My high school is a one-to-one environment and has been for the past three years. The first year (2012-2013) iPads were issued to all sophomores and freshmen. The second year iPad minis were distributed to the incoming freshmen. This past year ChromeBooks were issued to the freshmen and the school also expanded to include 7th & 8th grade students as part of a Stem Academy. The Stem Academy students were all assigned a ChromeBook as well. Teachers in the school all have laptops (no more desktop computers) as many move to different classrooms throughout the day. It is quite amazing that my district has provided access to this technology; however there have been some bumps in the road.
These "bumps" are primarily the result of internet/network access issues. During the first year of the one-to-one rollout it was apparent that there wasn't enough bandwidth, to carry the internet traffic being generated by all the new devices - not mention all the private devices (cell phones in particular) that were connecting to our wireless network. Access points were added. By the end of the second year just about every classroom and hallway had an access point. This year however proved to be the most challenging with an additional 300 students (Stem Academy) and 20 or so teachers in the building the internet connection issue seemed to be a regular occurrence. There were weeks where some parts of the building had no internet/network access for three or more days per week.
This is frustrating for teachers who work so hard to develop a tech based lesson that requires the internet or network access (Apple TV use). I understand why some teachers want to quit trying to integrate technology when this happens. I consider myself pretty competent with technology (although I do admit I don't know everything) so when these issues occur I will try some troubleshooting (in my classroom) to see if I can solve the problem. Many teachers just aren't that comfortable and often times there is nothing that can be done in the classroom to fix the problem. While teachers can submit a tech support form it may be at least a day before they get a response depending on when the form was submitted.
I have learned with technology often times something will fail and while it can be frustrating it is part of the process. Patience is a virtue when it comes to using technology and I encourage teachers not to give up when things go wrong. I also let teachers know that they can ask students in the class if they might be able to troubleshoot the issue and that this is okay. We are all students of technology!
I couldn't agree with you more. We are all students of technology! There is never going to be one person that knows everything there is to know about technology. It is changing and evolving so quickly that it is impossible to keep up with. It does help when you have a classroom of students, of your class and of technology, that can help you troubleshoot problems that come up. Everyone has different experiences and when you are in a high school class, chances are that there might be someone in your class that can help. They may have experienced a similar problem or watched another teacher deal with the same issue.
ReplyDeleteI have felt your pain with the lack of adequate bandwidth, but our school is also in the process of adding bandwidth and access points. Once that gets fixed, I am sure that we will have a new issue to deal with.
Technology is evolving rapidly. One of the things I tell students during the first day of class is that I do not claim to know everything there is to know about technology and we will learn many things together and that I will learn new things from them.
DeleteThis is one of the problems that keeps teachers in my school from using technology: Fear of failure. I can't solve the major problems, but little stuff--I encourage them to use it to teach problem solving, critical thinking. Maybe they didn't want to put that sort of lesson in the middle of their math class, but the Universe made them do it!
ReplyDeleteWhat I've found is that there's a certain level of competency--basic to middling--where there are much fewer tech problems because teachers are comfortable solving the problems. Until then, it's a big issue.
I have had very siilar issues in my classroom with the chromebooks and even just laptop carts before we had the chromebooks. It is very frustrating when your administration is pushing so hard for you to do tech based lessons and you try but it is a misearable failure because of something you have no control over. hopefully after chromebooks are around for a few more years they will figure out all the "bumps" and we can have all the tech based lessons we want.
ReplyDeleteI have had very siilar issues in my classroom with the chromebooks and even just laptop carts before we had the chromebooks. It is very frustrating when your administration is pushing so hard for you to do tech based lessons and you try but it is a misearable failure because of something you have no control over. hopefully after chromebooks are around for a few more years they will figure out all the "bumps" and we can have all the tech based lessons we want.
ReplyDeleteInternet issues are a problem for us too. The biggest issue this year was PARCC testing. We have a district wide test with every computer on the internet to test for crashing. Also, during testing times, no one was to use the internet for unnecessary reasons: youTube videos, google apps, etc... We are a Dell district-it's interesting that a school member's spouse also works for Dell........
ReplyDeleteHi Laura,
DeleteWe did a little bit of PARCC testing last year and opted out this year. I imagine we will have to restrict internet use during testing next year if we are still experiencing slow or no connection issues as well.