Links discussed in this week’s episode:
Teachers sue over having to lease laptops from Education Department – By Jewel Topsfield, The Age
Should teachers have to pay for the technology they use? – By Rich Lambert, April 2013
Education Conferences – some thoughts and ideas – By Kynan Robinson, July 2014
How to follow a #Hashtag chat in Twitter (thanks to Riss Leung for the share)
Hi Rick and Adam, I love the podcast! Really interested in your discussion about department laptops. My greatest concern is not necessarily about the money we pay for them, but the waiting list that new teachers sit on. If a laptop is a necessary tool for modern day teaching, why am I still without one? I am a first year graduate, seven months into my career, and I am still waiting for my laptop from the department. I’ve been told I’m something like 328th in the queue. I am getting by. I bring my home laptop to school every day and our school techie was able to hook me up to the internet and staff drives by mid term 2. So luckily I was able to write my reports and upload them to QuickVic in time. The connection to our staff drive through my home computer is very unpredictable. Although by week 3 of term 3, I think I’ve finally got it sorted.
My question is, why don’t school communities have the capacity to cater for the teachers in their school? Why can’t a school with 8 teaching positions, also have 8 laptop computers. I worked in administration for over ten years before entering teaching and in this field we always had a computer allocated to a position or a task that needed to be done. Having ‘mostly’ survived without a department laptop for seven months, I’m not sure I can justify paying for one once the 328th laptop does arrive. If it was good enough for me to not have a department laptop during my first three terms of teaching ever, why support me now? And by that I mean ‘support’ that will cost me a few bucks a week. My school has been supportive and a spare student laptop was offered to me as an alternative for the meantime.
If a school can support a new teacher with a laptop for free while their ‘pay as you go laptop’ is waiting to be distributed – why can’t schools be given the resources to provide their staff with these necessary tools from day one? Would love your thoughts and advice on the benefits of paying for a department laptop. Maybe I’ll save my money and treat myself to a takeaway coffee every week instead.
Twitter – @missdsings