I visited High School of the Future this past Wednesday. The building is large, expansive, with a clean white exterior. Inside, the first floor is open, well-lit from the windows. It is easy to see how much money and care was put into building the school seven years ago.
The first class I went to was an 11th grade Chemistry class, and as the students walked in they all pulled out their laptops. The teacher had their assignments for the day projected onto the Smartboard at the front of the room. She went over the work for the day, telling the students that they had three different websites to go to and a worksheet to fill in from the information they read about. Some students were working quietly; several others seemed to be on the right pages while chatting with the people next to them, one girl had her head down on the table. The teacher walked around helping students who had questions, but other than that there did not seem to be a lot of interaction between the teachers and students. Though because I only observed this one period, it is hard to know if these procedures are typical for the class or not. I do not know where the students submit their work when they finish, perhaps online somewhere, but I did see that one student who was completing the work on paper was able to finish within the class time, so I would assume that most other students did too.
The next class I went to was also a science class, Biology, but I was surprised when the teacher quickly told the students to put their laptops away. She still had a video loaded on the projector to show the students, but she also passed out a worksheet for them to fill out as the follow along with the video. She stopped every 10 or 15 seconds to make sure the students were able to write down the information, and checked several times to make sure the whole class was paying attention. This class was interesting only because the teacher did not want her students to use their computers which seemed to go against the norm of the school.
I finally observed an AP U.S. History class. Students walked in in the same manner as the first class I saw, they sat down and opened their laptops immediately. The teacher tried to get their attention and explain their work for the day, but it did not appear that many students were paying attention. She announced that they were supposed to be finishing a writing assignment that would be due tomorrow. The teacher walked over to students who had questions, but mostly left the class to work independently. Again, it was difficult to tell if most of the students were actually working, or if they were doing other things on their laptops. Many students had headphones in and were listening to music. For the first 20 minutes or so, it seemed like about half of the students were chatting and not putting their full attention on their work, but by the second half of the class, it appeared that almost everyone was focusing on the day’s assignment.
Though I only observed a few teachers, it seemed like the use of laptops in the classroom creates a barrier between the teacher and students. At the beginning of class students are either focused on their computers or on talking to their friends, so any announcements the teacher makes are only partly received. It also becomes more difficult to interact with students during the class because their attention is always on the screen in front of them. I do not know how typical this is of other teachers and classes, and I do know that there are teachers who try to balance laptop-use with non-laptop classes, but it seems like if the technology is not used effectively and productively, it can become more of a hindrance than a help.
The first class I went to was an 11th grade Chemistry class, and as the students walked in they all pulled out their laptops. The teacher had their assignments for the day projected onto the Smartboard at the front of the room. She went over the work for the day, telling the students that they had three different websites to go to and a worksheet to fill in from the information they read about. Some students were working quietly; several others seemed to be on the right pages while chatting with the people next to them, one girl had her head down on the table. The teacher walked around helping students who had questions, but other than that there did not seem to be a lot of interaction between the teachers and students. Though because I only observed this one period, it is hard to know if these procedures are typical for the class or not. I do not know where the students submit their work when they finish, perhaps online somewhere, but I did see that one student who was completing the work on paper was able to finish within the class time, so I would assume that most other students did too.
The next class I went to was also a science class, Biology, but I was surprised when the teacher quickly told the students to put their laptops away. She still had a video loaded on the projector to show the students, but she also passed out a worksheet for them to fill out as the follow along with the video. She stopped every 10 or 15 seconds to make sure the students were able to write down the information, and checked several times to make sure the whole class was paying attention. This class was interesting only because the teacher did not want her students to use their computers which seemed to go against the norm of the school.
I finally observed an AP U.S. History class. Students walked in in the same manner as the first class I saw, they sat down and opened their laptops immediately. The teacher tried to get their attention and explain their work for the day, but it did not appear that many students were paying attention. She announced that they were supposed to be finishing a writing assignment that would be due tomorrow. The teacher walked over to students who had questions, but mostly left the class to work independently. Again, it was difficult to tell if most of the students were actually working, or if they were doing other things on their laptops. Many students had headphones in and were listening to music. For the first 20 minutes or so, it seemed like about half of the students were chatting and not putting their full attention on their work, but by the second half of the class, it appeared that almost everyone was focusing on the day’s assignment.
Though I only observed a few teachers, it seemed like the use of laptops in the classroom creates a barrier between the teacher and students. At the beginning of class students are either focused on their computers or on talking to their friends, so any announcements the teacher makes are only partly received. It also becomes more difficult to interact with students during the class because their attention is always on the screen in front of them. I do not know how typical this is of other teachers and classes, and I do know that there are teachers who try to balance laptop-use with non-laptop classes, but it seems like if the technology is not used effectively and productively, it can become more of a hindrance than a help.