I interviewed
Jill Howell, a former 7th grade math teacher who had some
information she wanted to share about policies and technology at the school
where she taught 7th grade students. She taught at Eastern
Junior/Senior High School in Greentown, Indiana. Eastern Junior/Senior High
School has approximately 700 students. The school contains grades 7-12. It is
also located in a rural area. She taught for 16 years at Eastern Junior/Senior
High School and subbed for 3 years prior to teaching as a math teacher. She
retired after the 2011-2012 school year. Even though she is retired, she still
had many things to say about policies and how technology was incorporated
everyday at her school.
Jill mentioned
that her school had a technology plan. Her school had a state plan as well as a
local plan. Since Eastern Junior/Senior High School has a technology plan, it
has been used since she started teaching. It has made changes and it has become
more advanced. Jill stated, “When I started subbing in the early 80’s we had
reel to reel projectors, TV’s, and an intercom system. (Kokomo Center Schools)
When I started teaching in the mid 90’s we had overhead projectors and TV’s
with VHS tapes. As time went on, the first technology add was for
communications with the office- phones in the classroom, walkie-talkies,
teacher computers (email). We had a grant for Junior High teachers to have 3
student computers in each classroom (≈ 2000). Our school was always very
progressive when it came to technology. By 2010 all our English classrooms had
ipad carts and in 2013 K-8 all had take home ipads” (written interview, March
10, 2013).
Since technology
is ever changing, Eastern Junior/Senior High School used to have technology
available throughout the school in other locations, but now technology is
provided in many teachers’ classrooms. The Indiana State Policies provide
technological aspects of what types of technology can be utilized in classrooms
(What Instructional Technologies, 2013). Jill stated how technology used to be
throughout the school. She said, “Like we would have so many VCRs or LCD
Projectors per building that could be checked out on a daily basis. Over the
last 4 years all classrooms have been equipped with Smart Boards (elementary)
or Interactive White Boards (Jr high/high school). With the addition of White
Boards, laptops for the teachers, ipads/netbooks K-12, and wifi campus wide,
there is no need to go elsewhere unless students need the computer lab to print
papers” (written interview, March 10, 2013).
As I can see,
Eastern Junior/Senior High School has many similarities in their technology
plan compared to the Indiana State Plan. Indiana wants to engage students by
showing them the benefits of technology. I can see that Indiana wants all of
the schools in this state to have technology available to the students. Hopefully
in a few years, all schools can have technology available in every classroom in
the state of Indiana just like Eastern Junior/Senior High School.
Howell,
Jill. (2013, March 10). Written interview.
(2013). What
instructional technologies are being used in Indiana schools?. Indiana Department of Education. Retrieved March 20, 2013. From http://www.doe.in.gov/achievement/technologies.
