Tech in the Classroom: Observation #2

Cooperating School: Heritage Classical Academy (HCA)

In this second observation, I will elaborate on the areas I overlooked in observation #1 and address available technologies. Heritage Classical Academy is structured as a very traditional school. As I mentioned in my first post, classical schools recognize the emergence of technology in the world and the impact it has on dominant education models, but do not believe that technology translates to better learning. Therefore a television or laptop is hard to come by, even for teachers. Nearly all assignments are turned in and graded by hand apart from specific scenarios regarding student accessibility. I’ve noticed this reproach from tech is the primary attitude in the lower grades (k-8) but there is an increase in tech use for the high-school aged students. I overlooked this in my first observation. 

There is no specific person in charge of the tech in these spaces but it seems the teachers have control over when and how technology is used in their classroom.  The school is very small and privately funded so their ability to hire a tech security person is limited. I spoke to several of the high-school teachers and they all had the same general negative disposition toward the use of tech in their classroom. The high school classrooms often hold one large TV monitor for teacher use and a class set of Chromebooks for the students to conduct research and type long form essays. I have witnessed teachers using the TV only twice. Once for an informational youtube video explaining the Athenian wars and another to present an instructional powerpoint presentation. Students’ access and use of their Chromebooks is highly monitored by the teacher. I have seen no further use of them apart from that which I’ve previously mentioned. Students are restricted to Google Scholar for research and Google Docs for essay writing. Though Google offers extended collaboration potential with these two features, student uses are generally nondescript. 

HCA’s detachment from tech in the classroom appears, at first, to be a misfortune for the students and teachers, but I have to agree with their approach. I have spent years at the school and have seen no negative result of students’ limited use of tech in the classroom. Their productivity, creativity, and performance is a powerful evidence to reinforce the classical approach.