School Visit

Where Technology and Education Meet In the Middle.

Patrick Hovey MD 300 October 19, 2008 Professor Grignan

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“How would you describe the efficiency and effectiveness of the use of instructional technology in your school?” To answer this question I visited Midlakes Intermediate School in Upstate New York. I spoke with two very qualified, dynamic educators: Mrs. Bradley is the Library Media Specialist at Midlakes Intermediate School in Clifton Springs, New York. She has been working there since the school has opened five years ago. MIS is a brand new school built with keeping technology in mind. The entire school is wired for wireless, every two classrooms if connected by a computer “pod” containing eight or nine computers, and teachers are supported by a staff of five professional tech assistants who aid in anything that might arise. Ms. Hovey is a fifth grade teacher in Midlakes Intermediate. She has been teaching there for eight years. Ms. Hovey’s classroom is shares a small computer “pod” with the adjacent classroom. Also located in the classroom is a Smart Board with Projector, scanner, personal laptop, an ELMO visual presenter projector, and a digital camera. Ms. Hovey finds integrating technology into her lessons vital to having a dynamic, fun, and progressive classroom. Demographics Midlakes Intermediate School is located outside of Rochester, New York and its district services two small communities: Phelps and Clifton Springs. The district/community is a rural area populated by about four thousand people (approx. 2,100 in Clifton Springs and 2,000 in Phelps). Given this relatively small amount of area to service, the district is able to offer 100% coverage of bussing. Phelps-Clifton Springs is not the most diverse school district with about 94% of its population being white. African Americans make up 1%, Asian 1% and Hispanic/Latino 4%. The Midlakes Intermediate School consisting of grades three through five has about five or six 2

teachers for each grade level with a total of sixty-one staff members including the Principle, Art, LMS, Reading, Technology, etc. School Faculty The library and the media center, two very distinct places in Midlakes are staffed by two wonderful, committed personal. Mrs. Bradley, who has been working there for five years, is by self title the tech savvy librarian and Mrs. Scott, who runs the computer lab. Both of these two have their degrees in their respective fields. Mrs. Bradley’s library contains twenty desktop computers and has two very large flat-screen TVs in opposite corners of the library. She sees every student in the school once in a six day cycle, and concentrates her time on literature based computer instruction. Such as ways to better research using the internet, help with typing papers, creating more professional presentations and the rest of the duties associated with a Librarian. Connected the library is the computer lab. The computer lab is a dedicated computer learning area for the school, just like the library and Mrs. Bradley sees each student once in a six day cycle, Mrs. Scott sees each student once in a six day cycle. The computer lab contains a full thirty full function desktop computers. Mrs. Scott engages the students with instructional software, but also makes the time enjoyable with games and competitions. She has students play online and off-line instructional games centered on reading, writing, typing, mathematics, geography, and science. Associated with the Library and the Computer lab is the technology committee. This committee which meets “sporadically” is responsible for the acquisition of new technologies for the school. Mrs. Bradley explained that even though the committee meets seldom, it acquires almost anything a teacher might request. Already available in the Library/Lab are IPods for teacher use, laptops (additional to two laptop carts), and 3

digital video cameras. This committee is also responsible for hearing any teachers’ requests for further technologies in their respective classrooms. Already in place in about twenty five percent of the classrooms are SMART Boards, with a goal of one hundred percent in one year. These Boards, as stated by Ms. Hovey “Are an asset to the classroom.” For teachers to have these and other technologies placed in there room, they must appeal to the Acquisition Committee and the committee decides whether or not to install the tech (most often replying with the positive answer). Finally, this committee along with the tech. team already in place in the school plans and aids in teacher development. Whether this development is training, installation, trouble shooting, or just answering a few questions the tech team is ready to assist with anything the teachers could need. Technology (Soft /Hardware) Computers, computers, and more computers are located throughout the school. The Library has twenty, and the adjoining computer lab has thirty more. As stated before every two classes share one computer pod that contains eight computers, a scanner, printer, and digital cameras. These computers are well maintained and updated through the careful help of the tech. team. The computers are kept updated with the latest editions of Microsoft Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.), and these computer all have internet connection with a full range of sites preapproved for student usage. Along with the Microsoft Office, teachers have a full range of instructional software at their finger tips. While on the visit, I watched the students utilize 4

math, English, typing, geography, and science software. They were a mixture of drill and practice, game like, and problem solving programs. Also, each student was given their own login name and password with the ability to save file that can be accessed anywhere within the school network. Teachers are also given the option of using one of two laptop carts (one for each floor) when the need to have the entire class working on projects is needed. Each cart contains enough laptops to service the entire class (approx. 25 per cart). These laptops can all access the wireless internet and slow down issues were not a concern to the classroom. In each classroom that has not yet received their SMART Board; a large TV hooked with cable, DVD, VCR, and the school’s own broadcasting channel. The classrooms with the SMART Boards still can have the option to have the TV remain in their rooms, but as Ms. Hovey said “I just enjoying using the larger projector screen, and its one less thing I have to have cluttering up my room.” One of the most interesting pieces of educational technology that I have never seen used was the ELMO visual presenter projector. The ELMO uses a camera, so that when any type of print is placed below it projects that image onto the SMART Board or through a projection screen. This as told by Ms. Hovey is “wonderful.” It makes presenting articles, photos, books much easier and larger than printing the same information onto projection paper. Also, the feature I liked most about it was the 5

ability for teachers to do math problems using the ELMO. Instead of writing on the board, a teacher could write directly onto the piece of paper they are working from which made for less mistakes and a cleaner product. Scheduling Midlakes Intermediate does an amazing job integrating computer usage and computer literacy into their curriculum. Time is allotted for both Library and Computer once a six day cycle for forty five minutes each. This time is spent working on skills a student would use in the library, which is mostly computer work focused on research and writing. The computer lab time is used primarily to make students usage on the computer more efficient. Time here is spent using keyboarding programs with time allotted to instructional games as well. The laptops, one set for each floor are scheduled by a first come first serve basis. Teachers divide the time up for each week working around each other’s schedules. When using the laptops for publishing, teachers reported little to no problems with them, however due to their age (5 years old) they are becoming less efficient with online work and their battery time is starting to fade with age. Ms. Hovey stated, “It is sometimes frustrating when your students are complaining about batteries running low and internet surfing more comparable to internet crawling.” But she also said, “I am thankful for their presence and the fact that I can get every student using the computers simultaneously.” Computers in Ms. Hovey’s classroom 6

were most often used for either publishing work or for extra time with instructional material disguised as games. Ms. Hovey found student’s interest in material such as math, w hen they were being engaged through the use of computers. Student Learning Ms. Hovey and Mrs. Bradley both reported that student’s interest, quality of work, and motivation all were increased when technological devices, especially computers were utilized. Ms. Hovey stated, “My kids really enjoy seeing their work look professional when completed.” She went on to state that some of her students found in much more difficult to produce the same finished product without the help of computers. Seamless integration of technology was seen throughout the school and especially in the classroom. As I observed, Ms. Hovey went from using an English lesson using the SMART Board, directly in a math lesson using the ELMO. Never once did the classroom flow become affected by the use of technology. The technology being used seemed right at home in the classroom, and almost seemed impossible to accomplish so much so fluidly with it. I have always had a special desire to help the needs of challenged students, and again technology was right there helping Ms. Hovey do this. Naturally Speaking Dragon is voice recognition program used for students who struggle with fine motor skills, and with students are classified learning disabled in writing. Ms. Hovey has seen students who were previously not able to express their ideas because of challenges they face, but this adaptive technology is one more aid in the process of achievement. Student learning is the primary goal for any school and Midlakes does an outstanding job in utilizing the technology available to achieve this goal. Midlakes Intermediate School should be an example set for all future schools being constructed. Technology integration is seamless into the curriculum and the 7

effects are obvious. Teachers and students are able to work in a more efficient manor creating more professional pieces that they can be proud of. These effects are seen throughout the school, from students getting excited to see their work displayed in the halls or online to seeing students smile when completing an online exercise. From top to bottom Midlakes Intermediate School is a shining star in sky of education and technology integration.

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