Tour of Smart TAble Video clip by Tom Barrett.

I have just been watching Tom Barrett’s video tour of the Smart table in his classroom.  Here at Cotswold School we are so happy to have an Internet connection for the learners for the past 8 months and we bought our first data projector in October last year. Things are looking up for Cotswold but the mind boggles at the range of technology out there and it increases exponentially just about every week!  Most of our learners only have access to a computer one hour a week at school – nothing at home. They are so stimulated and motivated when they come to the computer lab and I have to be sure that they have optimum learning opportunities whilst they are there.

I’m not a great advocate of teaching ICT skills step by step as some programmes offer. I’m a just in time learning advocate and often children will learn intuitively so what’s the point of wasting their precious hour a week teaching them how to open Word etc. My dream would be to have two or three computers in each classroom and teachers who are enthusiastic about incorporating technology into lessons. There is so much one can do in a home room that I cannot do in the computer lab because I only see each class once a week for an hour. I sometimes think I’d like to go back to classroom teaching to try out new ideas with technology in situ but then I think of all the assessments and admin that is presently killing teaching stone dead and I think I’d rather stay where I am – and I’d love some new gadgets to play with.