Chapter 10 Reflection

This chapter brought up some good statistics on North Carolina Schools in our first reading. It noted the statistics on technology/internet/computer use for the state of North Carolina being higher than the national average. I think that is wonderful, but I'm wondering if schools are reporting accurately.

I wonder this because in my classroom where I am doing my internship, we have 4 computers for the students that are online all the time. The teacher also has her computer that is also online all the time. There is also another computer in the room, which is not accessible to the students because it is my personal laptop. It is not online in the classroom. (Only when the mobile lab is there, then I get the wireless connection.) So 5 out of the 6 computers in our classroom can be used with our students. Our largest class is 25 students. We have 1 computer for every 5 students. We have used these computers for 1 week on 1 project thus far this year. Why have the computers in the classroom if we are not going to use it. I am wondering how many of the other classrooms in the North Carolina are expereincing the same thing.

The students do get a 6 week section of keyboarding during the school year. The school also uses programs like Study Island, but this is just an additional activity. It's not an integration of technology in the classroom.

I am very fortunate to be working with a teacher that went to a workshop with the Science House in Asheville over the summer. She is what the Science House calls a "Pioneer Teacher." This intitles her to the use of the Science House materials during 3 weeks through out the school year. This is wonderful for our students to be able to use this equipment. It is also wonderful to see this equipment being used.

So, computers are being used at my school, juts not the computers that are sitting in our classroom.