RMC Research Findings
Successes & Challenges
"Involvement in your project has positively impacted my outlook on the future of education, my teaching philosophy and practices, and most importantly, the futures of my students now and those to come." - Michele Morgan, Tonasket Middle School
Successes:
- All teachers responding to the spring 2000 survey agreed:
- Overall, their participation in the project had been worthwhile.
- Students involved improved behavior, increased motivation to write, improved reading skills, writing skills, technology skills, took more pride in their work, had more enjoyment of school or enthusiasm for schoolwork, and improved confidence or self-concept.
- Most agreed that relations between LD and regular education students had improved.
- As a result of their participation in the grant teachers felt more competent in the use of technology and better prepared to use technology with LD and other students.
- They learned a great deal and were excited to see students become engaged in learning. Student empowerment.
- They had learned valuable computer skills.
- They had been well informed about the project and received adequate training.
- They had been able to obtain timely answers to project-related questions.
- They had been able to receive technical support from SETC.
- Most (90%) agreed that their building administrators had been supportive of their participation in the project.
Challenges:
- When asked about the challenges of implementing the project, the teachers primarily mentioned the amount of time involved:
- ". . . finding enough time for use of technology while still covering other IEP areas"; "finding time to familiarize myself with all the software"
- ". . . how to fit everything in! Programs, WASL, EALRs, all the students, paperwork, general ed. Kids, time schedules. I feel that I am not using he resources and programs as well as I could."
- "Sometimes I feel overwhelmed with all there is to teach the students." ". . . having enough time with students to teach new applications and practice using them."
- "I need more than one hour with my students a day. I need more time for communication with teachers regarding student projects and activities."
- "There is a steep learning curve with so many different software packages."
- ". . . stress and effective use of time, especially at the start of the year."
- Some teachers mentioned problems with the technology:
- ". . . getting connected to the network, Internet, and email have been the most frustrating challenges. Our tech support person does not have the knowledge to help with the technology we have."
- "We're getting through it, but the tech problems have held us up. I don't think we could have done it at all without the district tech support."
- "The Internet at school was down for 3 weeks and I had no contact with SETC for over a month."
- More than a third of the teachers who responded indicated they had not been able to receive technical support for the grant technology from within their building or district.
- "Sometimes it is frustrating when some of the equipment doesn't work and some of it does, it slows down the actual work time for the students."
- "Students have taken computers home and broken passwords or laptops."
(SETC Note: This has happened in surprisingly few cases. Some theft from other than LD students has also occurred in a few schools.)
- ". . . finding activities for the non-project students to do while the project students are training or using the laptops."
- ". . . getting all LD kids here on a regular schedule."
- ". . . having a schedule that is not always changing"
- "Students here are so transient."
- "Some of the other teachers are a little computer shy and are having trouble with computer use in the classrooms."
- "[I don't] have general ed teacher support with some teachers."
- "I feel that there is not enough time to do all I want (need) to do with the targeted grant students in preparation for the WASL while teaching the tech component."