SUMMARY
eLearning Pilot Teacher Feedback
March 2004
How can laptops and projectors for teachers and students change the way we instruct?
How would laptops and projectors for teachers change
the way we instruct if our students didn’t have laptops?
What are some of the ways you have or will integrate
technology this year?
What are the greatest challenges you have faced this
year?
What were some of the best success stories?
¨ Technology that is used on a daily basis in the classroom . . . students ACTIVELY engaged in their work . . . willing to work independently.
¨ Allowing students to have control . . . student centered with teacher as facilitator.
¨ Students excited about their product, their work, working cooperatively with each other.
¨ Unlimited access to information . . . everyone engrossed in learning.
¨ Using laptops and all the capabilities of the programs on the computer.
¨ Using all the vast knowledge that is out there that we have access to.
¨ Computers are used to reinforce concepts that are being taught . . . when I say “log on to your lap top”, it’s just like my saying turn to page 425 in your geometry book.
¨ Teachers and students are utilizing advanced tools in the instructional/learning process. In my classroom, it “looks like” students have the world on their desks!
How can laptops and projectors for teachers and students change the way we instruct?
¨ When students have laptops, resources are in their hands. Inquiry and synthesis through research and technology related projects become part of daily instruction rather than just occasional.
¨ It will change the method of instruction . . . I will not instruct the same concept the same as I did last year. The examples I give, the demonstrations I show, the connections to real-world will all be different. My resources have changed.
¨ It gets the students involved in the learning process, doing more research and learning more about the content area and core material.
¨ Teachers will be able to use more current information by using the internet.
¨ Life is much easier; all material is at your fingertips.
¨ Endless ways to use the computers in class . . . hands-on student research about a subject that a teacher would normally lecture about. It is a tool that can be used everyday in some format, but not the same way everyday.
¨ More visual and hands on . . . allowing students and teachers to show work immediately upon completion.
¨ We can also expect students to be more autonomous in their learning.
¨ Laptops make the writing process so much easier! (Laptops) make the writing process mobile.
¨ We can take our instruction up a notch when it comes to research and student projects. We’re looking at a whole new world of ways students can learn, do, and create. Student-made presentations, websites, movies, projects—the list is impressive!
¨ Teachers would have the ability to use the internet through projectors to enhance student learning. The students would miss out on the ability to further explore topics.
¨ I have been using my laptop and a projector all year with students who do not have the same supplies. I have been using more PowerPoint presentations, interactive websites, and current information from the internet.
¨ I would use the equipment, but my students would “watch” me use the laptop. Any time I learn something new, it sure is easier to do if I can experience and try it myself rather than watch someone else do it.
¨ Classroom instruction might be enhanced through presentation style. Teachers, and therefore the lesson, might be more mobile (both within the room and outside the room--to the library, commons area, or other school grounds). However, learning wouldn’t be that much more enhanced because the students wouldn’t have the information and tools in their hands (as they would if they had laptops).
¨ I do not believe instruction would change a considerable amount; the two (teachers and students having laptops) should go hand in hand.
What are some of the ways you have or will integrate technology this year?
¨ My students have created PowerPoint presentations, done extensive research, web quests and have created their own web pages.
¨ Students have created 2 filmed projects so far . . . used iChat to work with each other in the classroom to review for tests . . . poetry writing.
¨ Websites containing interactive labs, research, and notes have been used.
¨ Student projects through PowerPoint, iPhoto, iMovie.
¨ Interactive websites for career clusters have been used; a career newsletter received via e-mail is being used as a class resource.
¨ Internet lessons such as a tangram, symmetry, and proving triangles are congruent have been used. “Figure This” website has allowed students to see connections to real-world applications of concepts being studied. Videos illustrating geometry concepts have been made as well.
¨ Lessons on information literacy, citing internet sources, ethical and plagiarism issues in research.
¨ Internet research for literary analysis and background information on authors, stories, novels.
¨ In-class writing/journaling on laptops.
¨ Using e-mail to send the day’s agenda, handouts, and pertinent website links.
¨ Using e-mail to turn in homework assignments and journal entries.
¨ Online grammar practice.
¨ Online reading of stories and articles.
¨ Using Excel charts to organize information into study sheets.
What are the greatest challenges you have faced this year?
¨ Learning how to incorporate technology into the classroom each day, and having the courage to admit that my students knew more about the laptops than I did!
¨ Students being so addicted to game or email that they have trouble listening to instruction or doing what is asked of them in an appropriate time.
¨ Time! It takes time to design lessons to meet your goal in what you want to accomplish. I think it has paid off! I think my students have a greater understanding of why they are learning geometry.
¨ Technology based projects are very, very time consuming.
¨ Trying to get my wireless capability to work at home.
¨ A new breed of discipline problems: Students can flip up instant messenger or a game from their toolbars the second my head is turned (and back down when I cruise by their desks). I can’t teach to their faces and see what’s on their screens at the same time.
¨ The computer can be a distraction. It’s hard when I want students to look up for a minute without closing down completely.
¨ Students who run low on battery power.
¨ Individual students who have frequent tech problems (many due to downloading materials/games unrelated to school). Tech coordinators have been amazing at dealing with these problems. If large populations of students get laptops, the technology coordinator must have help!
¨ Where to start, what projects to do, getting content covered at the same time.
¨ The year has been challenging because of the time line, also problems with the computers, connections, wiring, charging—many things will be better with use and time. Another year should be much easier as we already know some of the sites and possibilities available to us. I am glad I was involved in this pilot project!
¨ Keeping students focused on the type of research we are doing. They want to explore their own favorite websites and do their own thing.
What were some of the best success stories?
¨ Having the students engaged in their learning. They are willing to learn in a different way, read material, examine data . . . As one student remarked after we did the symmetry lesson, “This showed me many more examples than Mrs. Conkright could ever draw!” They actually do seek more information in areas. I have seen an increase in questions and quest for knowledge.
¨ Many students are more fluent writers when they can word process. Revision—including moving whole paragraphs or inserting details—is so much more efficient with laptops. (No more scheduling the writing lab! Writing can be spontaneous and on-demand, if needed.)
¨ In my classroom, technology integration often means students are more autonomous in their learning (finding information online that I might otherwise have to tell them, exploring websites at their own pace).
¨ Student motivation goes out the roof when I involve technology!
¨ Most of the students have been fairly responsible laptop “owners.” For the most part, my students have been willing to abide by my rules and the guidelines in the Appropriate Use Policy.
¨ I have really enjoyed working with other teachers and CO staff on developing this project. I feel that my teaching has been enhanced by this collaboration.
¨ Students are great to help each other with tech problems. They are very effective teachers and can often get a problem solved before I even understand it.
¨ One neat thing that happens often is when we are in the middle of class discussion and a topic or name or concept comes up that we don’t know much about. We take a “search second” and we go looking for information on the web. Often, we can spend just a minute or two reporting back to each other on what we found. Suddenly, we know quite a bit about that topic that we didn’t previously understand, and we can go on without taking much time away from the original discussion. This didn’t happen before laptops!
¨ When you see the students present their work you can see how proud they are of themselves. For the first time, I believe they feel as if they have ownership of their work. The students are eager to learn, and behavior problems didn’t occur as often with the laptop class.
¨ My students created movies praising their hometown. I have always heard students complaining about Owensboro. In the project I had them do, they had to look for the positives and sell Owensboro to others. They turned out great!
¨ Seeing students so engrossed in learning and the overall enjoyment they show while they are using their laptops. I believe all students would enjoy school and classes more if they had laptops.