Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer

The dominant technology in the classroom

I snapped these photographs in the media center at U.S. Grant High School in Oklahoma City yesterday. My thought was: Here is the technology which still predominates in our classrooms in 2009!

Overhead Projectors at US Grant High School in Oklahoma City

Overhead Projectors at US Grant High School in Oklahoma City

Overhead Projectors at US Grant High School in Oklahoma City

Will all our schools be implementing 1:1 learning initiatives within 5 years? Within 10 years? Will these overhead projectors still be in use then?

Technorati Tags:
, , , , , , , ,

If you enjoyed this post and found it useful, subscribe to Wes’ free newsletter. Check out Wes’ video tutorial library, “Playing with Media.” Information about more ways to learn with Dr. Wesley Fryer are available on wesfryer.com/after.

On this day..


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

9 responses to “The dominant technology in the classroom”

  1. Clarence Fisher Avatar

    1:1…..? Do you mean one overhead projector per child? Looks like you’re on the way there! (my school – although smaller so having a smaller stock – looks much the same.?)

  2. H Songhai Avatar

    But this new “Wave” we speak of… I’ve literally seen it take off in the classroom with just a single digital camera.

  3. Dean Groom Avatar
    Dean Groom

    As I walk around my campus – I bask in their warm glow … yes, they aint going anywhere for a while I think.

  4. Jennifer Bergland Avatar

    This makes me so sad!

  5. ZiggyU Avatar
    ZiggyU

    Very very sad picture. Maybe they should sell these on eBay!

  6. Jeff Herbel Avatar
    Jeff Herbel

    Hopefully these overhead projectors will not make their way back into a classroom at US Grant. They are installing a Smartboard in every classroom this summer. One large step for technology integration in the classroom.

  7. D. Harris Avatar
    D. Harris

    We have just disposed of half of our overhead projectors! Yeh!
    Our administrator is funding document readers for our classrooms.
    Bring on the technology!

  8. Tom Avatar

    A couple of years ago we built a new middle school. I put in all the bells and whistles – IP television, video on demand, projectors, sound reinforcement, interactive boards, document cameras, etc. The principal still insisted on buying overhead projectors.

    The happy ending is that two years later most of the overheads are sitting unused as teachers have taken to the new technology. However, that cost could have been saved and applied to 1:1 initiatives.

  9. Sandy Avatar

    I was so excited when we opened a new elementary school in our district in the Fall of 2008 and the very tech-savy principal saw the vision – no overheads for his K-5 campus, only document cameras!

    Our district technology director also made a commitment to getting 100% coverage of projectors for instructional classrooms across our district, phased in over the last two school years. Because of that initiative, principals at other campuses have caught the vision. A few of our campuses have now have 100% document camera coverage in their classrooms because their principals have dedicated campus funds to purchasing them.

    We may still have only one computer per classroom, but at least we are better leveraging that one computer with projectors in every classroom and continuing to increase document cameras as we are able.

    Does anyone know where to recycle overheads? 😀