A Teacher’s Take on Technology
Interviewing a teacher to find out what technologies they use in the classroom as well as what technology is available to them in their particular school is a good way of getting an idea of what the trends are educational technology today. I chose to interview a teacher in Lawrence, Kansas who teaches at an elementary school that is in the Lawrence school district, but that is geographically in a rural setting. This School has been in existence for around 30 years and therefore has had to continuously evolve the technology in the school itself. By no means is this school at the forefront of educational technology, but they are neither lacking of nor denying their students of modern technology.
When asked what technology is available in her classroom the teacher I interviewed responded with a predictable answer. She stated that her room had a computer at her desk for personal use and that there was a projector mounted to the ceiling. These were the only two physical pieces of technology equipment in her room. It surprised me that there were no computers in the classroom for student use, but the teacher said that “there is a computer lab available for use and since this school is fairly small using the lab is convenient.” There is also a laptop cart with 30 laptops available for use when scheduled for ahead of time and it is more popular than the computer lab because the students do not have to leave their homeroom.
This teacher I interviewed had been teaching for over 30 years and was adamant in saying that “even though this classroom is not cutting edge it is way ahead of classrooms of yester year.” She said that just being able to e-mail from her desk was a huge step forward in communication and materials sharing from the days of inter-school mail that “took a whole day to get.” Even though she has done a fair amount of adapting to technology this teacher felt that there would be a changing of the guard when the next generation of teachers arrives in schools and brings more technology with them. She also felt that schools would be adopting more varying technologies as the prices of them fall. This teacher had a positive view of technology and even though the technology she used did not surprise me I was very pleased with her outlook on the future.
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