his school site. It should be noted, however, that Presentation is a well-funded private school, so it has resources that one might not expect to find in a standard public school site. However, if money was not an object, his approach would undoubtedly be effective. His ideas for the use of technology lessons sounded like fun and exciting opportunities to adapt in all subject areas.
As a future teacher, I am intrigued by the SAMR model that he discussed. The acronym stands for substitution, augmentation, modification, and redefinition. It represents a process by which the use of technology in the classroom will slowly become a natural, standard practice. It will take many years before all teachers reach the "redefinition" stage, since not everyone agrees to what extent classrooms should utilize technology, and few resources exist. I like to believe that I will be able to function, as well as enjoy, a highly technology-integrated classroom. However, I have a feeling that it will take a great deal of change and paradigm-shifting at the institutional level, not just the classroom teacher level.
Eventually, in a perfect world, each state will make it mandatory to provide enough funds to schools for devices, training, on-going support and maintenance, etc. for schools to completely get on board with technology. It would be ideal to have a device for each student in the classroom. Most schools today do not have this option. Today, if a teacher wants to have students work on a "technology" project, she or he must reserve the computer lab for each one of their five or more class periods. Then, students must be prepared to work on the project quickly during the allotted time only, and return to class. The only alternative would be to have them work on it at home, but this opens up the opportunity for plagiarism, not to mention that not all students have access at home. Additionally, many, if not most, schools do not allow students to "bring their own devices" into the classroom, because they do not want to create regulations and enforcement for their use, and many students cannot afford them. For example, in most high schools, students' phones are confiscated and sent to the office if they are used for any reason during class. This certainly makes it challenging for teachers who try to "integrate technology" during class. The few teachers who are lucky enough to have a SMART Board in their classroom rarely use them, since the schools provide very little training. About a decade ago, Apple provided laptops to a few schools that were accepted for grants, but these machines are now outdated and do not support the latest and greatest content that would be useful, so these are mainly used for word-processing to type standards-based essays.
For most schools, the bring-your-own-device method seems like the only option, as long as schools are willing to provide devices to students who cannot afford them, and to provide the appropriate regulations and training for their use. I am looking forward to trying out different methods of using technology, and I am hopeful that schools will continue to seek solutions to these issues.
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