FIELD PLACEMENT

Fredericton High School

For my field placement at Fredericton High School I spent several periods with two different history classes. I had been hoping that I would spend some time finding out what great new things are being done with computers and technology at the high school. Some great things are being done there, especially in the broad-based technology lab, which I managed to visit only briefly, as it was not part of my scheduled stay at the high school. What I did while I was there was somewhat more mundane than what is going on in the broad-based technology lab, but not the less important for all that. Both of the history classes I visited with had just been given an essay assignment to research. My role was to help the students find information on the Internet. I have to say that there are quite a number of students who did not really need much help from me. These students are already quite adept at finding information on the Internet. Other students did need some guidance.

For all students, however, I was able to provide some guidance in a non-technical aspect of their search for information on the Internet. There is an abundance of information already available on the Internet and more is becoming rapidly available. However, a lot of that information is of questionable value. I was able to offer some advice on how to weed out what is good and what is not good in this regard. Mostly my advice took the form of questions that students should be asking of the material that they find on the Internet. Such questions as, "Who published this information and for what purpose?" are just a couple of the questions that I posed to the students to help them think critically about the sources that they were viewing. I also helped them out with search terms that they might use in seeking out information with the help of a search engine.

There are some things that could be done to improve the students' use of computers at the high school. For one thing, I believe that each student should have their own account on the computer that is accessible with a student personal account name and personal password. This would entail students having access to storage space where they could store their own files that only they could access. This would include the ability to save any bookmarks that students make on the web browser when they find useful information on the Internet. The teachers in the broad-based technology lab tell me these things are in the works. However, they have received a great deal of new equipment during this school year and it has taken time to get everything up and running so my suggestions just have not been able to be implemented yet due to the time element. As a matter of fact, the computer lab that I took the students to just opened about two weeks before my field placement there.

My hopes for my field placement were that I would see new things that perhaps I had only read about previously. However, the teachers I was assigned to looked to me as someone who could help them. This was fine. I was pleased to learn that they do have some knowledge of using computers in the classroom and that they want to learn more. Most importantly, they were excited about using computers in the classroom. They want to know more about how they can use computers as a learning tool. Since I only had a limited amount of time there to do anything I asked the students what they thought of using computers in the classroom. What follows are some of the responses I received from the students.

 Kyla:  She finds the Internet useful, saying that you don't have to type everything. She has WordPerfect 7 at home, which she uses for typing her notes and essays and projects. She finds it easier to use the Internet than an encyclopaedia and she thinks that you can find more information on the Internet.

 Kirsten:  She thinks that computers in the classroom are a good thing. They are fun and good for finding information on the Internet. She uses WordPerfect at home to type up her projects.

 Shawn:  He thinks that computers are an excellent idea. Everything is quicker. You can find more information in less time, both on the Internet and on CD-ROMs. He likes being able to type up assignments in MS Word because you get better typing skills and it makes your final copies neater. He thinks the school should get more new computers.

 Chris:  Chris thinks that students do not get to use computers enough at school because teachers don't like to take you to work on the computers. The library computers are always booked. Chris thinks that computers provide a good learning opportunity because everything will be done by computers later on. He strongly believes that the school should ditch Cyber Patrol, the program that filters out offensive Internet sites. Chris believes this program blocks access to information that students need.

 Patty:  Patty complained that the computers in the library are always booked by the same people all the time. She finds it easier to find information on the Internet and on CD-ROM and she uses a computer at home.

 Drew:  The computers in the library are too slow!

 Jim:  Jim likes using computers because he likes the pictures but he also likes the printed information. He is anxious for the time when he won't have to type information into the computer. He wants to just talk instead of type.

 Abba:  He likes computers sometimes for doing projects, such as in history and other subjects. He finds computers easier to use than books for finding information. He likes using search engines. Sometimes he finds computers boring, however. He couldn't quite explain why. Sometimes he gets headaches when using computers and says he is not good at using computers and is not good at typing. What he likes most about computers is using the Internet.

 Mike:  Mike thinks using computers in the classroom is a good idea because you don't have to write as much, you can type instead. He likes the pictures.

 Glenda:  Glenda does not like using computers in the classroom. She thinks they are taking away from education because there is a lot of false information on the Internet. She also thinks that CD-ROMs like Encarta don't give enough information.

So there you have it. Most of the feedback I received regarding the use of computers in the classroom was positive. The ease of access to information seemed to be the main theme behind this positive response. It would seem that the more access there is to computers in the classroom the better most students like it. This was certainly not a scientific survey by any means but the comments are interesting nonetheless. The comments seemed to be totally directed towards the use of the Internet and the use of word processing programs. I did not ask the students about their experience in the broad-based technology lab. These were grade 10 students, whom I believe get little exposure to that lab, although I think that will be changing soon.

Overall, it would seem that the school is moving about as quickly as it can toward implementing the use of computers into the educational process. I was unable to get much of a feel for just how effectively computers have been used. That is, I did not get enough experience there to judge whether computers are being used as mindtools, which engage the intellect, so that students are learning with computers rather than from computers, or whether computers are just being used as productivity tools. If you look at my articles I posted on the Instructional Design page you will have a better understanding of what I am referring to.

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