What They Don't Teach You in College

Now that I teach chemistry in a real high school with real students, I have some different ideas about technology in education. I am privledged to have a projector in my classroom and 12 computers in my lab. I enjoy using the projector-it is good for videos and Powerpoint presentations. I don't like to teach using Powerpoint, but I took over my classes half way through the year, and they are addicted to taking notes straight from the presentation, so I have not fought them on that very much.

So far, the computers in the lab have been more work than they are worth. I did a lab where the students were using temperature probes to measure the melting and freezing points of water. Only 8 of the 12 computers actually allow students to access the data collection software on the network. I have small classes for a high school in Utah, but with only 8 computers, the students must still work in groups of 4. When all the computers are running, it is impossible to use hot plates or anything electrical because the fuses blow out. So, during this lab, the fuses blew out 4 times during one period. It is never a good idea for the teacher to have to roam the halls every 15 minutes to reset the fuses while students are in the lab! Using temperature probes instead of alcohol thermometers is a much more accurate way of measuring temperature, but for all the hassle it caused, it would have been easier to have the students make their own graphs using pencil and paper!

I am not opposed to using technology, but it must be classroom friendly, or it is not worth it. I like the software data collection program I have (datastudio) but I am not sure the time I spend getting it to run on my computers is worth it. My lab should have been designed to handle a higher electrical load. I think that when education professors talk about technology as if it is the holy grail of education, they need a reality check. Maybe in university land, computers work magically and professors never have to worry about a classroom turning into a three ring circus because nothing is working right, but in university land, there are starving undergrads behind the scenes keeping everything running smoothly. In high school land, the responsibility lies solely with the teacher to keep things going.