B-Dag

Schools often consider the use of technology separate from curriculum. Students learn to keyboard, photoshop, use search engines in the computer lab, without practical application. Faced with stand alone lessons, often one or two days a week, sometimes over an entire marking period, many already skilled students find other uses for the online time. Telling point, many high schools now assign a staff member to monitor students real time use in the labs. Indeed, someone sits watching all the computer screens in the lab, ensuring that students do not-waste their time-viewing alternatives to what they already know. Depending on the size of the school and number of computer labs, there may be 2 or more paid staff members monitoring every period of the day. The systems are expensive to buy, install, and service.

Commonsense and a concern for tax dollars spent would lead to lesson plans that integrate technological use within them. From the earliest years through high school, teachers can incorporate technology available to enhance both presentations and lessons themselves. Whether through online videos, interactive white boards, online enrichment sites, or other applications, the first individual needing to be educated is the classroom teacher. They need to check all links, make necessary adjustments for their students, to assure themselves that the correct information is being presented.