Tech in the class

Michael O’Neill

Blog 3

EDPN 650

When I think about technology in the classroom, the first things that pop into my mind are computers, tablets and smartboards. During this semester in class we have discussed technology in the classroom extensively and I have come to realize that technology is relative to the situation. For example, a school in a third world country like the Dominican Republic would see notebook, paper and pencils for everyone as a form of technology. In more developed places technology deals more with computer related software and hardware. As far as my thoughts are concerned, I believe every child should have access to technology in their classroom. As someone who grew up in New York City and attended a small public school in Manhattan, I was lucky that I got exposed to the I computers and the internet at such an early time. (1998) Most schools at the time did not have a room full of computers like we did. In addition, most school did not have access to the world wide web either.

As a future teacher I feel it is imperative that I stay on the cusp of developing technology. The global classroom has been created thanks in part to technology. Now we can engage students using virtual reality as a conduit. It is amazing to see kids seeing the northern lights from under the stars in Norway. I have used my Samsung Galaxy Gear VR in my class to help students have this type of experience. I can see by the looks on their faces and their amazement when they put the headset on, that this is the future of education. Dealing with the special education population on an everyday basis, I try to use technology to reinforce the lessons we currently do. I have created smartboard projects and found a variety of online resources like interactive games and quizzes to help the teachers I work with. As a paraprofessional I feel my goal is to make the teachers lives easier. The amount of paperwork and assessments can be over whelming at times so I like to find topic related resources to help the teacher get their point across. In addition to that I like to make sure that the students’ assistive speaking devices are charged and working properly. I have seen some amazing things come out of kids while using the assistive speech devices. Kids who would never communicate at all, can now put together full sentences and share how the feel and tell you what they want. It is amazing when the voiceless get a voice.

As I mentioned earlier, I enjoy being on the cusp on technology. I like to discover new hardware and software that I can share with colleagues and hopefully implement in to my future class room. The technology I am most interested in and is the most appealing (and has been for a few years now) are Google Chromebooks. I have owned one for over 3 years and use it way more than my Macbook or my PC. Some schools have gone as far as to give every student in the school a chromebook allowing them to collaborate outside of the classroom as well. When each student has a computer they become active controllers of their education. Chromebooks are Internet-dependent laptops that start up super fast (roughly 7 seconds, or a fraction of the time it takes to boot an older model Windows-based computer). After turning on the Chromebook you’ll notice the only native app is the Google Chrome Internet browser. And that’s pretty much your key to all that is Chromebook. Everything else is composed of Web apps (email, photos, documents), or apps that run while you’re connected to a network. Google also throws in 100 GB of cloud storage for every Chromebook.

In an article from CNBC it stated that “Chromebook sales now account for more than half of all devices sold for U.S. classrooms, up from less than 1 percent in 2014, according to a new report from Futuresource Consulting. (The sales figures do not include desktop computers.)”

The article went on to say “More than 50 million students are using Google's Apps for Education to share and collaborate on documents, submit homework, and research projects. Chromebooks offer easy access to Google Play for Education software range from $199 for the CTL J2 Chromebook, to $249.99 for Toshiba's Chromebook 2, plus a $30 management fee. These devices come with teacher-approved apps and books, and let administrators share content to individuals, entire classes or entire schools in just a few clicks.”

At that price point and with the ease of use, I plan on using these in my future classrooms.

You can read the article in its entirety here: mailto:http://www.cnbc.com/2015/12/03/googles-chromebooks-make-up-half-of-us-classroom-devices.html