Questions - University of Missouri



Teacher Interview and Summary

Kathleen Merten

Amy Ruoff

|Questions |Ann |Dan |

|1. What are the different |I use Macintosh computers that are equipped with educational |The different types of technology that I|

|types of technology you use|software and are internet ready. I use the internet |use in my classroom are Microsoft |

|in your classroom? |frequently for instruction and remediation. I Also use an In |Office, Photo Story 3, CPS, a Smart |

| |focus projector for internet instruction. I allow the |board with Smart notebook, Fasttmath, |

| |children to use digital cameras to capture special moments. |and Smart Ideas 5. |

| |When necessary, I make use of the tech lab, which has 24 | |

| |Macintosh computers and a smart board. Though not a | |

| |sophisticated form of technology, I use a CD player frequently| |

| |in my classroom. I also use an Alpha Smart for writer's | |

| |workshop and frequently for children who have an IEP. | |

|2. Why do you use those |All of these items enhance the educational experience of the |I use these items because they are |

|items? |children. In addition, I can differentiate instruction as |provided by our school district and I |

| |needed by enriching the curriculum for some students while |don’t have to pay for them. Besides not|

| |remediating instruction for others. I also am able to teach |paying for them I believe they are kid |

| |them skills that will be used in later years in school and |friendly. |

| |spend a large amount of time talking about internet safety. | |

| |The children of today are growing up in a global society, | |

| |where their relationships with others are limitless due to the| |

| |vast nature of the internet and all of the opportunities it | |

| |provides for communication. | |

|3. What are other pieces of|I would like my students to be able to use ipods to download |If I had the money I would like to use |

|technology you would like |books, or possibly even a Kindle. I would like to be able to |Quia in my classroom. |

|to use? |use a laptop more frequently and to provide more opportunities| |

| |for my students to explore the many wonderful educational | |

| |software programs available in addition to the internet. | |

|4. What type of training |All of training, both on the hardware and software has been |Our school district does an amazing job |

|did you receive on using |from my peers or has been self-taught. I have taken a few in |of helping us with this technology. |

|these technologies? |service days on web page development and received a few hours |They offer many in-services and will |

| |of professional development for two software programs, First |come out to your school to offer any |

| |Class, the e-mail provider for the district, and Geo Skills, a|assistance if needed. |

| |Social Studies program. | |

|5. How do you feel these |The help that I have received from my peers, and my self |I feel these technologies increase |

|impact the student’s |taught skills have enriched the learning of all students. At |student learning. Research shows that |

|learning? |the elementary level, technology instruction is important, but|technology keeps student awareness and |

| |the children often come to school with varying levels of |kids are motivated by technology. |

| |technology experience, thus making technology instruction | |

| |often about teaching reading skills. This can be very time | |

| |consuming and must be accomplished in conjunction with the | |

| |curriculum, not in place of the curriculum. | |

Summary:

When looking at the answers to the interview questions, many things stand out. We interviews two teachers of different grade levels, and with different experiences. Both teachers, though, noted the benefits of using technology in education. They noted the research which shows that using technology helps to motivate students, as well as keeping them interested in a topic. Both teachers also report using Projectors and Smartboards for whole group instruction for Internet sites and visuals.

The biggest difference we noticed when discussing our technology interviews was the answer to question number 4, regarding training. Dan, a teacher in Missouri, receives a tremendous amount of support in the classroom around technology. He is able to take professional days for workshops and the tech. people actually come and work individually with him if needed. In contrast, Ann, a teacher in Massachusetts had to teach herself almost everything she uses in the area of technology. There is limited professional development (if any) available to her. When discussing this further, we found that Amy’s school system is available to assist her in any way necessary for technology purposes. Staff is available to help with hardware and software as well as with troubleshooting. In Kate’s school system, the technology people are there to support hardware, and they know a little bit about educational software, but not enough to support the teachers who have been learning with the times.

In addition, the teachers in Amy’s district are provided with a laptop and three in-services on how to use them. This enables teachers to be more mobile with their technology instruction because they can take their computer home to work on lessons and save them instead of using a home computer e-mailing them to school or saving them on a disk etc. This also gives teachers access to the programs from school such as Smart Notebook and Smart Ideas. Ann from Massachusetts also discussed more individual uses of technology to remediate and enrich curriculum for her students or individual projects where as many of Dan’s uses of technology seemed to be for whole group instruction.

We have to wonder about the students, coming out of the Missouri district- will they be more prepared than those from the Massachusetts district because the schools have invested in technology in such a big way? Will those students from the district in Massachusetts be less ready for the technology of the future? It would also be interesting to find out what percentage of teachers are using technology in the two different districts, noting that in Amy’s district the professional development is much more teacher friendly. Does the ability to receive professional development increase use of technology in the classroom?

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