Dear Ninth Grade Parents,
As many of you know, on March 1st our school will
be hosting its first annual technology fundraiser, the Tech Challenge Fun Day.
The money raised by the event will go toward purchasing new hardware and
software for the school’s media center. As the mentor for the Ninth Grade class,
I would love to see the Ninth Grade parents become involved as volunteers in
the planning and execution of the Tech Challenge Fun Day fundraiser. Parent
involvement, in addition to building community and signaling parent support for
the school initiatives, would go a long way toward making this event the
success that we hope it will be.
Concerns About Technology
As I solicit your support for this school initiative, I am
aware of the fact that some of you may have concerns about increased
integration of technology into the high school curriculum at our school. Please
rest assured that the type of technology integration our school is seeking to
implement will be in full accordance with what Jack Petrash has called the
Waldorf-inspired pedagogical mission of educating “the whole child – heart,
mind and hands” (Petrash, 2002, p. 23) and fostering strong interpersonal
relationships between students and teachers. Use of technology in our school
will not decrease student-teacher interactions, nor will it replace the
artistic and practical-arts offerings in our curriculum.
Why Technology?
Our school has made the decision to expand our computer
resources because we realize that in today's world the internet has become an important research and communication tool (Roblyer and Doering, 2010, p. 16). Moreover, experience using computer applications such as word processors and various
presentation software is increasingly necessary for success both in higher-learning
environments and in the business world (Roblyer and Doering, 2010, pp. 15-16). Finally, it has also been shown that use of technology can enhance student
interest and motivation; that it can help address the needs of students with
learning disabilities; and that it can be a useful tool in the development of
higher-order problem-solving skills (Roblyer and Doering, 2010, pp. 14-15).
Faced with these facts, the college of teachers feels that it is important to
embed enhancement of media literacy into instruction across the curriculum. We
will thus be helping our students be more successful and efficient in carrying
out their assignments and we will also prepare them for their experiences
beyond high school. We will seek to integrate increased technology use into
instruction in a way that supports our existing educational objectives.
Which Technology?
This year, our specific goal is to acquire a Viewsonic video projector
for the school, as well as a laptop computer equipped with PowerPoint software and Blu-Ray video capability. These acquisitions would enable our students to present independent projects in class in the form of
polished audio-visual presentations. The college of teachers feels that the
creation of such technologically supported products would increase the
motivation and enhance technological literacy of the students creating the
presentations. This technology would also make it possible for teachers to deliver audio-visual presentations in class, using this multi-media format to increase student attentiveness to the lesson and enhance engagement with the material.
Please Join Us
I hope that, with an understanding of our objectives an
goals, you will support our school’s effort to expand our technological
resources. Please join us, then, by volunteering for jobs at the Tech Challenge
Fun Day and making this fundraiser the success we would like it to be. If you
have any questions or comments about this initiative – or about the fundraiser
itself – please do not hesitate to share them below. I hope to see you all on
March 1st!
-- Ms. Popovic, Ninth Grade Mentor Teacher
References
Petrash, J.
(2002). Understanding Waldorf Education:
Teaching from the Inside Out. Beltsville, MD: Gryphon House.
Roblyer, M.D.
& Doering, A.H. (2010). Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching
(5th Edition). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
DISCLAIMER:
This blog is an assignment for an educational technology
course at National University. It is not a real fundraising blog.
