Technology Integration

Baron, Kathy, April 2010. “Project Fun Way: When Project Learning and Technology Meet.”Edutpia Magazine. Available at www. edutopia.org/maine-project-learning-technology-integration

The article is about Casco Bay, a 248 student High School in Portland, Maine and it practices “expeditionary learning, and it builds on the collaborative, interdisciplinary approach of project learning, then extends the effort out of the classroom into the community.” (Baron, 2010). It was written to show other schools, education students and higher institutions how technology can invigorate a students compassion for going to school and learning. In the case of Yuki Hall she says, "For me, going to Casco Bay each day is like Harry Potter going to Hogwarts. It fits. It's me. I am excited to go to school every day. I wake up and I jump out of bed because of how happy I am to be here." For a student to have learning experiences like that, where education is the enjoyment, it probably makes it a lot easier for these kids to transition into higher education. Some of the past projects they have completed are:

-Give Me Shelter Program (Video Below)
-Public-service announcements on energy efficiency for local broadcasts
-Raising awareness of the dangers of cell phone use while driving
-Playground equipment for preschool children

The article was written in 2010 and is very current. The author, Kathy Baron is Edutopia's featured producer and research editor. The information is an accurate account of the school and how it operates. Fortunately, for Casco Bay, the state funding went through on a 41 million dollar initiative and now every student in the school has a laptop. I do believe that most school systems would want to participate in the technology aspects of what Casco Bay is doing. But, most of the time our schools don’t get proper funding and there budgets our strapped as it is. I don’t think all of America will advance with technology until something is done about funding. I wish all states where as aggressive as the state of Maine was in purchasing technology for all students. Also, I wish all schools would be as aggressive as Casco Bay in integrating real world lessons(not on the computer screen) and using the technology to display there findings. Susan McCray, is a teacher at Casco Bay and she says “We live in an age where you can't get away with just giving kids information, because they already have at their fingertips almost all the information that exists in the universe." (Baron,2010). Her program and lesson is below: