Journal 2

Journal 2: The Laptops Are Coming! The Laptops Are Coming!
Rethinking schools online, volume 22 no 4. Summer 2008. The laptops are coming! The laptops are coming! By Sarah Heller McFarlane. http:/www.rethinkschools.org/archive/22_04/lap224.shtml

This article was written by Sarah Heller McFarlane, a social studies teacher at Shorewood High School in Shoreline, Wash. Sarah explains her excitement when her district decided to bring laptops to the schools. “It was a dream coming true”, she said. But, by the end of the school year, she changed her point of view about full immersion technology in her classroom. She realized that she had to spend more and more time in front of her computer and her students became more and more distracted by the laptops and less social disconnected from each other. In spite of this, Sarah believes that teachers can be prepared and trained in a way they will be able to incorporate technology without losing the interpersonal social aspect of the class. Further, the author uses the Chicago Digital Youth network as a good example in how to use technology in the classroom maintaining the critical thinking and creativity among students.
Question 1: How I would incorporate technology in my classroom setting?
I would incorporate the use of computer in a way that still students will be able to connect and talk to each other. Google Docs is a good way to share your own work with your peers, because you have to communicate with your group in order to create and complete the assignment.
Question 2: Why Sarah after a year of laptop in her classroom became frustrated?
She was expecting to have only the positive side of the use of computer. When she realized that computers are great but impersonal, she started asking herself how to incorporate the use of computer in a way that still would promote social interaction and creativity among students.