Journal 2: The Laptops are coming!!!
McFarlane, Sarah H. (2008). The laptops are coming! The laptops are coming!. Rethinking Schools Online, 22, Retrieved 07 18, 2008, from http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/22_04/lapt224.shtml
This article discusses the importance of not assuming that when technology is received in the classroom it will create this wonderful atmosphere of interaction, inclusion, and advancement. The article focused on a school in Seattle, Washington where a teacher and author of the article, Sarah Heller McFarlane was very excited to learn that each of her students would be receiving a laptop computer. She believed that having these computers in the classroom would close the technological divide between teachers and students. Once she experienced students using laptops she realized that her students became distracted and disconnected not only with her, as a teacher with her students and co-workers but the relationship between students was lost. She became a regulator of students’ time on the computer.
1. If laptops are such a distraction and at the end of the year a disadvantage rather than an advantage, are computers worth having in the classroom and if so, what grade level?
a. I feel the importance and responsibility lies on the teacher; if computers are in the classroom regulate it during centers. But I personally believe that computers need to be restricted for research of projects only and should be introduced at a level where they can focus on as a tool/resource rather than an option to “play” with at a the grade level like 4th and above. At the young grade levels the focus should be on human interaction and learning from the teacher and peers.
2. Are laptops imperative to creating a “better” educational environment?
a. I feel it is important to have access to computers in the classroom because computers do have great ideas for learning but it needs to be regulated so we don’t lose the importance of social interaction with one another.
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