Edutopia - June/July 2008 - (Page 43)

By the Numbers • Sixty-⇒ve percent of K–12 schools do not have enough staff to integrate tech into classes. • Two-thirds do not have enough staff to plan for new technology. • More than half do not have enough staff to maintain their tech applications. Source: eSchool News survey “These students can assist me in troubleshooting problems like, ‘My computer froze.’ It won’t be just me doing this alone,” Kim says. “There are routine tasks that take up precious time.” Students aren’t the only ones who can provide support. Just as Kim pitches in at her school, techie teachers often play the role of troubleshooter, as well as try to show their colleagues how to use new technology in their instruction. At Gunston, Costner often works with other teachers to ⇒nd ways to incorporate digital video. “Half of my world is ⇒guring out a way to walk into a class and say ‘OK, how can we utilize this?’” Costner says. “When I sit down with a teacher I don’t even talk about technology. I say, ‘What do you want your students to have accomplished at the end of this project?’ And then we talk about how the technology can get them there.” Concerns exist about leaving tech support to the teachers, too. If having good tech support allows teachers to focus on lessons, then adding extra duties to already busy teachers isn’t ideal. Other alternatives include outsourc- ing some or all of a district’s technology to an application service provider or turning to the Web to get help from others who’ve encountered a speci⇒c tech problem. One Way or Another Ultimately, the tech support must be there for schools to move forward with new programs and ways of educating, including online classes and one-to-one computing. In Virginia, a state mandate calls for two technology positions per 1,000 students in grades K–12, with one to ⇒x hardware and network problems and the other to work with teachers on incorporating the latest educational tools. But such efforts are costly: The state’s share of the cost in 2004 was just under $82 million. Districts also pitch in, with varying cost depending on resources. What’s going on at Gunston is, in many ways, the ideal tech-support situation, blending the of⇒cial support mandated by the state with tech-savvy teachers, including the school librarian, who maintains the school’s Web site and offers Internet help, and Costner, who troubleshoots and helps teachers use video and other multimedia in their instruction. In Costner’s classroom, called Network 21 because the school’s two television shows are shot and produced there, students produce segments for the shows and create videos using programs Help such as Apple’s iMovie, GarageBand, and Final Cut Express. For an interdisciplinary drama, art, and Learn to use the video-journalism project, the latest technology middle school students create with this claymation videos. online guide: edutopia.org For a claymation project, the /tech-tutorials students took ordinary art supplies—clay, cardboard, and paint—to create the scenes and sets to tell the life story of Oprah Winfrey. The sets are nice, but leaving clay ⇒gures to sit on a table like an elaborate craft project is so last century. In the twenty-⇒rst century, video cameras and computers capture the project as a mini-movie, with titles, music, narration, and animated, colorful clay ⇒gures moving across the screen. Burned onto a disc, this project can be seen by anyone, anytime. e Tech Alexandra R. Moses is a freelance writer in the Washington, DC, area who specializes in education issues. http://edutopia.org/tech-tutorials http://edutopia.org/tech-tutorials http://www.academicsuperstore.com/fds8 http://www.academicsuperstore.com/fds8

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Edutopia - June/July 2008

Edutopia - June/July 2008 Contents UpFront Feedback Dispatches Sage Advice Ask Ellen Head of Class Cool Schools Design Young Minds, Fast Times Wii Love Learning No More Pencils, No More Books Tech Without Support All the Right Moves Room to Learn Heart & Soul Pop Quiz: Jeff Corwin

Edutopia - June/July 2008

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