Technology While Student Teaching

While I was out student teaching I took note of how "technology" was used.  I only really spent any time in two classrooms and the first thing I noticed was that neither of them had a SmartBoard and one of them did not even have a projector. This struck me as odd because I was under the impression that all schools in this general area had both of those things. On the contrary, both classrooms had televisions and DVD players.  Both had around five desktop computers for student use.  I later found out that most of the other classrooms did in fact have SmartBoards.

I used what "technology" was available to me during my student teaching.  In the one classroom I used the projector screen for slideshows and videos as well as displaying answers for worksheets. In the other classroom I showed youtube videos on the TV (attached to a computer), which we used for class discussions as well as showing helpful videos.  The students used the classroom computers to write essays, poems, and other assignments for English.  This was a self-directed class where all students learned at a different pace, so students also used these computers to individually watch films or do research and so on.  The only problem I had with the classroom technology was when I spent a significant amount of time creating a slideshow and then emailed it to myself so I could open it to teach the lesson.  I didn't realize that the school had all outside emails blocked and so I was unable to open it.  After that I saved my slideshows on a flash drive. 

When I first went out into the field I expected cell phones and other devices to be a large issue,but to my surprise and delight they really weren't.  The only school  rule I noticed was that devices were not allowed in washrooms or changerooms -- which I felt was a logical rule.  Other than that, the teachers seemed to be in control of device rule in the classroom.  For the most part devices weren't much of a problem.  In the one class I was in, students could listen to music as long as it could not be heard by the teacher.  These students also used their phones for research etc.  Sure, sometimes they were probably not using them for educational means, but it did not cause a noticeable problem.  In the other class I worked in, the teacher had a no device policy and it seemed to go without saying.  I rarely saw a device out in that class and again it never caused a problem.

I guess overall I was surprised by the technology at the school I was at.  I thought there would be more of it, both for classroom instruction as well as class disruption.  All in all I thought it was a pretty good system and I never noticed any problems caused by technology. (other than the one)