I received the following thoughts from a principal on one of email lists this morning. Thought there was some great food for thought as we plan Esperanza's technology.
Not that I’m ancient, but I taught elementary school in the mid-90’s when computers were not in the classroom. Within a couple of years, I received four new computers through a district grant. All the elementary school classrooms were provided the same number of computers, whether teachers were going to use them or not. Many times, the computers went untouched in those classrooms, because contrary to popular belief, not all teachers were going to gravitate to them and they certainly weren’t going to allow their students to turn them on. If they weren’t being used as a decorative classroom item, they were being used as a reward for those students who finished seatwork early.
As life went on, it became popular for schools to have computer labs. I had a classroom next to the lab and although teachers had designated time to use it, they very often never went to the lab with their students. Unfortunately, when teachers did use the lab, it was to allow students to play games. I watched as very few teachers interacted with students.
In the school where I am a principal we do not have a computer lab. We opted out of having one in favor of having five computers in each classroom. Teachers are able to use the computers for center-based learning. Over the past couple of years the district has invested in Smartboards for each classroom and we have also invested in netbooks for grade levels so that more students can use technology at the same time. Technology shouldn’t be a place where students go, it should be a tool/resource that they use naturally every day, so we try to make it as accessible as possible.
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