ABOUT ME

Hargett's Hints and Technlogy Tips

REFLECTIONS ..... From Teacher to Technology, a lesson in lifelong learning.

I didn't actually start with Microsoft and the Windows operating system. I began my computer training back in the '80's with the Radio Shack operating system called TRS-DOS (Tandy Radio Shack Disk Operating System). West Rome High purchased a number of TRS-80 computers (affectionately called "trash 80's) as our first computers. Costing approximately $600 (that was a lot of money back then) each, these computers had no hard drives, no internet access, and saved data on cassette tapes. A computer "expert" was brought in to train the teachers on how to use them. For the next several weeks we spent several planning periods typing in computer code using a computer language called BASIC. By the end of our training we could copy code from the board and create a white square on the computer screen with a white blip that bounced around inside! Yay! But, how could I use that to actually teach??

One of the math teachers was assigned to teach a BASIC programing class one period a day. The lab was unused the other five periods. Over the next few months I struggled with trying to figure out how to use those "idle" computers with my students. Eventually, with the help of the physics teacher, Bob Young, and one of his students, we came up with a BASIC program that allowed me to type in review questions and answers. Students would put in their answers and be told whether they were right or wrong with a flashing light that said, "GREAT JOB!" or "TRY AGAIN". Some of my early efforts to have the program randomly select multiple answer choices for students were comical. We still laugh when we remember a student receiving the following question and options:

How many legs does an insect have?

Arthropoda

Insecta

Crustacea

Six

I'll bet no one missed that question! LOL

Eventually, the school purchased Tandy 1000 computers and printers from Radio Shack for teacher use. These still had no hard drive. They used two 5.25 inch floppy drives. You inserted the program disk (Microsoft Works) into the A: drive and your data disk into the B: drive. Some teachers kept on using their old fashioned typewriters, while others used the computer as a typewriter, not even saving the document when they were finished! I took a RESA class to learn Microsoft Works. I was so excited to learn how to merge and copy between the spreadsheet, database, and document programs. Since I had a student teacher at the time, I flew through the tutorial program and became the teacher's assistant, helping some of the kindergarten teachers who had never even used an electric typewriter! To this day, I still keep question databanks in Excel and use them to create my tests for my college classes.

I later purchased my own computer and discovered immediately what is still an ongoing problem. As soon as you buy a computer, it's obsolete. Living on a teacher's salary I couldn't afford to buy a new one every time new hardware was developed. So I began to learn how to do things myself. When 3.5 inch floppy disks came out, I learned to install floppy drives. Later, when hard drives came out, I purchased and installed a hard drive for my ancient computer. In competition with Apple, Microsoft came out with Windows 3.1 which was a radical change from the old MS-DOS disk operating system. Of course, Windows 3.1 was followed by Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7, and now Windows 8. In my last year of teaching in the classroom I had accumulated approximately 18-20 computers that ran 3 different operating systems.

When the state began to require computer training for teachers, I took the In-Tech class from the Educational Technology Training Center (ETTC) and eventually became Captain of the In-Tech re-delivery team at Rome High. In this capacity I received a large TV and converter system to display my computer screen to the TV. I was now able to display PowerPoint for classroom lecture. I quickly found that I could now go much faster and students couldn't keep up. I decided to publish my notes on the web, at http://rcs.rome.ga.us/hargett, for students to print out ahead of time (not quite a "flipped" classroom but taking baby steps). So I had to learn the basics of web design and html coding. In those days we didn't have the ease and availability of free blogs and web pages that are available today. I placed my notes online with key terms and information deleted and replaced with blanks. Students could print this out ahead of time and come prepared to "fill-in" the missing information and add addtional information during lecture.

To make more time for classroom activities and lab, I took review worksheets and drill out of the classroom and made it available at home on my webpage also. Using a free program, called "Hot Potatoes", students could practice answering questions and check answers at home. However, in these early days, I often found that a significant portion of my class had no computer or internet access at home. In order to accomodate these students, I often had to use some class time for these students to have access to the information. As we move toward BYOT, we will need to keep this in mind today.

In my first year of teaching I frequently had to average my grades with a handheld calculator while sitting in the bleachers at a basketball game! Calculators were even new at that time. I bought my first one in college because we weren't allowed to use them in high school. After learning Excel, I began using and encouraging the use of spreadsheets to average grades. Eventually this gave way to the use of our first electronic gradebook and student information system, STI. This, of course, was followed by PowerSchool and you know the rest of that story.

In addition to encouraging students to use the computers for class, I often spent my planning time helping department members with computer problems, encouraging them in their computer use, and was eventually asked to become the webmaster for the Rome High webpage. All of this was instrumental in my being honored as the Rome City Schools Teacher of the Year in the fall of 2004.

Since retiring from the classroom, I have continued to use many of those early skills but find that there's always something new to learn. I have since had to learn Smartboard, how to use Excel in the export and upload of student and teacher usernames and passwords for multiple online programs, seen a drastic change in teaching from QCC objectives, to GPS performance standards, and the new Common Core Standards. Currently, I'm trying to come up to speed with Apple's iOS devices and their uses in the classroom and am looking forward to the use of BYOT and the incorporation of a multitude of devices (phones, ipods, ipads, tablets, laptops, etc.) in the classroom.

Truly, to be an educator is also to be a lifelong learner.