Computer technology as an integral part of the classroom has officially moved from the realm of intimation to incontrovertible truth.
“All of our textbooks have codes that give you access to an online version,” says AJ Perez, a 16-year-old high school junior. The benefit of this, he adds, is that if he ever leaves his book at school, he can always access the content from anywhere in the world.
This is just one of the litany of ways in which teachers, students and administrators are using computer technology, especially the Internet, to enhance and enrich education. The fact is that every day technology is becoming more important to public education, due not only to teachers’ evolving methods, but also to statewide initiatives.
According to the 2007 Technology Counts report, only two states do not have technology standards for students. In 2008 the Georgia Department of Education drafted the Georgia K-12 Technology Plan. In it, the Department of Education outlines ways for Georgia to increase the use of technology in schools in order to contribute to statewide goals for improving student achievement as well as to meet No Child Left Behind standards.
Goal No. 3 of the plan states that one of the purposes is to,
“Increase instructional uses of technology in order to incorporate 21st Century technology and thinking skills in the Georgia curriculum.”
These goals are being set at a time when 95% of all instructional computers already have high-speed access, 49.5% of students have computers in the classroom and 77% of students have access to computers in labs or media centers. The plan allocates money to improve upon existing technological trends, such as the increasing amount of online courses, which open up opportunities for students to take courses that would otherwise be unavailable to them.
Most classroom technologies in use today are paid online resources, such as Blackboard and TurnItIn.com, which teachers use to complement their curriculum. Mr. Perez claims that every paper he turns in now must first be submitted to TurnItIn.com, a website that cross-references the content of a student’s paper with information on the internet to ensure that there has been no plagiarism.
Experts can predict which technologies are likely to gain in future classroom usage, but whose hardware is not quite there yet. Analysts expect that eBooks will begin to play a bigger role in public education, which will conserve the resources spent on textbooks and lighten the students’ backpacks. Some current limitations, however, are that most eBooks are currently black and white and lack the capability to reproduce some of the important graphics featured in textbooks.
In addition to the utilization of technology, schools are also taking on the task of teaching technology to students. Most schools now teach keyboarding to students who do not already have the skill, and many schools provide classes that teach the basic skills needed for the Microsoft Office Suite.
Though schools are doing much to teach, utilize and provide new and exciting technologies to students, there is still a great deal of improving to do. The key is to find the right places and the right ways to use these new technologies, and every answer may not be a correct one. Schools spend thousands of dollars on computer labs equipped with expensive databases and software suites, which students like AJ Perez might use, “a few times a year.”
John was my reporter and the following is what I learned about him through interviewing him and what we decided he needed to do in order to get his article into shape.
ReplyDeleteJohn is a confident reporter and said he approaches his interviews with confidence in his stories. He enjoys the interview process. Though he does adequate research before his interviews and before writing, John said he is also a research-as-he-goes kind of fellow. He said most of the time his leads come to him quickly, though he is willing to think about them if he needs to.
We discussed the strengths and weaknesses of his story and we came up with a few things.
Strengths: John has a topic that he is interested in. We both though he had a strong lead. He manages to sum up the bulk of the article in one concise sentence. I also liked his use of alliteration in the words "intimation" and "incontrovertible." I also liked the research he used regarding the Georgia Department of Education's Technology plan. This added credibility and necessary facts to his piece.
Weaknesses:
John had difficult sources. he said he tried really hard to get a hold of them and that even one lady refused to talk to him because she didn't want to "get fired" for anything she said. That being said, this was the major weakness of John's story. It didn't help that the only source he was able to talk to was a 16 year-old who wasn't the best at providing dynamic quotes. This is something we talked about, specifically his first quote. It's almost the kind of thing that could be paraphrased. The only other weakness we really talked about was the lack of scope in his research. Though the research he did implement was awesome and well-stated, it seems he may be able to talk about a few more technologies in schools other than eBooks, the Smart Board, etc.
Overall, I thought this was a great story. I think with some more interviews and a little more research, it could be a really good contribution to the issue.
Good start John. You have a grasp of journalistic writing. We need some more reporting, though. Some potential sources: a UGA education professor, a Clarke County school representative and a Clarke County teacher. Also, the ending was abrupt -- you start to go down a different path. Either elaborate or eliminate.
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