Computers at Wesleyan in the fifth grade computer lab. Copywright Erin Dillard, 2009.
Private School Embraces New Resources
By Erin Dillard
NORCROSS, Ga. - With the way that the technology industry has exploded over the past decade, there is no stopping its effect on the education system.
Ten years ago, Wesleyan, a private school located in
Wesleyan is a college preparatory school that hosts grades kindergarten through twelfth, with a faculty of about 200 people.
“Wesleyan began placing SMART Boards in every classroom in 2006, and the school has continued to grow from there,” said Carol Horner, who is currently in her fifth year as the director of technology at Wesleyan.
SMART Boards are white boards that can be manually written on and then automatically coordinated with a computer. The high school received SMART Boards the following summer.
“I enjoy the SMART boards a lot. I think that they are very helpful to those of us that are visual learners,” said Connor Pendry, a 13-year-old eighth grade student. “The teacher can be explaining a lesson while also giving us visual aid. Almost all of the teachers use the SMART boards every day.”
After three years of using SMART Boards, Wesleyan is already introducing a new technology program. The high school has gone wireless and every high school faculty member has received Toshiba Tablets.
The tablets are small laptops that can fold into electronic notebooks. Teachers use a plastic stylus to write notes, and the notes can immediately be transferred to a SMART Board.
Tablets can be placed on docking stations, where all information stored on the tablet can be sent to printers or to another computer. The printed copies have the note-takers exact handwriting on them.
The expansion of technology in the education system each year brings the need for not only educating students, but teachers as well. All incoming teachers are required to take a course on how to use the SMART Boards and are offered additional courses for further instruction.
“For my first year last year, I was required to take the SMART Board training in the fall, and then a course of my choosing in the spring,” said Corrie Nash, a 10th and 11th grade Geometry teacher.
Wesleyan offers a variety of courses that teachers can choose to take. The classes are called “Computer U” and offer 30 different subjects. The classes are offered once in the fall and once in the spring.
“They recommended SynchronEyes for any teachers who take students to the computer labs, so I signed up for that” said Nash. “SynchronEyes is our ‘monitoring’ system, so that we can keep up with what all our students are doing on the computers from the teacher’s PC.”
Nash uses this program to make sure all of her students are on task and can block the Internet or games to keep them on track.
“Computer U is a really great program because it offers a wide variety, with everything from Word and Excel to SMART Boards,” said Horner. “There are lots and lots of choices for class development.”
The Computer U classes are offered during school hours, so teachers must find a substitute teacher for their students while they are enrolled in a class, so there are some drawbacks to the opportunity.
“I hate to be out of class and organize for a sub. I like to keep the continuity of my class flowing,” said Ashley Stainback, a ninth-grade Algebra teacher.
“The technology does not help me teach my class,” Stainback said. “It becomes unaligned so much that it detracts from my lesson. I use it occasionally but not as much as other teachers.”
Horner and other technology and computer associated teachers instruct the classes. Deborah Kelleher, a fifth-grade computer teacher, is one of these instructors.
Kelleher currently works with Internet programs not only to teacher her students content but also to help students familiarize themselves with the Internet.
Kelleher creates videos of interacting robots to lecture students with a Website called Xtranormal. Another Website, called Wikispace, allows Kelleher to post assignments, Websites and movie media, which students and their parents can then access.
“What I think is so interesting about the whole technology education process is that we are teaching and learning stuff that’s going to be outdated very soon,” Kelleher said. “What we will be learning in the next year or two, we have no idea.”
Edited By: Sarah Pelham
Connor Pendry, a 13-year-old eigth grade student, uses one of the many computers found in the middle school classroomson Sept. 4, 2009. Copywright Erin Dillard, 2009.
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