I need your input before a meeting this afternoon.
Situation: Our admin. bought 12 laptop carts with 30
computers on them and gave all teachers (but not the
librarian) a laptop at the VERY beginning of the year. This is
a wireless situation, obviously, but the problem is that the
wireless connection has problems. The computers work about
half the time. To compound that there was no prior training.
They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars with no
preparation for anyone. They appointed a tech team that has
gone to several places for "staff development", but nothing
much as been shared with the faculty. Of course, when do
teachers have time to do that???
Continuing situation: A few teachers have really made use of
the carts and have had their students develop powerpoint
lessons, etc.,and the English teachers do have their students
write papers on them (when they work). The original intent was
to put these computers and more that would be bought in the
hands of all the students the second semester after the
teachers were REALLY using them. With all the problems and no
real direction on how the teachers would make use of those
laptops in the classroom, that did not happen.
Present and future situation: The admin. now is talking about
taking many of the computers that we have on the carts and
giving them ONLY to the seniors that want them. A lot of the
students don't want them because they have computers at home;
in addition, they don't want something else to carry. Also,
that will deplete the carts and make it hard for the teachers
who are now using them to schedule a cart for their rooms. In
addition, we have had problems with the teachers' computers
and viruses. I can't even imagine what problems we will have
if we send computers home with half or less of the seniors and
let them bring them to school, reconnect to our system without
knowing what they have been doing at home with that computer.
Keep in mind that there are no specific plans for what they
might do with those computers when they take them home. The
admin thinks the computers are just sitting around the school
and not being used so "he" wants to get them in the hands of
the students no matter what! We made one mistake and now we
are going to make another one.
We are meeting today to talk about the best way to handle this
situation (after the fact, of course). Teachers were not
included in the first decision in any way! I insisted that
they be included this time! I think we need to put some of the
computer carts we have in the rooms of the teachers that use
them; there are no more that 5 or 6 who use them on a regular
basis(by that I mean maybe 4 to 6 times a month. We can then
have one cart per building to float, with one in the library.
If you have any experiences with this, I would love to hear
from you. Thanks for any suggestions you can give.
Sincerely,
George Anne Draper, librarian
Wynne High School, Wynne, AR
gdraper@wynne.k12.ar.us
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