The article I chose to read this week was about a Harrison Central High School in Mississippi. This school is more devoted to technology than any other school I have seen. Since I am going to be a future math teacher, I decided to focus on the math aspect of their technology. These students were using probes to capture data from cheerleaders at their school during their workouts. They recorded their heart rates before and after their workout and at different times in the year to see who has improved their performance and who needs a little more work. The students in the math class then took the data recorded from the cheerleaders and they graphed it and created linear regressions of the data. They are learning and doing the same things that a typical Algebra 2 class would do, but these students are working with data that is real and meaningful to them; it matters to them. Students are making connections with "abstract concepts and real world applications," (Edutopia Staff, 2008), by working with data that was collected by them and their peers. The math classes at this high school also worked with middle school students using GPS devices to create maps of their school. The students plotted points of the school on graphs and measured the distance between the points. They then walked around the school and recorded the latitude, longitude and elevations of different locations around the school. The technology that these students are using at this school allows them to become active learners in their education by allowing them to use technology that is used in the real world and to discover things on their own versus being lectured at each day.
I do love how this school uses so much technology with their students, but I do have to wonder how they get their funding for such technology. It would be wonderful if all schools could use even some of the technology that is used in this school because I really do believe that it helps students learn. I know I learn much better when I am learning hands-on and especially when it is something I care about. Having students use this technology to learn more about their sports, their music, things that they are passionate about, will really catch them and keep them engaged. It allows them to learn about their passions at a whole new level. This school also had this software that I have used in one of my education classes here at Western. Each student receives a clicker that looks sort of like a remote control and they use it to answer questions displayed on a computer, TV or screen. The video from this article showed students using this technology sort of like a game show. What I love about this technology is that it allows every student to answer the question and then see the results right after. It also provides the teacher with the results of all the students so they can see who is doing well and who may need more help, or what topics may need to be recovered. From personally using this technology, I can say that it is a great way to study for a test and it is a lot more fun than sitting and reading my notes. I really enjoyed reading about this school and watching the video provided. It is amazing to see how fun and relative school can be for students if the right technology is used. Like I said before, I am very interested to see where the school received their funding for all this software and technology because it would be great if all schools could receive that kind of assistance. It really changes how students are learning in a positive way.
Source:
Edutopia Staff. (2008, March 17). A Commitment to High Tech Education. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-introduction; http://www.edutopia.org/harrison-high-school-technology-integration-video
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