Cultivate your path through Technology

Introduction

Technology has entered the world at an alarming rate and is used in almost everything we in some kind of way. We see technology as improving numbers, statistics, and time in everything we do please it brings out our curiosity and how things work and improve and develop to change things in our lives. This is of great promise during a five-year period in Fairfield County where it is very rural area and Technology is very low and nonexistent because of low level population and rural area. In 2015 Fairfield County put a plan together to issue Chromebook to its students to develop change in their district and community through technology but they had no idea how much it would impact it and create promise to their county and the community to give students opportunities they normally did not have. In fact, there are two videos with this case study to show the results and promise it brought to the county and how Technology brought curiosity to its students kept them engaged in learning and improved themselves through self-learning, group work and collaboration with others and other social skills. This change not only taught students but also taught teachers as well to where they not only taught lectures but became Facilitators through technology and found new ways to engaged learners using the Chromebook as a tool through apps, presentations, videos, blogs, and lectures.

Active Learning through Curiosity while using Technology to educate

When we talk about engagement, we can see how much it has changed over the years. When I was a child, we sat in a classroom and the teacher had a lesson plan and we had reading time to read our material and then answer the questions given at the end and then we discussed what we learned. We also had study hall, and lectures using books for homework. Those days have improved in almost every grade now using technology to gain excitement and interest into the students of today. Technology is bringing the fun back into learning by bringing the students and teachers together on a social level and keeping everyone engaged and learning the material at the same time on the same level and speed. This way everyone has the same goal and that is to stay engaged and to learn with the ultimate goal of graduating. Reiser and Dempsey talks about how Technology and how it is used in five different ways to conduct active learning (Reiser-Dempsey, 2017 Chapter 32 pg. 274). This resonates with those students in the video from Fairfield County school district back in 2015 when they were first introduced to the Chromebook at school. Google created Education apps such as G-Mail, Google Docs, Google Classroom, and Google Hangout to see how using this type of technology could improve the students in their learning and education to give the proper skills they will need to move forward in life. Fairfield County was a very poor and rural area and 51 percent of it were low income families and qualified for free school lunches and most of them did not have internet access at home so in a way this was completely new to the students and their families and brought their curiosity into play because of all the technology involved in the apps that were created. This brought the positive change in those students and kept them engaged in learning. While keeping them engaged using these tools the students developed the skills to be technically savvy, increase their social skills, with other students and the community, but most of all how to collaborate with other people in the community other then students in order to reach common goals life.

Technology Impact on Community in reaching goals

When we look at life, we think of a lot of things that happen in certain areas. But the same things do not always happen the same as they should, and this is case and point when we talk about the video on Fairfield County when they first introduced Technology into the school and community back in 2015. The community had no idea the impact it would give to their community, bringing them closer together and allowing their school district to finally be seen on the map. Everyone in the community has the same goal as any other community in the world. That goal is to have their children and students graduate and enter the world with the best intentions to have a positive life and move forward and Technology has made that goal by keeping the students engaged with these new Chromebooks which allowed them to communicate with teachers and students at any time. Students test scores improved by hitting double digits of improvements in multiple subjects over the years and allowed the community to also get involved and bring promise to the rural area. In fact, there were times when students would sit on the front steps of churches in order to complete schoolwork and assignments using the free Wi-Fi because they did not have it at home. Recognizing this the church allowed students to use their building as an after-school place for the kids to be able to do schoolwork and collaborate with other students to get schoolwork done. Until Wi-Fi access points were put in all over the city and also in school buses during certain times to give those students access, they needed. Since 2015 Internet has improved greatly in Fairfield County and now it is more accessible to students and in the end has impacted the Community greatly and brought the goal of coming together as a better community that cares about it students and having them succeed in life not only by the teachers and staff but the entire community.

Positive Expectancies for students to graduate using new technology

Over the next 4 to 5 years the teachers and faculty at Fairfield County had only one goal in mind and that was to see their students graduate high school, go to college and provide the brightest future they could with the changes that happened in 2015. With the positive influences the Chromebooks brought the students through learning and engagement, technology has now allowed us the opportunity to help students succeed in those futures. We ended up evaluating them on a new level and making them competitive to other areas throughout the state where Fairfield lacked before which showed tremendous promise (Wallace-Spurgin 2019). When we talk about positive expectancies in a teaching world, we look at all the data and statistics and compare numbers but none of that is as gratifying as watching students succeed in life and that is what Technology did for these students in Fairfield county. It brought students closer together to other students and teachers and made everyone dependable throughout to the District. By the year 2018, Fairfield was able to improve is school’s system and develop a STEM Early College Academy and those same students that appeared in the 2015 video also appeared in the 2018 video to show the Positive expectancy from the staff at the school. All of this was due to the type of learning and engagement technology had brought into their lives and excelled them to a better future all because of technology. Those students became the first students in the history of their district to graduate high school and also have an associate degree from Midland Technical College to give those students from a rural area a competitive edge on all levels to include skills they need to be successful in the workforce and prepare for a journey to a 4 year university. This change has truly inspired not only the students but the community and future students to embrace the changes in technology in their area and allow the students of their community to engage the new ways in their lives and cultivate their own path toward their futures.

References

Reiser, R. A., Dempsey, J. V. (20170110). Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology, 4th Edition [VitalSource Bookshelf version]. Retrieved from vbk://9780134237015

Wallace-Spurgin, M. (2019). Measuring student cognitive engagement when using technology. I. Sahin & V. Akerson (Eds). Monument, CO, USA: ISTES Organization.

Fairfield county has gone google (2014, June 25). [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYp6WBvqmeM

Fairfield County District- 5 year on (2016, September 6). [video file]. Retrieved from

https://www.blog.google/outreach-initiatives/education/how-fairfield-county-students-got-head-start-college/

The Benefits of Google Chromebooks and Apps for Education. District Administration. 2013;49(7):40-41. http://search.ebscohost.com.oclc.fullsail.edu:81/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=103610305&site=ehost-live. Accessed June 18, 2020.