Welcome to My Blog

Hey out there! Just to introduce myself again my name is Hollie Dick. I'm a Secondary English Education major who enjoys music, fashion, and of course literature. I work at a coffee shop which is like my home away from home. In my free time I love to bake. My friends and family have nicknamed me "Betty Crocker," apparently because I can bake well. I also love to sew. I recently started constructing skirts with a Singer sewing machine I purchased.
Setting up this blog was rather easy for me. I've been blogging since I was 13. I've had a few different blogs depending on my interest and discovery of new blog hosting sites. For my personal blog I prefer tumblr, but having used blogger before I see the benefits of using it for a class like this. The only tip that I have for our class when it comes to blogging is that its very important to keep up with it. If you blog on a regular basis and then don't post as often as you once did, it can be very hard to get back in the habit of blogging.

Below is my critical thinking paper:
Building a Technological School, One Room at a Time
While reading the article “Toward a New Model of High-Tech Schoolrooms” by Royal Van Horn, I really latched onto the quote “I would shift the focus from the traditional model of creating a high-tech school to a model of creating a high-tech schoolroom” (487). I found this quote to be a main idea in the article because throughout the rest of the article Van Horn focuses on the challenges attached to creating high-tech schools and how he’d do things differently now with experience. I think that Van Horn raises a valid point while discussing the matter of the difficulty attached to creating high-tech schools.
While discussing creating high-tech schools, Van Horn starts by informing the reader that in a high-tech schools, the school will “…put four to six networked computers in every classroom one on every teacher’s desk” (487). Van Horn states that the idea behind this is to allow for teachers to use these computers in their classroom instruction but reminds his reader that some teachers will not utilize this readily available technology. Van Horn goes on to say that he often has been quoted as saying “one computer used four hours a day is equal to four computers used one hour a day”(487). This part of the article made me think about the use of computers in my own education from elementary school through high school. Mostly the teachers that I had would have us use the computer very sparingly. The computers weren’t used often or in an effort to enrich the curriculum being presented.
Not only did Van Horn talk about the possibility that computers may not be utilized, he discussed the cost behind creating a high-tech school. Often times we jump at the idea to introduce new technology to students because often times new, fun technology causes the student to gain more interest in what is being presented to them. I know that when a teacher wanted to get my classes excited about doing a project in middle school they would create a special powerpoint presentation to show us. While this technology isn’t as exciting as others, it caused my classes at least to pay a bit more attention to what was being presented. I don’t think that as a student I ever thought about the cost of having computers within my school. Van Horn states that “…a real problem with the traditional high-tech school model is that in 40-classroom school you would need about 250 computers…In three years, these 250 computers would need to be replaced at a cost of about $250,000” (487). This number shocked me. I know most school systems currently are struggling to keep the arts and after school programs running. I don’t think they have the kind of money to purchase and keep computers at that cost.
Van Horn eventually transitioned into the idea that schools without leaders who can champion technology won’t be as successful. This idea also really stuck with me. I know in some of my school experiences a teacher or administrator who wasn’t quite comfortable with technology wouldn’t use as much of it or require the students to use it. While reading “Assistive Technology and Inclusion” by Caren Sax, Ian Pumpian, and Doug Fisher, this idea of needing a person who can champion technology came up again. Within this article, the authors discussed the situation of Joey who they described “…as having cerebral palsy and also being ‘deaf-blind with cognitive disabilities’” (Fisher). Joey required assistive technology which allowed him to function in a general education classroom. The authors mentioned that with educators “…many are not sufficiently familiar with assistive technology to use it effectively” (Fisher). This information made me think about the fact that as a teacher we need to be a champion for technology. We need to be familiar with what technology is available, how to properly operate the technology, and how we can use it within our classroom.
Van Horn mentioned in the article about a principal who was a champion for technology named Roger Coffee. I thought that Mr. Coffee was great about being that champion for technology. Van Horn talked about how Mr. Coffee included technology in his yearly teacher evaluation process. I think that this is such a great way to basically force the teachers who may not want to use technology to get on the boat. I know there are always a few teachers in a school who are “old” and “stubborn” and refuse to learn new technology; everyone has had them. Those teachers would have to learn new technology to remain within the school which is important. Our world has become technologically driven and as teachers we have a duty to make sure our students are ready to enter that world.
While Van Horn discusses the use of HCA or personal computers for each student, this could be beneficial at different points of a students’ career. Van Horn specially uses the example of Florida stating “…giving all fourth-graders computers and having them do a lot of writing using a word processor might help them pass the fourth-grade Florida Write test…”(551). The idea of using technology to aid students in reaching their goal of passing standardized tests really stuck with me. I know that in a world of No Child Left Behind standardized tests weigh very heavily in the education world. Students need as much help as they can to better understand the material so they are able to succeed in the standardized tests. I know that if the technology is available to me for use in my classroom, I plan on using it to aid the learning experience of my students.
All-in-All this article really caused me to think about a high-tech school versus a high-tech classroom. I feel like I’m better informed about the costs of high-tech schools whereas before I don’t think I ever really thought about the cost involved with purchasing computers or other technology for a school. I’ve learned that I need to keep up to date on what technology is out there so that I can be a champion of its use within my classroom to provide the best learning experience available for my students.