Technology at Bothell Senior High

It's been interesting to me to observe the utilization of technology in the classes I observe. It appears to me that the Language Arts department within the high-school does not have access to the same technological tools as some of the other departments, for example the maths and sciences. While the science department has SMART Boards that they can access at any time, the English department must make a request to use them. Aside from that, their building is under construction right now . . . which means that all of the classrooms are temporarily located within portables. Therefore, transporting the SMART Boards from classroom to classroom through the rain and wet, bumpy pavement is not only inconvenient, but also not advisable because of the risks that that incurs to ruin the expensive technology. Consequently, my cooperating teacher and the other teachers I have observed in the department have not used the SMART Boards or other forms of interactive technology during my observations, excepting the use of an Elmo on a few different occassions. The digital projector (Elmo) seems to not only be useful but also easily accessible and efficient. We have used that for various lessons on literature, grammar, and drawing inferences about ideas/themes in class readings.

For the last couple of days, I have spent time with various different classes in the library. It has been interesting to see their various levels of comfortability with the computer systems available to them. This morning, the librarian was speaking to me and observed that she finds it very interesting that often, the students with lower GPA's who tend to not be as diligent in class work are the first to run to the computers, whereas those students with higher GPA's tended to use the books more often. She found this interesting, and thought that perhaps the less diligent students found it easier to "hide" behind a computer screen, where they appeared to be working hard when they may have actually been napping. I disagreed with her observation, because I think that they could just as well pull a book off the shelf and appear to be reading when they are actually doing nothing. I think that computers are often a realm where students are able to meet on equal ground, because computers provide for the eclectic interests and intelligences of each individual. It seems that often, technology empowers students who don't succeed as well in other realms to experience success and learning.