Journal 2

McFarlane, Sarah H. (2008). The laptops are coming! the laptops are coming!. Rethinking School Online, 22 No 4, Retrieved July 17, 2008, from http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/22_04/lapt224.shtml

In this article a high school teacher, Sarah McFarlane, talks about her experience with technology in her classroom. When her “exurb” school received a grant for technology her classroom transformed into a media and digital rich environment. Assignments were being done online and students were engaging in online discussions. At first Ms. McFarlane was thrilled to see this advancement in education take place, but with time she also saw her class and her working environment transforming negatively. Her students were not interacting with each other at class parties, her staff development time was allocated primarily for technological discussions, and she saw an overall decrease in student- teacher connections throughout the school year. After looking at the positives’ and negatives of integrating a vast amount of technology into the classroom, Sarah McFarlane realized that there has to be consideration of issues such as social justice when considering the addition of laptops and technology to the classroom. Without realizing it, educators can potentially include or exclude a group based on the use of computers in the classroom. Instead of letting technology take control of them, Ms. McFarlane feels that students must “see themselves as controllers of technology, able to use it to help build the world they want to see”.

How will I incorporate the use of technology with ALL of my students, including those who are learning the English language?
-I am planning on teaching in a bilingual classroom, so this will definitely be a challenging issue for me as a teacher. I can only say that I will make every effort to develop lessons and assignments that involve students on all levels when it comes to computer-use. In order for my ELL students to better grasp the material I will try to provide audio recordings of the presentations I post online or wherever.

Should there be a limit on student- computer use in the classroom?
-Absolutely. When Ms. McFarlane was re-telling the occurrence of her students on their laptops while others were sharing a personal experience I was appalled. In addition to providing an education for children, I think the main purpose of schooling is to promote respectful and healthy social interactions from our students. There are many times when technology seems to be leading us off that course, in the situation stated above for example. In my future classroom I will use computers to enhance student- learning not as a way to escape or disconnect from the classroom.