Serious Meddling...the 'haves' and the 'have nots'...

Working for the largest school district in Utah, and at the 'flagship' high school (emphasis mine) of reasonable size (2000 students, about 75 teachers-about 130 staff total), you would think the prevailing mind-set on Educational Technology would be as progressive as possible. And, you would think that major effort and resources would be earmarked for providing Ed Tech opportunities for our districts students. Instead, other priorities are apparent... http://tinyurl.com/yp3yn5.

I started thinking about the reality the other day, after being so 'pumped up from using the mouse' (Dilbert) and logging onto EduBloggerWorld, among other wonderous places to visit and interact. Although ALL of our teachers have computers, as part of our team I'm going to hazard the following educated-by-experience Informational Technology observations:

1. One-third of our teachers have minimal training, little motivation to learn more aside from basic PowerGrade functioning necessary to just survive day-to-day bookkeeping functions, and are working off sub-standard (I've been 'warned' by a former colleague at calling their machines 'junk...', although, that's what they are...) work stations.
2. One-third of our teachers are reasonably skilled at using their work stations, accessing e-mail, the Internet, and storing reasonable amounts of classroom data for use later, such as lessons, lesson plans, work sheets, methodology, etc.
3. One-third of our teachers are skilled at using Educational Technology in their classrooms and are comfortable accessing, and assigning, on-line opportunities for their students and lessons...and my guesstimate at this one-third I think is being pretty optimistic.

Okay, so we have a school full of teachers working off single platforms in their respective classrooms...not much chance of the students using any form of technology, particularly since we won't allow them access to their 'evil' cell-phones or iPods (Pay Attention). So now, you say, what about labs?

Good point...we have several computer labs in our school, as you might expect for our size and our District's prestige. First and foremost, our Media Center has a PC lab of 30 computers for student use...enough for (usually) an entire class. Originally, it had only 20, and it took some debate to get the Director to agree to adding 10 more from our former TIC and myself ...turns out he didn't WANT the extra computers, because then it meant, indeed, an entire class could visit and access the Internet...too many students. To further drive home the point I'm trying to make, our own Jordan Education Association awarded one of our teachers their Teacher-of-the-Year award (pretty big stuff, eh?!), and she won't send her students into our own Media Center because of the hostile, anti-student environment...she has them go to the local library, instead. OK, so there's access to ONE of our labs...not so great, and the kids know it.

We have one eMac 'writing lab' staffed by part-time help. Last year, the aide (Fay) in the lab was very, very good and extremely motivated...she was skilled in accessing all kinds of educational sites and helping students (and teachers!), but my general impression was the lab (and Fay...), were under-used for the above numbered reasons (including by yours truly...).


There are several other Specialty Labs throughout the school, but at least a couple of them also suffer from under-utilization and (do I dare say this?) mismanagement...Business Labs are well used, FACS (Foods and Consumer Sciences) are well used, Yearbook Lab is well used, Electronics Lab is well used, BUT, there ARE a couple of HUGE (IMHO) assets that could really help us in the pursuit of Educational Technology nirvana...well, maybe not nirvana, but at least a step toward solving our draught of assets for students.

Labs poorly used, and at the risk of being a jerk, computer labs assigned to teachers with neither the training or expertise to teach off those platforms...TREMENDOUS loss of possibilities. Last year, we had an entire Macintosh (PhotoShop) lab disassembled, and moved (this was without prior approval of our Tech team OR our Assets Secretary) to our Tech 2000 Lab, which was already outfitted with Macintosh G4 towers and flat screens...the lab had been systematically dismantled and 'decommissioned' by unsupervised students...I know, I know, some of you out there are thinking, 'Sheesh...fire their ass!', but for those of us in public education, we know the realities are not quite that simple.


Well...here we are...September, 2007. Instead of setting students up for Ed Tech nirvana, I will be putting out technology 'fires' not unlike to the wildfires Utah has faced this summer...monumental in nature, but NOT putting much of a dent in their needs. A friend of mine has been one of the most successful coaches in my sport in the world the last 20+ years...and Olympic coach for two countries...pulled me off to the side one time and said, "You are SERIOUSLY meddling in these kids lives...you can't afford to sell them short". Indeed...I wish our Board of Education shared that vision...