Case Study Blog Reflection

Directions:

Watch the case study video about Mrs. Lahooti - see week 6 for the link.
Form a response based on the questions posed below:
What are some of the primary issues being described by Mrs. Lahooti?
Why would these be problematic?
What are some solutions using hardware or software?
What are some classroom management strategies that you could suggest to Mrs. Lahooti? (List at least 2 solutions for 2 problems)

Response:

Although her discussion with Anne was short, Mrs. Lahooti had many problems with technology integration. In general her school lacked adequate technology. It was difficult for her to gain access to the technology and surprising if the technology functioned correctly. When the technology was obtained her class spent the majority of the time setting up and then wrapping up the lessons which left little time to actually work on the lesson. These issues are obviously problematic because the technology must function correctly for a teacher to rely on it for a lesson. If the majority of the class time is spent trying to fix a computer, signing the students on, or signing the students off then little learning can be accomplished. Also, planning the computer use weeks in advance may be difficult because the teacher will have no flexibility in the lesson plan and will have to be adament about the speed of the lesson.

Solutions involving hardware or software are difficult to explain. Having more hardware and functioning hardware would solve many of Lahooti's problems. However, she does not have the financial ability nor knowledge to fix the hardware problems herself. There did not seem to be many software problems except for the students not knowing how to run the software. It seems that preparing the students for the software prior to using it would make things run smoother. Perhpas Lahooti could give the students step-by-step directions explaining how the software runs.

Lahooti could lessen the problem of time by changing her classroom management strategies. She could first designate a few students for each lesson as the "computer people" and have all students approach those people with questions first. If Lahooti can lessen the amount of time she spends answering "silly" questions then she can actually do more teaching. She could also spend time prior to the lab or computer time preparing the students. Perhaps the students need to write down (before going into lab) the password to get into the computer so less time is wasted signing in. She could also rotate the students to the computers in her classroom while teaching other lessons. Although it would pull students out of her daily lessons it would drastically increase the amount of time each student was able to spend at the computer. Lahooti's problem of only a few computers in the classroom could be fixed by having students work in groups with computer literate (and illiterate) at each computer so the groups work at similar speeds. Then she could have each person in the group take a different role, including typer, mouse operater, and director. This would involve all people in the group and also require the students to work together.


**note** I apologize for the tardiness of this entry. The link to Lahooti's interview did not function at first and then I had to leave the state for a funeral. Within a day or two I will hopefully be able to catch up with my school work.