New Technologies and the Classroom Teacher

Oh my, it is fall and there is so much to write about--the beginning of school, teacher strikes, class size, high school football, back to school shopping, and H1N1 flu. No wonder some parents get stressed.

But I want to write about something different--nay, I need to wrtie about something different in education. For years, we in education have been opening schools, welcoming students, passing out textbooks, and preparing classes for another year of learning. But today's teachers have a bit more on their plate.....facebook, twitter, web pages, and cell phones......among other technologies to hit the classrooms. In some ways I am envious of what is available.

So let's start with cell phones or mobile phones. Should kids have them? If I were a parent I would want my kids to have the phones. "I won't call you during class but I want to hear from you when class is over." I love the comic strip, Zits (by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman) where the teenager texts his Mom who is in the same room with him. I wonder what the fifth grades will be texting home during class time.... But still I think having a communication system with home is a good thing. The challenge for the teacher will be to get the kids to put the cell phones away during classes. I suspect it will be a major job for teachers to devise some way to put the phones on hold.

Facebook could be another challenge. I'm sure the upper elementary and middle school students will be telling all about their classes on facebook. Hmmm. Sounds like a good sociology project for some graduate student. I remember telling my fifth grade parents at the first PTA of the year that "...I promise not to believe half of what I hear about your family life if you promise not to believe half of what goes on in my classroom." While my kids' parents and I laughed it was a good bargin. At the moment I don't know what to say about my students and facebook. Maybe a up-to-date active teacher could tell us what they are doing....

But then we have some technologies in the classroom that I wish I had had. I would have loved to have had a "Smart Board" (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_Board_interactive_whiteboard). I've already mentioned this device--an interactive white board which can be hooked to a computer for presenting and saving of learning material. Instead of the teacher spending valuable time writing on the blackboard (or regular white boards) to present material, the teacher can type it on the computer and the material will appear on the board for the class to see. Not only is it a saving of time but it is easier for the kids to see. I think the best part of this new technology is that when we are at a stopping point in the lesson and need to go on to something else, I can save the material for tomorrow and I won't have to repeat writing on the board the same material once again. Having a Smart Board must be a delight to have. I find it interesting that Bellevue schools (rated in US News and World Affairs for the top high schools in the State of Washington) have these devices in the classroom. Oh my I was born too soon. By the way, you can also project clips of movies on this board, for example, a clip of Hamlet's soliloguy rather then having someone in class read it aloud. I never understood the beauty of Shakespeare until I was in college. Well, the Smart Board would be a device I would want in my classroom.

Another device would not exactly be in my classroom but on the school web server. It would be the software program, BLACKBOARD. This is a classroom management software program that allows the teacher to put the handout, the assignments and the homework schedule so that kids can access it from home or elsewhere. One of my graduate students once developed a program much like this for a high school math class so that the parents could sign in (their code word only) and see how their child was doing.....and what grades he/she was getting. Some parents liked it and some didn't want to know. But it was available. The Blackboard program does that to a sense--keeps the parents informed as well as the student. The problem here is that all students need to have computer access and not all do.

What else would I like. I would really like to have a computer/video projector, particularly if I did not have a Smartboard. I could do lesson plans to project on the board for all to see--to some degree the same as a Smartboard but it does not have the capabilities that that device has such as saving of writing on the board. But still, a video projector would be cool.

So of course I would want several small camcorders. I have used camcorders before and they are phenomenal. For example, you can hand a camcorder to a middle school science student and say, "Show me three examples of erosion." OR to a high school civics class, you can ask them to show you a problem in the town and how would they fix it. Letting the students use the camcorder can be a learning experience for not only those that record something but for those that watch as well. Okay, so I want two or three camcorders in my classroom....along with the vidco projector.

And I want a web page of what my class is doing....done by the students but with my supervision. So many parents work at times not condusive to coming to parent/teacher conferences. If I couldn't have the Blackboard software program then I think a web page would help parents know what is going on in the classroom. What are we studying and what are the assignments. I think communications with parents is critical for student success. Parents and teachers have to be on the same page for success to happen.

There are a number of software learning programs I would like to have in my classroom for the elementary and some tuning devices for my high school band. Playing in tune can be fun when you're watching it on a computer screen. Yeah, there are a number of technologies now on the market that are amazing. But if a mechanic needs certain tools to repair or fix a car, or if those building a Boeing plane need a device to accomplish the task, why can't we teachers have tools that help us teach the chidlren and young adults. The new technologies will help those learn more in a more effieicent manner. I want 'em--the new tools of the trade.

Can you tweet? Then twitter a teacher and thank them for the help they gave your child.

A Blackboard......with an attitude.

In the last thirty years or so technology and innovations have infiltrated our society in some many ways. In our homes we have atomic controlled clocks to flat screen televisions to highly efficient gas furnaces--so many different items that we now take for granted. Kids now have cell phones which parents consider as a safety device even in the lower grades. And an iPod with ear buds are standard equipment for many children. One twelve year old recently wrote on his blog that his dad's Walkman was an ancient and very large audio device "...that used TAPE." And he didn't know that you could use the tape on both sides. Indeed the innovations of our time are todays artifacts of anthropology. My oh my.

BUT..... (isn't there always a "but" in these stories? Perhaps I should use "However" instead) go into many public and private schools today and you will see the blackboard still in front of the room. If it is a more well to do school district you may see a white board (dry erase white board).

However, our most progressive school districts are now opting for Interactive White Boards. As I said yesterday, teachers have a need to explain things to an entire class--writing on a blackboard has been the standard since the early nineteen hundreds. In the last fifteen or twenty years schools have replaced the blackboard with a plastic material called the white board. Less dust and easier for students to view from all parts of the room the white board was a big improvement. The one problem was that there were times when the teacher wanted to save the material for the next day or later on in the week. What to do....

Hence, the "Interactive White Board." Let's see if I can describe it adequately. It is a white board that can be connected to a computer. Therefore it can present already developed material (e.g. powerpoint presentations) or the teacher can write on the board and save it to his/her computer to again present the material another day. Writing on the board is very easy by picking up a marker and just writing. As the maker leaves its storage area, it tells the white board what color it is. A teacher can actually touch the correct storage area and write on the board with her finger. Cool.

These interactive white boards have so many possibilities that can assist the teacher in doing a better job but actually it can do a better job for the student. For example, the high school civic teacher can present the US constitution on the board. Kids can't see it in the back of the room? No problem, all the teacher has to do is hit a control button to make it bigger. Want to see a different part of the constitution? Just move it around with your finger. Another example. Let's go to the grade school this time. The fourth grade teacher puts an outline map of the United States on the board and asks a student to come up and trace the Mississippi river. Now erase the Mississippi and show the Columbia river. No problem. The original map stays visible while the teacher erases the rivers. The interactive white boards are essentially computer controlled. They can be used for front projection.

Let me digress here for a moment to explain a long ago frustration. When I use to show a movie in my grade school class I would have to get the projector set up (16mm), pull the shades, turn the lights off and start the film. IF I wanted my kids to take notes they would have to do it in the dark. Not good. So many times I would stop the film, turn lights on and tell them what sort of notes they ought to be taking. Good training on note taking but lights go on and off was not a good environment for watching a movie.

So today the white board can be used for projection of a video. If a student misses something they can instantly go back and view it one more time. OR stop the video and circle that item that you want the students to see. That is so cool--I almost want to go back to teaching just to play with this new device. If you want to see more of this type of innovation go to http://smarttech.com and see what can be done.

In honor of the Interactive White Board I am changing the formate of this blog from my beloved old blackboard (white letters on a black background) to a new white board style with black letters on a white background. It is easier to read, easier on the eyes. And we are in this blog catching up with the technology in the classroom.

If you remember your teachers writing on a blackboard to illustrate an idea for you, be sure to thank them for all the work they did. And if your school has white boards, be sure to thank the school board for taking that extra step. In any event thank a teacher today. They will appreciate it.

Technology in the classroom....the Blackboard

A subject dear to my heart--using technology in the classroom to help children and adults learn. The old saying, "...back in my day...." really is an euphemism for "don't spend any more money." But some schools do add technology the best they can--richer school districts can do more.

There are good history books on education in the United States--much of it will make you wonder how we ever got a school system at all. And in 1968 Paul Saettler wrote the definitive "A history of instructional technology." Probably to that time, the most complete book on that subject.

I hope you will forgive me for taking a very simplistic view of history of instructional technology for this blog. Dr. Saettler did the complete work and you can refer to his book if you wish.

Let's start with the Sophist....somewhere around the fifth century BC. As far as anthropologist have recorded, the Sophist who taught philosophy tended to use stones and twigs in the sand to illustrate ideas. Logic became their guideline with their teaching. But the Sophist appear to be our first teachers who used something besides words to teach. With me so far?

Johannes Gutenberg around 1440 invented the printing press and sparked the learning of reading and writing for the masses. But it was an expensive process to print books and books were not available in schools, only to the upper class.

By and large wherever groups of people wish to live, schools become part of society--it is the method by which we indoctrinate our young into the ways of becoming an adult in our society. In the early days of this country two types of schools seem to have emerged. In Boston Horace Mann started the Boston schools somewhat to prepare students to enter Harvard which was nearby. But Benjamin Franklin saw the need for knowledgeable workers and started the American Academy....a more general type of schooling.

Finally! Both schools used pieces of slate so that the students could write their letters and numbers. Each student held their own blackboard so to speak. Aha! an early technology. The slate was cheap and easily replaced if broken. Soon as school buildings were being built in larger numbers in our growing population, slate was used on the front wall so that the teacher did not have to go around one by one and demonstrate each letter or number. Paper was expensive and the slate was cheap.

Writing (penmanship) and spelling became a valued education. Businesses needed workers who could write well and clearly. Although paper was slowly introduced along with turkey qills and ink wells, the blackboard remained a tool for the teacher. [I've already written how a Boston parent became concerned when his child was given a metal nib to write with--what if there were no metal nibs available--how would they learn to carve a turkey gill?]

Blackboards became the standard in schools. Children would come to the front of the room to demonstrate prowess of arithmetic solutions or to spell a word. A major joy for many children were to be picked to "clean the erasers" and go outside to make a cloud of dust!

In spite of the overhead projector becoming a force in the classroom during the early seventies, the blackboard remained the prime teaching tool for teachers along with books until the nineties. The only advancement to the blackboard was the advent of color chalk. In some school districts if the teacher wanted to use color chalk she had to buy it herself.

Blackboards demanded their own maintenance. Erasers had to be cleaned and the blackboard itself needed a wipe down with a damp cloth every week or so. Although the kids loved to do this it was the teachers who from time to time did the maintenance. And chalk dust was always a problem. When I first started teaching in 1955 I was required to wear a shirt and tie and a jacket. My jackets were always covered with chalk dust. Always..... I got around this requirement by buying a lab coat from the university store and wearing it. It was white and chalk dust didn't show.

In the early nineties, a new type of board was introduced into schools. Called the white board or more formally...the dry erase white board. It used special pens that could be erased without dust and were easier to see (hence read) in the back of the room. Early white boards had some glare but soon even this problem was overcome. With a blackboard the teacher could see when chalk was running low but with these new white boards, the pens would dry up it seemed always in the middle of a lesson. Teachers would descend upon the store for backups pens. But on the whole it was a big improvement. The biggest problem was to use a permanent marker on the board that would not erase. There were chemicals that the janitor could use but it was a pain. Teachers soon learned to keep the permanent markers separated by the dry erase markers.

However, visit most schools today and you will find that they have blackboards in each of the classes. The evolution of the blackboard to the whiteboard is still in transition.

In the next blog let's look at the evolution of the dry erase white board to...... It's there and would you know it, Bellevue schools have them in most of their classrooms. It is cool.

Did your teacher ever write your name on the blackboard? You probably ought to thank that teacher for the honor.