There were several things that I took from an article I first found using this link:
First, the linked eSchoolNews highlight says “Kentucky classroom…” The only problem is that the school in question isn’t in Kentucky. That said, I read through the article and focused on (1) the items included as part of the award to “make over” the classroom and (2) the comments made about the current state of their school or class as it pertains to technology.
The items included, according to the story in the Knoxville News Sentinel, are:
…an interactive SMART Board with Sanyo projector, laptop, digital and document cameras, an audio system for audio and speech reinforcement and an E-Instruction Classroom Response System
In our classrooms, we’ve seen many aspects of this implemented. My open-ended question would be “do we need ALL of these components to be successful?” I don’t hear as much about the audio systems (though I may ask a few districts about these) and, at least regionally, I don’t think implementation of document cameras is particularly widespread.
Also, I noted a couple of the comments in the article regarding the state of technology in that school:
The one thing we do have is a computer lab, but as far as students being able to use hands-on technology, it’s not there…
An 11-year-old said
“…our computers are really old and slow and they shut down with a lot with viruses.”
Let’s hope that students and teachers wouldn’t say these things about our districts if we were to receive a similar opportunity.
My immediate thought is why do you need $25,000 to implement the items listed in the article. We have implemented many of these in a majority of our classrooms. If I were to go high end on all these items, I could do it for half that amount. It is a feel good story, but sounds like some wasted money – when that amount could be used on 2 or 3 classrooms.
On your comment on document cameras. I think they can be a good bridging technology for teachers just beginning to teach in the “Smart Classroom” and not willing to completely change they way they teach (a necessary change for the SC to work, IMHO). I know there are several elementary classrooms in Paducah that love their document cameras and from that have begun showing an interest in other classroom technologies.
Jeff
You might get Steve’s take (Burton) on document cameras. I think Daviess put the document camera as a standard centerpiece of their classroom solution. Projectors and document cameras (rather than interactive boards or pads) in every classroom. I could be wrong, but I think that was mentioned to me.