This morning when I opened my email at work I found a message from the school district’s tech director informing all of us that there were two polls online that we were being asked to complete. This is the first time that we have ever been asked to respond electronically to a poll. I liked the idea, but I wonder how many teachers are going to bother to respond. The polls are posted in a password protected directory that contains a slick PHP file sharing application that few teachers know how to use. One of the polls is about technology usage and the other was about time management in the classroom. These are two very big issues for me.

The time management survey asks for information about factors that influence instructional time, and how we feel we can affect change where needed. Things like students who get pulled out for special programs, equipment - like copiers - that routinely malfunction, and crowded curriculum requirements top my list. And they are all listed in the survey as items to comment on. There is also a text field where we can comment on other issues not listed in the dropdown choices. That’s where I get to tell about reinventing the wheel due to lack of support materials and books to teach science and math. We have math books, but they are not very helpful. I spend the bulk of my time at work creating materials for the students to work with, not necessarily because we don’t have anything, but because the materials we do have don’t work for the kids in my classroom. So I do it my own way. Like I always do.

The other survey was interesting, too. We’re asked about the various ways that we use computers, the level and department in which we teach, and software and hardware that we currently use - both administratively and instructionally. Teachers are also asked to suggest training that they would like to see. This is really tough. It is extremely difficult to get teachers together for training sessions. Most technology requires both knowledge and practice before it can be usefully applied. In the past when we’ve had training like this it has been a single session that lasted several hours and then no further support. Of course, by the time we get back to the classroom and try to do something it either doesn’t work or half the people have forgotten their passwords and can’t remember how to get to square 1. It’s cynical of me to say this, but I don’t think teacher training will work unless it is ongoing and during the work day. That is expensive.

The administration is discussing hiring technology specialists. That may work if they put one in each building for at least half a day. But even there, we need to have software tools that support legitimate learning outcomes. Two of the best tools that I have in my classroom are an LCD projector, which essentially multiplies one computer so that it becomes a truly instructional tool. These are not common, but I think they should be in every classroom. The kids get a lot out of simply watching someone operate it, much less learning about whatever is being discussed. We have access to a library of instructional films that I show with that projector. Students learn a lot from those movies, and there are hundreds of them. They download very quickly over our network. The other thing that I’ve been using for a couple of years are some tough little keyboards called Alphasmarts. The kids can use them to write with, and then plug into a computer to download to a file. They can drop them, too.

My fondest hope for technology development is that I will be able to get a blogsite going that enables kids to use those little keyboards to dump their writing into a database/weblog cms rather than simply press “print” and be done with it. They could then begin to build electronic portfolios that they could keep for their school careers. It would be excellent to see their growth over time this way. Not only that, they could form expressive communities joined though literate activity, and see immediate and authentic purpose in reading and writing at school. This idea is being discussed by only one person in the Fairbanks public school system that I know of - me.