For this blog, I contacted the teacher from the school that I used on an earlier blog. Her name is Mrs. T and she teaches fifth grade at the Sinarmus World Academy in Jakarta, Indonesia. She responded to my first blog and showed her students the blog I posted about their school. I thought it was such a cool looking place and after talking to Jane(Mrs. T), I would love to be one of her students. We had a wonder conversation and I have learned how truly poor our schools are.
When I contacted Jane about this blog, she was more than happy to give me some background on her school and share with me their tools of technology. First, she told me her students each have their own personal Macbook and every grade from fifth on up gets one. Her school views using computers as a tool, therefore there are not any computer classes. Using the computer is an every day lesson for her students. I informed her that with budget cuts and employee reductions, our schools could't possibly afford to do that. She also said that they use mobile phones for taking pictures and I told her a student and teacher caught with a phone recieved a free pass to the principal's office. Her school has a full wifi environment (I have no clue what that is and I did ask her, with no response), a podcast server and a LMS. Jane said they have Interactive Whiteboards and of course blogs and websites. I asked her how this is all used in the classroom. She responded saying they use a cashless system called Smartcards. These are used as ID, library card and can be swiped at the cafes or computer stores which sell accessories.
After reading her comment, I asked her how the students academic achievement was affected. She said, "Our student's enthusiasm and creativity is very, very high". I explained to her that her school was much more advanced technologically than any school I have worked in. We are just getting around to using Smartboards in our school, with little success. She wrote back saying that her school is currently talking about using iPhones with the ninth and tenth grade students and she is currently podcasting student digital stories. Wow! I really want to attend that school, those student are so blessed.
I really enjoyed communicating with Jane. She seems like a super teacher and I'm sure her students think so. I never thought in the U.S. that we would be so behind in technology in our schools. It was very interesting to see how teachers in another country use technological tools for a great learning experience. Hopefully, someday soon we will catch up with other parts of the world.
When I contacted Jane about this blog, she was more than happy to give me some background on her school and share with me their tools of technology. First, she told me her students each have their own personal Macbook and every grade from fifth on up gets one. Her school views using computers as a tool, therefore there are not any computer classes. Using the computer is an every day lesson for her students. I informed her that with budget cuts and employee reductions, our schools could't possibly afford to do that. She also said that they use mobile phones for taking pictures and I told her a student and teacher caught with a phone recieved a free pass to the principal's office. Her school has a full wifi environment (I have no clue what that is and I did ask her, with no response), a podcast server and a LMS. Jane said they have Interactive Whiteboards and of course blogs and websites. I asked her how this is all used in the classroom. She responded saying they use a cashless system called Smartcards. These are used as ID, library card and can be swiped at the cafes or computer stores which sell accessories.
After reading her comment, I asked her how the students academic achievement was affected. She said, "Our student's enthusiasm and creativity is very, very high". I explained to her that her school was much more advanced technologically than any school I have worked in. We are just getting around to using Smartboards in our school, with little success. She wrote back saying that her school is currently talking about using iPhones with the ninth and tenth grade students and she is currently podcasting student digital stories. Wow! I really want to attend that school, those student are so blessed.
I really enjoyed communicating with Jane. She seems like a super teacher and I'm sure her students think so. I never thought in the U.S. that we would be so behind in technology in our schools. It was very interesting to see how teachers in another country use technological tools for a great learning experience. Hopefully, someday soon we will catch up with other parts of the world.
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