Closing the technology acheivement gap

It appears that the number of jobs being offered in the technology sector are not decreasing, in fact, quite the opposite effect is taking place. With reforms on environmental agendas and an increased need for technology to compete on a global markets and accommodate an exponentially increasing population, technology seems to be a pretty safe choice for a career path. However, when multiple high schools were looked at in L.A, many of them did not offer any technology or computer classes beyond the basics of typing and simple computer skills and many of the students were not aware of the skills they could learn and the jobs they could get by learning more advanced technology skills, such as problem solving, web-based design and computer programming. Another charter school offered more advanced classes but had an extremely low enrollment of minority and female students. Jane Margoliz found several factors that influenced the students to be discouraged to wanting to take technology classes. Often, teachers and guidance counsellors discriminate and do not encourage minority students and females to take advanced technology classes. Low income students also do not always have ready access to computers at home, so they are not as familiar with them as students from higher income families and lack of administrator support in training teachers to be technologically skilled enough to teach the material. By remedying these issues, Margoliz managed to over double enrollment of minority and females in computer science classes as well as to get intercity L.A schools to add advanced computer science classes.

Field Trips gone virtual

Sure, we've all heard the promises that virtual field trips proposed; they allow schools without the budget for real Field trips to learn and participate, no more long bus rides and exotic places are easily within reach with the click of the mouse. The reality is not so glamorous. Many of these "field trips" become boring lectures with a cheesy slide show. They only teach the students who can focus long enough to pay attention to the screen, which isn't long. But some web-based field trips are making great strides in interacting with students in the virtual world. Blue Zones quest is a site where students vote to determine where a group of real scientists will go next to examine why people in some parts of the world live so much longer than others. GoNorth! takes students through the world of the Northern territories of Alaska, Scandinavia and Russia wilderness refuges. They follow real explorers and Dog mushers and can even follow the story from one of the sled dog's point of view which she writes about on her very own blog. The article also introduces another field trip site that explores Dinosaurs, one that explores Yellowstone and other National Parks and one that explores the Lewis and Clark trail. All the sites are interactive and have different options to make them easy to use on all classrooms, K-12. Although they didn't introduce any of them in this article, the virtual world can also allow students to learn about different cultures and even to create global classroom pen pals by linking classrooms from different countries. There is a great deal of learning opportunities when you can use the computer to connect the whole classroom to the world.

Google Classroom

Teachers are constantly trying to find an efficient, cheap and easy way to communicate and connect with their students and their parents. Google has developed a application for teachers. On it, students can chat in real-time, get last minute help from the teacher and share links and to helpful sources as well as submitt assignments to either the teacher or to their peers to be edited. Parents can also get involved by setting up their own google account, they can be added to the class webpage. There, the busy parent can conference online with the teacher as well as keep track of their child's progress and assignments. The google blogger can also be useful for teachers to keep students and parents alike updated on news, assignment deadline changes, and classroom progress and problems. Google also has a book search program that can assist students with research.

Teen second Life: A new way to approach esteem issues

Do you remember being a teenager? The zits, the constant self-deprecation? Adolescence is almost always a difficult time. Its full of emotions that children have yet to learn how to deal with and of course, the ever-changing body which somehow never seems to be quite as perfect as your peer's. They call them the best days of your life but the majority of us knows the cold hard truth: being a teenager sucks. But there is a glimmer of hope! The Internet is now offering a forum to discuss body image in an anonymous setting through "teen second Life". The teacher or proctor can lead discussion regarding self image and self esteem with their class. The students create avatars of themselves and take them for a spin on Teen second life's virtual world. Children can try out new hair styles and outfits and try out new identities without making any serious detriment to their real-world bodies. Thinking purple hair may be a good idea? Try it out on the virtual you first. Teen Second Life allows adolescents to explore their personalities, discuss their insecurities and issues in a fun, risk free environment.

less-paperful classroom

In my fifth grade classroom at John Rogers Elementary we go through an inconceivable amount of paper. The students are constantly losing important worksheets and handouts. There is not much that the teacher can do to prevent this. No matter how hard she tries to drill it into their heads not to lose something, or about how wasteful and unsustainable their practices are, the students still just do not get it. Is their another way to prevent this wasteful use of paper? Perhaps some schools have found a route to avoid such waste. Paper is cheap, and it doesn't make much of an economical impact on the school budget, but more and more schools are reducing the amount of paper used in class for assignments and handouts by going electronic. Schools are developing online assignment submittment as well as forums where students can go to chat about difficulties and questions they have about the assignment. They can chat with peers or easily email or chat with the instructor as well. This increases teacher-student involvement as well as student-student involvement. It also helps students to become more clear on their assignments and leaves them with fewer excuses for not completing their assignments. "My dog ate it" and "I left it at home" no longer become valid arguments as the assignments should be submitted electronically before the due date. It also reduces the need for other paper needs, such as parental newsletters and progress reports. It also guarantees that the parents will receive these notices, as students often neglect to give them to their parents. Of course, there are limitations as to where this can be practiced. In low-income areas homes may not have Internet access or computers. This would cause inequities due to socioeconomic status in the less-paperful, electronic classroom. Unless the school can guarantee that everyone have an equal shot at succeeding in this environment, it should not presume that everyone is connected to the web. However, as home computer and Internet access increases, it leave a glimmer of hope that one day this practice will become much more common and perhaps leave the classroom that goes through paper on rate that nears the extreme as archaic.

Cellphones in school:pros and cons

Cellphones have officially invaded the classroom. Schools originally had banned them but due to emergency situations such as Columbine, most bans have been lifted. The negatives of cellphone use in class are relatively obvious. They are distracting to students as they use them to text during class. In addition, texting can be used to cheat on tests, which is the most common complaint for cellphone use in class. They also open up the student body to harassment that can happen both through texts while the teacher is unaware as well as through video and photos which can be quickly distributed through the school population. In fact, due to this, many schools have banned the use of photography and video recordings with phones on school property. the negatives of cellphone use make it difficult to consider the positive uses of cellphones in the classroom. If used effectively, it can even increase student motivation as the students feel as if the are doing something "cool". The camera and video that most modern cellphones are equipped with can be used to create a sort of "video diary" which would be especially useful to document a field trip or to gather data for field research. Many modern cellphones also come equipped with Internet access. this gives students limitless access to answers that they may encounter in learning scenarios. Rather than wait to get home to get computer access, students have the answers easily accessible in their back pockets. Of course, this also holds the possibility for negative outcomes as this free internet access can also allow students to cheat but with the proper direction, students can learn how to use new found technology in honest, constructive ways.

Assistive Technology

Technology is allowing students with special needs to further become integrated in the mainstream classroom. It can assist students who have hearing, speech, and seeing impediments to learn on the same level as students who do not have the same challenges. Text and graphic enhancement software can allow images to be enlarged on the monitor, allowing students with vision impairments to see and follow along with the rest of the class. Text can also be read electronically by a digitized voice synthesizer for students who are blind. For students who are hearing impaired or who have difficulty filtering background noise, some amplification devices can filter extraneous noise from the background. In addition, technology can assist students with poor fine or gross motor skills as well. Students with learning disabilities can be assisted by simple programs such as spell and grammar check to create the illusion that they are as accomplished as their peers in the inclusion environment. This illusion will give them more confidence which will, in turn, lead to higher achievement and involvement in the learning environment. In fact, all of the formerly mentioned technologies that even the playing field for students with disabilities will increase their confidence and therefore prompt them to increase their motivation and achievement rates. These modifications can also increase the special needs students interaction with their peers as their ability to communicate and function on an even plan will increase their relate-ability.

Autism on the rise?

It is no novel fact to those who work with or have children that autism, a developmental disorder that inhibits a child's speech, motor skills and social skills, appears to be on the rise. Recently, the Department of Human and health services released data that suggests that the autism has increased significantly from their last projection. Previously, they believed that the occurrence of children with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) was one in every 150. Now, according to the recent report that appeared ion the American Academy of Pediatrics journal, the occurrence is now estimated to be 1 in every 91 children and as much as 1 in every 58 for boys.
Although these results are rather alarming, there are multiple explanations for the rise. One theory is that awareness and diagnosis of ASD has dramatically increased over the last decade. In the past, a child with high-functioning autism would most likely be regarded as just a little odd, whereas now school staff are better equipped with the tools and knowledge to recognize and diagnose children that may possibly be on the Autism spectrum. In addition, the results were skewed due to the fact that many other disorders have been determined to be included in the spectrum. These include Asperger's Syndrome, and surprisingly, ADD and ADHD as well as other PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified). The final possibility is that ASD is simply over-diagnosed, just as many other behavioral disorders are.