Teaching at the High school level, the digital natives are in my classroom now. One of the main things we struggle with at our school is the use of cell phones in the classroom. Being a CTE teacher, and having the opportunity to teach classes such as Computer Applications and Digital
Communications integrating technology into the classroom has not been a problem. Furthermore, this year our principle is pushing us to use the school website more for our classroom announcements. Our website has some very useful tools that I have been using in my classes. Things such as the forum page where students can log on to a page that is similar to blackboard. I have found this useful for classroom discussions. It also has a document manager tool that allows you to download documents so that they can view them on the computer instead of having to print things as handouts. I have computers in my classroom so that gives me the opportunity to do more of these kinds of things than other teachers. What I would like to do as an administrator is put a mini laptop in the hands of every high school student. This would allow us to get rid of books. I would like to be able to download the book on their computer, test on the computer, and have students do assignments all on the computer. Since it is a tool that most students have used once they get to the high school level I think the students would adapt easily to these changes. However, I believe that money, or lack thereof, is a major hurdle to doing this. It bothers me that our government has money to bail out all these companies but cannot find the resources to do these types of things. I am a big believer of changing the way we deliver information, but I also realize we need the hardware and software to help us reach these students on a new level.
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Chris, what changes do you see as being necessary to change the way we test "digital natives"? Are we going to continue to use paper and pencil tests or do you see them being tested by electronic means?
ReplyDeleteChris,
ReplyDeleteI like the idea about a laptop for every student. It is time we change the classroom as it looks the same as 50 years ago. With mini laptops costing under $300.00 we could greatly reduce paper cost. Blackboard is utilized for a reason, and test can be automatically graded which is a great time saver for teachers and a great reduction in the use of paper. As for Dr. Floyd's comment, I would like to see paper and pencil test get replaced by electronic means. I am surprised after being away from teaching for 14 years that we still use so much paper in today's electronic world. Our copiers never quit running. Good to have a CTE teacher to learn from this class.
I think it's a shame we do not already test by electroninc means. Public schools are way behing in this technology. When I took the MAT las winter it was on the computer. I remember taking an exam for an insurance adjusters license over 15 years ago that was computer based. My question is why have public schools not adopted this technology?Is it lack of money, computers or both?
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