Journal #8 - "A 'Fantastic Super' Use of Technology: Closing the Digital Divide"

At a North Carolina pre-K-5 school, students, families, and educators are using e-mail and other technological tools to their advantages. Every family has access to Internet whether provided by their own funds or by the school’s grant through Bell-South. Students and their parents are able to e-mail teachers and administrators 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Each day a Web summary of what the students learned is posted onto the class website and parents are able to access it as well as other people that are parts of the students’ lives. Parents are able to know exactly what their child learned in school that day without having to ask the age old question or probe at their child for hours about what they learned. The entire design of the school, from classrooms to chairs to the way in which teachers are collaborating is set up to help students and support academics as best as possible.

What do you feel is the most important piece of technology that this school uses in their classrooms?

While I do not necessarily believe that there is one specific piece of technology that creates the best atmosphere for students, I think the e-mail plays a vital role in the success of communication between parents, teachers and students. Without e-mail, there would be a constant game of phone-tag being played as it has been in the past. I think that e-mail allows teachers to respond to parent questions quickly and abruptly without having to spend much time thinking about it. It also allows parents and teachers to access each other when they would otherwise not be available.

How would you incorporate the ideas given by this school into your classroom?

I think that it would be a great idea to have a class website or blog. Just as the article states, there would be much less paper used by choosing to go this route. Instead of having to print the newsletter one created in Word, they could publish it in their blog or on their site. Also, one could post grades on the site using student ID#s. I also love the idea of having a web-recap of the day’s events. It is a good idea to just have your students go over what they learned that day to keep it fresh in their mind, but it also helps to have it somewhere that they can access it to remind them in case they forget. One last way I would use the class blog/website is to post homework. I know that students often do not write down what their homework assignment is and forget to do it. If the students could get into a routine of looking up their homework online each night, they would never forget.

Curtis, D. (2002, November, 1). A "fantastic super" use of technology: Closing the digital divide.. Edutopia, Retrieved November 07, 2008, from http://www.edutopia.org/fantastic-super-use- technology