I teach 21st century learners!! or more specifically....two 9th grade biology, two 12th grade environmental science, and one 12th grade AP environmental science class at an urban public magnet school.
When my students want to print, they ask for my flash drive, save their document to it, walk into my office where I have brought in my own printer from home. They insert the flash drive into a dinosaur of a computer, click print, and return to their group 5 minutes later to find out that they printed the wrong thing.
If that printer is in use, they send the document to their email, run down four flights of steps and across the equivalent of a city block to the school's library, retrieve their document in that printer (inevitably low on toner) and return 20 minutes later. Rinse and repeat. It's not the most efficient process.
My school was built during the New Deal and in many ways (aside from the cell phones students try to hide inside their bags) it still functions as though we are living in the 1930s. Our administration is making a strong effort to provide the technology our students will be expected to use proficiently and creatively in their higher educations and future careers, but is constrained by the patchy nature of grants and the high level of need. As a result, I have access to a class set of laptops, but am unable to print from them.
As I integrate technology into my classes more, printing becomes a bigger issue. Being able to print to a single wireless printer (that I alone maintain and am responsible for) that is on the same floor and in the same room as my students) would be a gigantic help. I use technology in all five of my classes and also with my two after school clubs. This one item would have almost constant impact in my school.
Thanks for your consideration. If we want our students to be successful in college and beyond, we need to surround them with the types of technology found there. Additionally, if we want to focus on building high level thinking skills, lets work to take away as many of the technical distractions so that the real learning happens.
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