Techno Teacher

*Due to technical difficulties with background noise,  a written script of the interview has been included*

Interviewer: I’m here with Mrs. Wilkes, a sixth grade teacher from Cedar Ridge Middle School.  How long have you been teaching?

Mrs. Wilkes: This is my ninth year.

Interviewer: Ninth year. What changes in technology have you seen during this time?

Mrs. Wilkes: Well, the biggest thing is the technology that I’ve introduced in my classroom—the ActivBoard, the projector, and the learner response system.

Interviewer: How did you find out about the ActivBoard technology?

Mrs. Wilkes: Our district received a budget in its technology fund from the state, and they set up a grant program. They brought in a lot of vendors to show all the different types of technology we could incorporate, and then I applied for a grant and received it.

Interviewer: How often do you use it in your classroom?

Mrs. Wilkes: I use the board and the projector and the clickers daily.

Interviewer: Okay. Can you tell us about a specific incident of when you’ve used it in your classroom?

Mrs. Wilkes: Sure, first of all the ActivBoard is like a giant computer screen in the front of my classroom, and it looks like the desktop to my computer. I have a little pen that functions like a mouse, and so anything I would do on my desktop I can use with the students. Also the software that we use is called “Flip Charts.” Well, it makes flip charts, and so any class presentations that I use I can just write on the board and save and store the presentation. Any demonstrations or videos or what applications I can find on the internet, I can demonstrate them and use right from the front of the classroom. And then the biggest tools that we use are the clickers. The students all have an assigned clicker, and then I can program in questions that they will be asked, and then they can respond to those questions with either a multiple choice answer, true or false, they can type in a number answer or a word answer, and then I can instantly analyze those results.

Interviewer: What do you think the biggest benefit to your students is?

Mrs. Wilkes: Engagement. They are 100% involved in the classroom. They are all accountable for the questions I’m asking. Instead of a few kids raising their hands and answering on behalf of the class, every student has to answer for themselves. They’re involved, and because they know that they are going to have to answer questions individually, they pay attention better to the lesson.

Interviewer: Do your students prefer this to the regular question/answer format?

Mrs. Wilkes: 100%. They love it.

Interviewer: Why would you recommend this technology to other teachers?

Mrs. Wilkes: I feel like it can really help teachers, in the moment, have an understanding of what their students are getting from the lesson. After doing several math examples with my students, if I put up a question and they all have to answer individually, if 90% of the class gets the right answer then I know that I’ve done a good job teaching and I can move on and maybe address those one or two students who missed the problem individually. If only 50% of the class gets  the right answer, I know that I have more teaching, and I’m not free to let the students go work on their homework, we still need to spend time as a class. It also gives me instantly which students understand the concept before they go home and do their homework on their own and which students are independent.

Interviewer: It seems like this might be a time saver for you?

Mrs. Wilkes: In the moment, I don’t know if it’s necessarily a time saver, but it’s a better use of my time. The way I can analyze the students’ results and things, it probably takes the same amount of time, but instead of looking at who understands and who doesn’t a day or two later once the homework is completed, I know instantly during that class period who needs my help.

Interviewer: Are there any disadvantages you’ve found?

Mrs. Wilkes: Well, it’s technology. You know, there’s always a learning curve of figuring out the capabilities of the technology and just making sure I am able to do everything that it is capable of, and so there is a lot of learning involved.

Interviewer: Thank you.