Burke High Tech

At Burke high school we have four computer labs and two mobile carts available for student use. These have been my options for the last 2 years. After speaking with my colleagues about technology and in what direction we are heading as a school; I discovered some interesting facts I was previously unaware of. The first is that our old Principal from before I was there, decided to get rid of teacher offices and work areas in favor of more classroom space and so they could have easier access to teachers. Technology was not her priority. Their annual technology budget when we still had Money to spend on it, was set around $1000. As most educators know, this is not sufficient funding for teachers to be able to integrate technology in their classes. I don't know how I would have taught my classes if I were here during her tenure because I grew up using technology and understand how valuable of a tool it is for students to learn with. As of last year, we had some extra money available from Title I and so our technology budget increased significantly last year to about $100,000. With this money we built two new computer labs, new laptops for the mobile carts, put smart boards in all of our classrooms, and bought many new machines for teachers to have as well. This year, we will have about $20,000 to spend on some other technologies such as dukanes, flip cams, and software to use these items. Here is a link that shows and explains what a dukane document projector is: http://www.dukane.com/av/products/Item_VisualizersCameras.asp?Model=121W

The pros to using the system we have should not be understated. This is still more than some other schools in the district and the resources we have are very useful to our students and staff. We have software that helps students create research papers and find resources for upper level classes. When there are open periods in the labs when no one has signed up to use them, students may go in and work for a period during study hall or during class if necessary. Teachers use other teacher's ideas for lessons and therefore cooperate with allowing time in the labs so other people can use them. The mobile carts are also great for a quick lesson that students only need the internet to complete; such as a blog post. Here is a good website to start a classroom blog: http://edublog.com/




The cons also need to be addressed to this system. Many times teachers cancel their scheduled days and other teachers are not notified or have altered lessons due to the lack of technology available at the time. This is extremely frustrating and has led to frequent disputes among staff and specialists. Our school also blocks off 4 weeks out the year, 3 weeks in a row to test our juniors for AYP and state standards. Here is a good link I found to help someone understand what AYP is: http://www.bvsd.org/dac/Pages/ayp.aspx

During those three weeks, technology and computer use is scarce. That may not seem like a lot for a whole year, but in a 3 week span I could cover a full unit without the use of a computer for a technology driven students centered learning activity. Without these activities, history can get boring in a hurry. It also hurts those students who need instruction in using computers because times available for use and for them to learn is low most of the time.