The need for educational technology

I have spent my entire teaching career in alternative education settings, first for a private not-for-profit facility, and now in the local Career and Technical School. The divergence between the two schools is so obvious. The Career and Technical School has many forms of educational technology available, including access to online student information systems, curriculum mapping, in-class computer workstations for the students, Smartboards, laptops, LCD projectors and so on. By contrast, the private school had only limited computers, extreme restrictions on Internet access by both staff and students, and a local area network that crashed at least twice a week. The most advanced technology available for the teachers to use in teaching was one aging overhead projector for every two classrooms. Yet both schools are tasked with preparing their extremely diverse student populations with completion of State Education Department requirements and No Child Left Behind mandates. Today's students have different needs than those of the past. Likewise, today's teachers are entering the classroom well-versed in the use of educational software and many technologies not available in all classrooms. This can lead to frustration on the part of both student and teacher when the options to use the technology for learning are not available. Our students today are often better able to learn when the opportunity to use familiar technology is present. The performance of students in the two schools is not comparable. The private school struggles to have students succeed on State Education Department assessments, while the Career and Technical School's Alternative High School shows significant success rates on the same tests. Technology in the classroom provides alternative learning activities for those students who can benefit from them. This is one reason I am trying to implement more of it for my students who have alternative learning styles. We want our students to be life-long learners. To do that we need to get them interested in learning and keep their interest. Matching their learning styles to the instructional methods is the best way to do that.