Response to Jona’s question
on Thu Mar 25 2004
Session Five -
Catch the computer train'
In an article by Jamie
McKenzie in the journal Multimedia Schools, this statement is made:
"Without investing heavily in adult learning and program development to
set the stage for frequent and effective use of new technologies, it is foolish
to jump ahead to the installation of networked computers throughout a
school."
If that is true, what do you see as the best ways for teachers to learn and put
new technologies to good use? What training plan or activities would be most
benficial to you?
Hi Jona and everyone,
Coming from a computer programming background I would probably not be
overwhelmed by the newer technologies as much as someone who did not have as
much experience with computers. I think that they should obtain the technology
and then have mini-training sessions for teachers, maybe performed by some of
the trained Media Specialists who should learn that technology anyway.
Since I am not a public school teacher yet, I cannot reasonably speak to the
issue of having to teach to the state's standards yet. I do see teachers at my
son's elementary school complain every time their schedules get changed around.
Some feel like they are taking one step forward and two steps back when the
principal decides to have the students rotate from teacher to teacher for
different subjects and then changes homerooms in the middle of the year for
most of the fourth and fifth graders. I don't know what the purpose is other
than some of the teachers are specializing in a subject and they rotate the
kids through that teacher.
One thing that might help teachers is if they can access this new technology
from their home computer (probably with a password so that others can't enter
the system). Then, on the weekends or evenings they may be able to go through
some tutorials without the pressure of being at school and needing to be in
their classroom.
When I worked in Silicon Valley at Control Data Corporation, I was in graduate
school for the Masters of Computer Science program and I had to work full-time
and then do my homework afterwards. My boss got me an account on the huge Cyber
computer at work and I could dial up from 20 miles away (at home) and do my
homework in the evenings on an empty computer system (no other users) all to
myself. In the same train of thought, maybe the Media Specialist could set up a
training Web page that would describe how to use the new technology so that the
teachers could access it remotely when they had some extra quiet time.
I know that some teachers have a really hectic schedule at home besides
teaching so maybe a lunch time or two a week with some planned tutorials set up
by the Media Specialist would work for them in the computer lab. The computer
lab at my son's school seems to be empty at lunch time unless the librarian,
also the Media Specialist, has something planned.
Well, these are my thoughts for now. I'll be back...later,
Reply to Anthony on Fri Mar 26 2004
Hi Anthony,
I was a little dismayed at your comment about teachers not being able to spend
any time on special interest type lessons because they are so over booked with
the state requirements now.
I am heading into a field, math high school teacher, where I had hoped to
introduce some examples of where math is used in the real world to inspire the
students to study their current math topics.
I guess if time does not allow it I'll have to start an applied math club where
kids can come to look at applications on the Internet and discuss what it
happening there in terms of the math used.
If you get a chance to look at my web bibliography, I have a bunch of space
related sites (Space Station, Space Shuttle, Hubble telescope, Mars
exploration) that are to be examples in my drop-in lessons. I hope to explain
to students where the math they are learning is used in the real world. They
are not going to remember or enjoy learning the math unless they see a purpose
in it and how it may affect the world around them.
Well, I hope you can share something encouraging about your teaching
experiences where students became excited about learning about the world around
them. It sounds like the teachers are too overwhelmed to enjoy what they are
doing, teaching the next generation about the world they will have to operate
in within a few years.
Cindy Vaskis
Reply to Billy on Fri Mar 26 2004
Hi Billy,
I just read an article from InfoToday, September 2003, about a computer package
called Concert IA by a company called Pearson Digital Learning. This package
has its lesson plans and tests online for students and teachers to use. When a
student completes a lesson, Concert IA grades it and reports it to the
teacher's online grade book. Eventually, that student's progress is also
reported to the state to comply with the state's reporting requirements. The
article is by Merna Smith and Paul Tumarkin in "The new reality of the
online education community: Today, the Web represents a comprehensive,
cross-functional education resource, indispensable for successful school and
district strategies." from InfoToday, September, 2003. http://infotoday.com/MMSchools/sep03/MMSWP0903.pdf
in case you are interested. It takes a few minutes to load since it has a few
advertisement pages at the start. It claims to meet state requirements in its
lesson plans and tests. It also has incorporated some training lessons for
teachers on how to use the new tool Concert IA.
Talk to you later,
Cindy Vaskis
Additional response to
question on Sat Mar 27 2004 11:08 pm
Hi Jona,
I am not sure exactly what you mean by networked computers. Do you mean that they
are connected to the Internet or just networked within a school with each
other? I think Carroll County has some computers in every school that is online
to the Web but I don't think those in the teachers' classrooms are all on the
Internet. I know that some of them were connected to each other for the
purposes of sending stuff from a classroom to a printer in the computer lab in
the school's library area. They have their own network within the building.
As far as spending large amounts of money and time training teachers, I don't
think that is as necessary as having available some easily walked through
tutorials online that could be accessed via the Internet. Then the school's Web
site could list different professional training programs and computer usage
tutorials where the teachers could try some things from home on the school's
web site.
These are some additional thoughts,
Cindy Vaskis
Additional response to
question on Mon Mar 29 2004
Hi Jona and everyone,
Sunday morning about 9am I was listening to WTTR 1490AM radio and there was a
rebroadcast of a recent Carroll County Board of Education meeting discussing a
plan to incorporate electronic (Internet) learning into the Carroll County
public schools, some I believe was aimed at training the teachers. I remember
them mentioning Mr. Stone and I know he is part of that Board. I don't know who
the speaker was but he had a two year grant and a plan to install a system for
online learning. Have any of you in other counties heard anything about your
school district installing any kind of educational online system?
Just thought you'd like to hear about what is happening in Carroll County. Talk
to you later,
Reply to Heather on Sun Apr 4 2004 12:09 pm
Hi Heather,
Thanks for responding to my comments. I would like to find out about any grants
to help students apply the math they are learning and have a "heads
up" on knowing how to use math in the workplace. It was a long road for me
to learn new ways to use math at work by being placed on projects to build math
computer programs.
It took me about two years to learn Reliability engineering at Boeing but I
ended up building a tool that I think they are still using today. I took a
class at University of Washington in graduate school on this subject and got a
4.0, so I guessed I learned how math was used in that area. But, it was a lot
of effort to find out what was important to focus on and what to ignore. If I
can help students do that before they need to hunt for a job, they will be
better off and approach their career in a more well-informed manner.
If you do know of anyone I can contact about grants or how to find out about
them please email me at cjvaskis@aol.com.
Thanks again,
Reply to Laurie on Sun Apr 4 2004
Hi Laurie,
Thanks for your comments. I know if someone had told or showed me how math was
used in the real world it would not have been so tedious to study it in high school
and college. My bachelors in science degree is in Mathematics (Numerical
Analysis) which I did because it was the closest thing that the University of
Washington had to computer programming for undergraduates (1974-1977). They
were just starting their undergraduate computer science program then. They had
a graduate program though. I wanted to learn to program so I went into applied
math (not theoretical which I have a hard time understanding) and took all of
the computer classes I could (mostly FORTRAN, BASIC, COBOL and ASSEMBLY
programming then). Newer languages had not yet been developed. I accepted a job
as a computer analyst/programmer with Control Data Corporation in Sunnyvale, CA
right in the middle of Silicon Valley when it became known as Silicon Valley
(1977-1981). If someone had told me that I would need my math background at
work I would have paid more attention to how to compute things in school. I had
to go back to my math books and find stuff I could use for some of my work
projects.
I really hope that I can inspire some students who like math to not get
discouraged when they are learning it and to point them toward careers that
could use the math they are learning.
Thanks again,
Reply to Laurie on Sun Apr 4 2004
Hi Laurie,
Thanks for the article information. I agree with the problems that you stated.
As the old saying goes, "if you don't use it, you lose it". I think
this applies to a lot of things but especially to technical things and I'm sure
that is why this class has a journal or activity log so that you write down
where you have been on the Web. The ideal situation would be to develop an
online directory listing the many training tools or tutorials out there on the
Web and then when the teacher needs to brush up on something they can pick the
one that is going to give them that information instead of having to browse
through others that might not meet their needs.
Thanks for you thoughts,