Student+Voices

//**Testimony from University of Maine Farmington Students:**//
"I know a one-to-one laptop requirement for the secondary education program is a great idea. I used a loaned ibook for my middle school placement for student teaching. It was challenging enough to student teach, and the added work of learning my way around the ibook was unfortunate. The students clearly knew more than I did about the ibook. Let's reverse this trend!" **//- Sam Dunbar, Secondary Social Science Education, UMF 2006//**

"I believe the idea of putting technology in the hands of tomorrow's teachers is not only a wonderful idea but a must if we want teachers to be ready to help students prepare for tomorrow. By having the tools before graduating from college, it would then be possible for future teachers to enrich their future student's lives and to feel much more comfortable using the technology in their classrooms. If UMF wishes to continue to be leaders in the education of prospective teachers, I believe that it is a must for the University to use the tools of the future to help future teachers to be ready to enter the classroom. I am so glad that someone is taking this idea on and I would love the opportunity to be a part of it and help in any way possible." **//- Abby Wood//**, **//Secondary Social Science Education,// UMF 2007**

"Technology integration is extremely important in creating innovative and involving experiences for students. As future educators it is crucial to realize that, as times change, so do the needs and interests of those we teach. During practicum I have been thrust into the teaching world with only my experiences to go on. I had no expectations and I was certainly not prepared in any way, shape, or form to use technology in the classroom. I had never created a PowerPoint with anything more then text. I had no idea what a digital story was. I didn't know how to use the UMF website server and I wasn't aware of the value of WebQuests. I had never heard of a Wiki and I thought Blogs had no place in the classroom. I was wrong, and with help, I learned and thrived. I learned to create and use these things, in addition to many other technological products and features. I couldn't have created a successful unit without technology. Without this new knowledge, my lessons wouldn't engage my students. Without it, I wouldn't be using the tried-and-proven method of differentiated instruction, nor would I be involving nearly as many multiple intelligences. My lessons would fall short and I wouldn't be able to assess my students' level of understanding of the subject matter as accurately. We are college students and now is the time to learn how to integrate technology. We are the future teachers of the world and we can teach others what we know. As an education major I can confidently say that we need technology. We need to have laptops that are up-to-date and equipped with software that will increase our ability to educate our prospective students and ourselves." //**-**// Katharine Gergosian, Secondary English Education

"Having taken practicum last semester (fall 2006), I feel that all education majors should be required to own a laptop upon entering the program. Not only did we need computers to do just about everything we did in practicum, but we needed to be able to quickly go from one place to another, whether it be meetings for group work, class, or stuff on our own. I also believe that Macs should be the "highly recommended" choice for these students to make. The programs on macs and the fact that this is the platform that Maine schools use makes them the much better choice.//"// **//- Dale Menard//**, **//Secondary Science//** //**Education**//

"I think this is a great idea because laptops are extremely practical and that is very ideal for practicum. With this campus being wireless, laptops can easily be used anywhere. With the amount of work required during practicum, I could not imagine not having a laptop. There are many times when I bring my laptop along with me to work on homework for practicum between classes/meetings in the education center lounge, for example. Requiring all of the software used in practicum to be on the laptops would be so helpful and a time saver as well because students would not have to plan time into their day to go to the computer center or mac lab. That is one of the most inconvenient things about practicum, I feel, having to complete different assignments at different places, on different computers. Having a laptop with the necessary software would most likely cut down on the overall stress of getting the work done. There is no doubt in my mind that requiring students to have laptops for practicum would indeed enhance the practicum experience for the students and allow them easier accessibility to documents and assignments. I support this proposal wholeheartedly.//"// **//- Andrea Gove, Secondary Health Education//**

"A laptop requirement for secondary/middle education majors is important because pre-service teachers need to be well-acquainted with the technology they will encounter in their career. We are living in a digital age and for teachers to be unfamiliar with current mobile technology as a tool in the classroom is not making beneficial use of our resources. Maine has taken the lead in providing one-to-one laptop technology in middle and secondary schools and teachers graduating from UMF should be well-prepared to guide students in effective use of that technology. The only way to make that possible is to make sure that UMF pre-service teachers have had intensive experiences with available teaching tools, such as laptop computers."
 * //- Peter Osborne//**, **//Secondary Social Science//** //**Education**//[[image:IMG_1328.jpg width="236" height="177" align="right"]]

"I think that the University of Maine at Farmington should have a laptop requirement for all secondary education majors for a couple of reasons. First of all having a laptop requirement with all of the laptops having the same software would help students out when they are taking EDU 221. For example when creating our units it would have been nice if I had Acrobat Professional on my computer so that I could save the PDF on my computer instead of going to the computer center. Also if we all had laptops we would have been able to do the work right in class. The second reason is that if students get used to using laptops for all of their EDU classes they will get familiar with them and know how to use them to teach with, which is very important to teaching the students of the future.//"// **//- Jothan Massey//**, //**Secondary Mathematics**// //**Education**//