Annotated Bibliography Of A Computer Lab

As chair of the committee charged with the recommendation for the purchase of new computer equipment, I will detail a suggested plan for this $50,000 project at Central High School. The high school has 1000 students in four grade levels (9th through 12th), and has approximately 60 and 20 supporting staff. An inventory of the computers at the whole school was conducted to understand what is currently available. There is currently one computer lab per grade level in the school with 22 computers each, allowing for each grade use of this for one period per day. There are also two computers in each classroom (one for student use, one for teacher use) as well as a bank of computers in the library. There are also individual computers for the guidance counselors, nurse, principals and assistant principals, and office staff. As the inventory was being done, a survey was passed out to all of the staff asking where the needs were greatest and what specific equipment was lacking. The overwhelming desire of the majority of the teachers was more computers in the individual classrooms, specifically in the math and science rooms as a lot of current information was required and there was a lot of competition for its use. There was a great desire to be flexible and move the computer from place to place, such that a laptop computer or tablet computer was preferred over a desktop.

Premier Collegiate School has a staff of thirty (30) faculty members, including administrative staff and teachers, and an enrollment of 300 students. The school maintains two (2) servers, one for student usage applications and software, and one for administration. Also, teachers have ten (10) computers located in the teacher’s lounge; and each administrative personnel have dedicated computers (10) at their disposal. Each student is required to provide their own laptop with wireless access (ITT technical institute, 2016).

In the school each classroom has a smart board with speakers that is positioned in front center of the room. The teachers are outfitted with a MacBook laptop that they can travel with and hook up to the smart board. These computers are equipped with smart notebook, which allows them to write on slides, insert videos, graphs and even games. Teachers use Google Drive to upload lesson plans, documents and materials into a shared folder. Each classroom has a bookshelf full of text books pertaining to the main teachers subject. Some books are Advanced Placement and some for Regents material. There are teacher editions and even DVDs for resources in the

Misty has incorporated many types of technology into her 6th grade classroom. Her students use Edmodo and Google Apps daily to collaborate and create projects. Misty continually teaches and reminds her students how to be digital citizens that respect others and cite sources when used. She also uses a plethora of websites that students can access from home or school to practice skills. Misty knows how to advance student achievement by maximizing technology as a formative assessment tool so she knows where each of her students are in their learning and what skills need to be retaught.

The library has plenty of computers for students to use on research papers, online homework, or ideas for their projects. The computers also give students a chance to increase their knowledge through their research on different topics. The main purpose of the AC library to be equipped with computers is to “support class-related assignments”; therefore, students are only allowed to use computers only for homework, essays, or projects (“Computer Use Policy,” 1). The library’s computers give students free access to the internet and programs such as Microsoft Office as well as many others that will allow them to complete their homework assignments or projects. Jennifer Lacy is a student that goes very often to the library to use a computer to do her online homework and she believes that “the library provides a good amount of computers for anybody who needs them.” Lacy informs that the library also allows students to print out papers with a small fine of ten cents per page for black and white and twenty-five cents for color; this information could also be found on the Angelina College website under Library. If a student were to have trouble with the computers or printing, there is always a librarian available to help the

Hernando County has a technology initiative; however, within the each classroom it can be hard to obtain, due to lack of technology. Within Challenger K8 most classrooms have about 2 working computers in the elementary grade levels. In middle school there are classrooms with no computers. We have 5 computer labs that can be scheduled for daily use and then scheduled for testing. Through our community partners the school has received 4 smart boards, and an iMac Lab. Our media person just received a grant for a class set of ipads. Some teacher have bought there own for students to utilize within the class. Hernando County also provided a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy for schools to use at their discretion. The middle school uses BYOD on a daily bases for informal formative assessments, games, and engagement. Teachers also conduct surveys at the beginning of the year to understand what technology is at the student finger tips at home. O’Neal suggests, “it is critical that we look at the use

This comes as a surprise as the budget was set early last school year, prior to Mrs. Kozniewski taking the helm of this department. I was pleasantly surprised that there was money in the budget for the addition to each school’s computer inventory. Each elementary school received a set of 30 Windows split-screen Notebooks to be housed on a cart to be signed out by teachers for classroom use. At the middle school level, they have 300 laptops available in carts referred to as C.O.W.s (Computers on Wheels). At the high school level, they added a Mac lab to be used primarily be the art department. They also provided the high school with Chromebooks on a cart.

We are currently living in a digital age where our students are notably technologically proficient. This poses a challenge with how some of our students are currently learning (or trying to learn) in our classrooms. Many students have grown tired of reading dense texts for homework assignments and tired of listening to long, boring lectures from teachers at school. The way in which students are currently analyzing and interpreting texts that they read and videos that they watch have not been up to our standards here at North Windsor High School. The thing is, a lot of our teachers are also struggling between teaching with both print text and by digital means. North Windsor High School acknowledges the fact that many seniors graduate not having the digital skills and print text literacy necessary to lead successful lives after high school. We are beginning to implement some changes with our teaching methods and hope to incorporate technology and print text in different and more engaging ways.

To find how teachers utilize technology in our area, we sent out a question survey to teachers in the surrounding

Anderson, L. (1996). Technology planning at the state, district, and local levels. ERIC Digest [Online]. Available: http://www.eric.ed.gov/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED393448

plan many classrooms have desktop computers or laptops for the students to use (2014). Some

Each chromebook lab can hold up to forty different machines at one time, while other labs - such as the iPads - vary dependant upon the individual classes needs. The Dell Optiplex 790 PC computer was released on the market in 2011 and brought to Sky View in 2015. The Sky View PC lab run by Marsha Larson contains 70 of them while the career center, managed by Heather Berentzen, holds approximately 50. So if you were to add up all of the technology available for student use - excluding the iPads because they are for special use only - that leaves students and faculty with 400 PCs and Chromebooks to support the 1,709 students that attend Sky View High School. If you were to break it down even further, to schedule the career lab it is preferred that you have a career based activity prepared upon use. So that can take another 50 PC units away from the shortage of technology already at hand. According to Marsha Larson, a common occurring problem is when a teacher gets denied from her lab due to overbooking. The teachers next step would be to then book a chromebook lab. But if there are no current chromebook labs accessible at that point, they can then attempt to schedule time in the career center which is the least likely available

This article attempts to enlighten educators to allow computers in the classroom as a workshop to help improve literacy. The computer allows for students to have both a visual and a verbal reference to a topic, thus, solidifying a concrete comprehension of the text, allowing the student to be further engaged and stimulated with the assignment. Over the years, educators have seen such a vast change in technology, especially in the classroom. It is time now, that educators embrace the change and use it to their advantage. “If students can be motivated and engaged when using technology, teachers should continue to support this type of learning when appropriate.”

The computer and Internet may be needed for educational software, educational games, and videos. Community resources such as guest speakers and field trips may need to be scheduled as well.

Education is one of the most important professions in the working world. Technology has done many things for us in today’s society especially for education and schools. Technology in the school system has impacted the students and teachers in many positive ways, including virtual field trips, testing tips, teacher resources, class web sites, and lesson plans. With computer use in our schools, we have access to many different sources and various types of learning.