Total Technology Immersion

The purpose of the article is to show the effects of total technology immersion in schools, and to show how it is done.  The author showed how it takes time, leadership, infrastructure (including money), and the support of teachers to make a total immersion actually be successful. 

            Personally I think this is a great idea, however difficult since this is a very expensive idea.  I definitely connected with the part about how the math classes had a hard time giving up the pencil, paper and calculators.  I feel that math is something that should be done via pencil and paper, and doing it on the computer can be frustrating.  There are really interesting programs that I have helped teach with at the university, and these are like ALEKS which is a artificial intelligence program which learns with the student and understands what they really know or don’t know.  Although most of the scratch work needs to be done on pencil and paper, ALEKS is a good resource for helping students to better understand their math. 

            Overall, this article shows how valuable that a total technology immersion program can have a big affect on student’s learning.  After evaluations, it showed that more students are doing better with reading and writing test scores.  On the other side, more students are more involved in what they are learning and feel more connected to school, which is always a benefit. 

            Considering that this is a total technology immersion program, all of the student NETS standards apply.  Students have all sorts of opportunities in all of their classes to develop skills and understanding of technology that applies to their schoolwork and real life.  This will help with their critical thinking process as well as identify which technology is appropriate for the project they are working on.

Vaughn, Sandy. "International Society for Technology in Education - Learning & Leading Total Technology Immersion." International Society for Technology in Education. ISTE, Sept.-Oct. 2010. Web. 14 Oct. 2010. <http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/issues/Total_Technology_Immersion.aspx>.