What curriculum needs could tech help with?
What areas of curriculum work could be aided by the use of technology? What kind of tech would help?
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Seems to me that all areas could be aided, hope to hear from many people how technology can help in their specific areas!
I think we are behind in the area of technology. Have we looked at other districts in the county to see what they are using? I’d be happy to help.
We are definitely behind in many areas of technology and peopl like Bob Wilkinson are visiting other districts to see what they are doing. The problem is that money is going to be an issue for the foreseeable future. We can buy hardware with bond money (assuming a bond gets approved). However, software and support comes out of regular operating budgets. So it’s important to try and determine what areas will really be helpful in teaching the kids and allowing faculty and staff to be more productive and spend the money there. If you have some specific things you would like to see please share and let’s get some dialog going here.
I would love to use more tech in classes. If I had a Mac or two, I’d teach the kids to edit video using I-movie.
And, I would like the tech to make pod-casts. A nice mic, simple mixer, or a Mac w/ a mic & garage band.
I know it can be done w/PCs, but with Macs – I’ve seen 2nd and 3rd graders make & edit video. Sooooooo easy and nice and non-aggravating.
Karen
“Better Technology” is not just about having different stuff. It is not I need a Apple. It is not I need Windows. It is not I need Linux to do x, y, or z. We don’t come close to using what we currently have effectively. Replacing it with bigger, better, brighter, spoofier things won’t have much impact on anything.
Like in real-estate its’ all about the software, software, software. Sure the harware has an impact but as it relates to computers “better technology” is about skillful and effective use of software. “Better technology” is about raising the skills of the user. Just putting a new computer in front of everyone will have close to zero impact.
Cliff has an excellent point. We will best serve our students if we teach them generic processes – word processing, spread sheets, data bases, etc. I can “google” something on any computer.
A popular claim is that Windows is what is used in the “real world” so we should use it in schools. If we teach students correctly, it won’t matter what platform they encounter in the “real world”.
On a personal note, I have been working on a MacBook for about two weeks, and am amazed at how it helps me be more efficient. This does not mean the IBMs at work are bad, in fact I am quite comfortable working on them. I do believe, however, that, if we can do it with existing staff, that staff should have a choice of MAC or Windows and laptop or desktop. Our goal is to do what is best for kids, and happy teachers (working on a machine they are most comfortable with) are best for students. We have time to thoroughly discuss this before we need to make platform decisions, but we must realize that most of us are going to be taking on more work and we need the techonology that will help make us the most productive.
The only issue then comes later on with compatibility issues when teachers start sharing files. There are ways around it, but it could also lead to a big headache…
File compatibility is really not an issue anymore, since there are standard formats that work across all platforms and multiple applications. For example all major office programs such as MS office, OpenOffice, iWork and Google Docs and Spreadsheets can read and write ms office formats. Any image editing program can handle jpeg, tiff, gif and other image formats. Audio files in mp3 or wav can play on any platform. Video files in mpeg or quicktime formats are universal. As long as people refrain from using any proprietary formats like WMA or WMV windows media files that are created for no other reason than to lock in users, file transfers are a non-issue. I have both Apple and windows machines in my home and we share audio, video, photo and text files across them all the time with no issues
A lot of people don’t understand that. I think part of what we need to be looking at when we are thinking about technology is training to make the most out of that technology. The classes that are offered to staff and faculty are wonderful, but not many take advantage of them… I don’t think many people realize what the capabilities of what they have at their disposal.
The issue of training is actually probably more important than whatever new technology we may get if a bond passes. Without training and support, the hardware and software are useless to most people. I agree that most teachers aren’t even aware of what they can do today, and I’m trying to do something about that. I’ve written about and would like to offer some classes to teachers to make them aware of what they can do with the technology we have today. Their are many wonderful free and open source software programs to do cool stuff that they just need to be introduced to. A great place to start would be giving everyone in the district a copy of the Open Cd, which includes great collection of free programs to run on windows and is also an Ubuntu linux live cd so that you can try that out. Another option is the OSSWIN cd.