Knowing Your School's Technology Culture, Emil West

Reflection- There is an ample ammount of technological equipment that benefits the students. However, there is no oversight committee that regulates and mandates the use of technology, or at least not a committee that is highly effective. I went to Barb Kelly's office several times, constantly thinking I was going to the wrong office because she wasn't there each time I went to find her. She is the head technology-person at the school, but more of a handy-woman than anything else.
I kept asking the administrators where she was and who I could talk and they told me her, but since she was never there, I was referred to Gabe's host teacher, Richard Steele. Mr. Steele seems to be more in tune with technology than anyone in the school but he's just a lowly English teacher. I asked him why he didn't pursue Kelly's technology position or something along those lines and he told me that those people just fix things and get paid 1/3 of what teachers make.
Steele informed me that the new trend for tech people at schools is to have an administrator be in charge of the technology situation. I think JDHS or Thunder Mountain High-school would benefit from that but they probably won't head in that direction. I think the technology classes and teachers are great, but there's room for more integration of technology in the classroom. With that being said, as a future English teacher, I find nothing wrong with making kids do hand written assignments. While typing on the computer is a highly valuable asset, so is having proper grammer and punctuation that isn't dictated by microsoft word. My teacher is old school in the sense that none of his assignments have to be typed. This works for him as well as the students and when I teach I will not completely abandon the art of hand-writing.
Juneau does well with technology because the community is very in-tune with the technological advances that are out there. Mr. Steele told me that we have a great internet connection as well: where other parts of Alaska aren't connected to the lower 48, Sitka, Anchorage, Fairbanks and us are, or something like that.

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