Technology Anthropologist

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgp88r46_0g5h6g8

That's the website of my cool AnthTech report... check-it-out

2-3 paragraph response: What is the overall attitude toward using technology at JDHS? What do I see as the school's opportunities, limitations, and potential in this area? What ideas do I have about how to address them.

I think that JDHS has a vast amount of technology available to the teachers and students. In the school district where I worked in the past we were not nearly so fortunate. I would say that JDHS is a technologically competent school. Teachers have access to computer labs, the library is integrated with our city public library, there is wireless internet all over the school, and many teachers teach classes that utilize technology.

The biggest problem facing our technology culture is a lack of funding. Technology should be a highly prioritized part of our school district, and yet we do not have a district technology coordinator. The school system here is aware that technology is a priority, but they are not providing the funding. Teachers are expected to teach their classes as well as to put things into place like an ed. tech plan. If the district has these expectations of teachers, then they need to provide additional funding in order to meet those expectations. The teachers who are tech savvy are focusing their energy on their own classrooms and the technology classes that they teach. If teachers are expected to do more than this, then they must be paid for the additional time they put in.

The biggest problem that I see in regard to utilizing technology in our education system, is that in a school of 1,500 students and approximately 80 teachers, I have found 7 teachers that are playing an active role in technology in their school. This means that 73 or more teachers are not playing that role. Many of these teachers implement technology on a few computers in their classrooms, however, even more do not have the training and skills necessary to fill the role of being a technology oriented teacher. If we are to expect this skill in our educators, then we need to provide the training to them. This school system is not limited by a lack of technology. We have the materials, but we do not have enough skilled individuals who can teach it, let alone use it!