While technology is an excellent took for teaching, is not the magic pill for all of education's ills. I also think it is important for educators to engage in the ongoing dialogue, both on and off screen, about the issues of technology in the classroom. Computer access at The Beacon School is better than at most New York City public high schools. There are three computer labs and several staff members that teach and maintain the computers. We are a dual platform school which means that students and staff have access to both Macs and PCs.
Teachers can sign up to take their classes to the computer labs as available.
Of course, nothing is perfect and we continue to struggle with several issues such as lack of training time for teachers and limited finances for support and maintenance of our equipment. I and three colleagues, Nicole, Elisa and Roy put our heads together to develop a technology plan for Beacon. Go to this website Beacon Technology Plan Summer 2000, to see some of our ideas. The Blood Drive project is the anchor of the technology-infused lesson I developed for this workshop. You can check out my lesson plan for details.