Journal # 5

This Land is Your Land, By Rama Ramaswami
October 2007 “The Journal”
www.thejournal.com

The article talks about the transformation of learning that took place in Crosbyton Elementary School in Crosbyton, Texas. The interest and excitement in learning was due to the fact that the teacher, Sandy Harrell received four flattop wireless Dell computers as a result of a federal technology grant. Prior to obtaining the new computers the class relied on old hand me down computers that were slow and were often down due to storms in the area; knocking out phone lines. For about half the class the school computers were the only access they had to technology, for the other half who had computers at home very few had internet access. Sandy Harrell goal was to open the student’s eyes to the world and their own culture and history. Sandy Harrell put together a lesson on cowboys and more specifically rodeo cowboys. The students learned about local history by visiting websites about rodeos. The students picked different rodeo cowboys and read about their life on the cowboy’s blogs. They would follow the rodeo circuit from Texas to New Mexico, Wyoming and California. The lesson covered many different subjects like math, geography, social studies and problem solving. Harrell reported that it is hard to describe how exciting this has been for the class. The students are motivated to work together, have longer attention spans and have improved their reading abilities.

1. Question. How would I use technology to bring the outside world to my students?
The internet is full of wonderful resources like PBS and NASA to name a few. The goal as a teacher would be to find a subject area that is exciting and new to the students and have them learn and experience new material interactively with the right web based learning.

2. How would I deal with parents who don’t have the same access to technology as their children do at school. As a teacher I would communicate to the parents through the students. I would have the students take home work and projects that they have generated at school. I would also keep the students and parents informed of outside resources (libraries, chamber of commerce etc.) to learn about the benefits of technology and learning.