Despite the increased costs for operating schools and providing resources, our school budgets continue to shrink, often eliminating budgets for "luxury" resources including technology. Other issues arise, including the changes in technology requiring further investment, the discontinuation of older technology, and the need to repair of current technology, which strain budgets and leave school just barely keeping with the curve and limiting innovation. The most environment-changing example in my classroom is the sun-setting of Promethean's ActivInspire software, including support for ActivExpression technology; the new ClassFlow software does away with support for ActiveExpression response devices, and encourages the use of mobile technology to submit student responses.
To replace all 35 of the ActivExpression devices in my room would cost upward of $6,000; while a 1:1 ratio of devices to students would be my ultimate goal, I still want to use this technology in a more strategic way to increase teamwork and collaboration while improving student outcomes.
For the devices, I plan to have a Chromebook at each grouping of desks. My instruction will include opportunities for students to respond as a team on the device, encouraging them to share ideas and agree as a team on a response. Using this technology, they can share their ideas with the entire class wireless to the projector from their seats. While devices are not in use for the groups, they will be used to give enhanced, individualized learning to struggling students. When not used for instruction, they can be utilized for testing and instant feedback, removing some administrative burdens in a test-heavy environment.
Please help these wonderful, eager, and disadvantaged learners have a learning environment that is successful, exciting, and on par with the experiences that more affluent students have. Your contributions to this goal are absolutely appreciated by me and my students!
About my class
Despite the increased costs for operating schools and providing resources, our school budgets continue to shrink, often eliminating budgets for "luxury" resources including technology. Other issues arise, including the changes in technology requiring further investment, the discontinuation of older technology, and the need to repair of current technology, which strain budgets and leave school just barely keeping with the curve and limiting innovation. The most environment-changing example in my classroom is the sun-setting of Promethean's ActivInspire software, including support for ActivExpression technology; the new ClassFlow software does away with support for ActiveExpression response devices, and encourages the use of mobile technology to submit student responses.
To replace all 35 of the ActivExpression devices in my room would cost upward of $6,000; while a 1:1 ratio of devices to students would be my ultimate goal, I still want to use this technology in a more strategic way to increase teamwork and collaboration while improving student outcomes.
For the devices, I plan to have a Chromebook at each grouping of desks. My instruction will include opportunities for students to respond as a team on the device, encouraging them to share ideas and agree as a team on a response. Using this technology, they can share their ideas with the entire class wireless to the projector from their seats. While devices are not in use for the groups, they will be used to give enhanced, individualized learning to struggling students. When not used for instruction, they can be utilized for testing and instant feedback, removing some administrative burdens in a test-heavy environment.
Please help these wonderful, eager, and disadvantaged learners have a learning environment that is successful, exciting, and on par with the experiences that more affluent students have. Your contributions to this goal are absolutely appreciated by me and my students!
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