I have returned home for thanksgiving and it has given me a chance to reflect on the state of technology inclusion for our students. As I write this I am working on my sister’s new laptop because my computer is back in Rochester and my parents computer has been taken in to upgrade the RAM thus leaving me without a computer. I nearly fell apart. Every assignment I had been given required me to work on a computer at the least and normally included some need for an internet connection. However, for the beginning section of the break I was out of luck. Now I am scrambling to finish assignments that I should have been able to start much earlier.
I happened to be writing lesson plans for my Art Ed class this break and as I was writing them I realized that I just assumed my students would have access to computer and internet technology and that my classroom would have the presentation technology i had become accustom to at Nazareth. If nothing else this break has cemented for me that this might not be true. Going to Naz has given me a false sense of technology inclusion in classrooms. Especially in this Ed tech class, we work with best practice/ best technology and I have had a reality check that this will probably not be the norm where ever I end up teaching. This is not to say that we aren’t also presented with back up tech solutions it is just that I worry that I will get into the world and require things of my students that they can’t complete but might be too shy or embarrassed to tell me about. While I am not about to give up all technology, I think it is important to think about as I teach.
Welcome to the real world, Rachel. They don’t call it an “ivory tower” for no reason. Teacher preparation is so hard for this very reason… there is indeed an extremely high degree of variability out there,… in your students, their families, their experiences, the facilities, the administration, the materials, your colleagues, … When you think about it, technology may be the least of the hurdles you will have to deal with. But then again, don’t think from a deficit model. There are many schools that have as much technology or more than Nazareth College – and that poses a whole set of other challenges. So, yes, all of this is important to think about and ever situation is unique. My advice in all of this is be the change you want to see and experience wherever you go. Carry your glass half full rather than half empty. It rubs off on everyone
By: Stephen Ransom on December 6, 2009
at 8:29 pm