Week 9

I interviewed a first grade teacher at Wasatch Elementary School. In her classroom, there are a few computers in the back of the classroom, a personal laptop for her to use, a television, a VCR, and a Promethean board.

There were two things that this teacher really wanted in her classroom. The first thing that she really wanted was MP3 players for the children to hear stories read to them that had different voices and inflectional tones. She said that she thinks that it would make the children more interested in the stories if they didn’t have to hear her voice all the time. The second thing that she wished that her classroom had was interactive literature. She had this at a previous school that she taught at and throughout the book words would be highlighted and you could point to the word and see that image. For example, if the story was about a grandma and her grandkids, the children could touch the word and the picture of the grandma would light up.

The main thing she used in her classroom was the Promethean board. The Promethean board, from what she said, is incredible! She said that she uses the board to look at poems, and teach counting money in a piggy bank. She also said that this is replacing the television and VCR. She had the children watch President Obama’s address, but instead of finding that channel on the television, she pulled it up on the Promethean. She did say that she doesn’t really know how to use it very well. She also has concerns using it because it isn’t interactive for all the children in the classroom. How does a teacher choose the one child to use the interactive board for the day, while the rest of the children sit on the carpet and watch?

The extra question that I asked this teacher was if it was hard for the children to use technology. She said that it was very hard for the children to use computers because of the mouse. She said that the children have a hard time with the dexterity of using the mouse. She said it was very, very hard for the children to move the mouse and click. She also said that it is really hard to use computers depending on the layout the program that they are using is. She went off about how stupid their new computer testing is and how the children can not use the computers for the test because of the format, the questions, the fact that they have no scratch paper, the fact that they can’t review previous questions, and the problem with early test submission.

I completed the midcourse evaluation and the informed consent.