Visiting Daphne High School ACCESS Lab
I visited the ACCESS lab at Daphne High School. Their lab was located in newest addition to the school. This building has once been a church and the high school was able to purchase this property which allowed them to have the space for this lab. John Roh heads up the ACCESS lab at Daphne and he gave us a grand tour by demonstrating the technology in the lab.
The room was set up with rows on rectangular tables and chairs. There was a white board on the right wall of the room and a promethean board in the front of the class. Also, there was a camera suspended from the ceiling and a large desk in the front of the room with laptop. In the back of the room was a storage closet where 24 student laptops are stored.
This is such as awesome form of technology. A student getting the opportunity to take subjects that are not taught at his high schools is so important. Especially if these students are college bound and need the subject to help them prepare for their major. For example if a student wants to major in engineering but can only take up to Pre-Cal then that is a problem when he goes to college. He will have needed to take Calculus also or else he will be playing catch up his freshman math classes. With the ACCESS lab and distance learning available it is possible for students to get the classes needed. However, there are problems that can arise with scheduling. Mr. Roh explained that bell schedules do not always match with other schools and sometimes breaks do not either such as spring break and Christmas break. These are some of the issues that must be worked out when using this program.
Mr. Roh showed us how to use the promethean board and how a teacher can go online and pull up a lesson on a particular topic for her subject area and grade level. This can really get a student’s attention and keep him focused. Mr. Roh also showed us the website for his distance learning class AP Biology. He is teaching students that are in a small high school in north Alabama. He showed us how the site worked and how he goes in and checks on the student’s progress. However there are a few problems with this also. The lessons are all located online and will refer to particular websites. Sometimes when students go to these websites, they are no longer active. This creates a problem because quizzes and test questions come from these websites. For the most part, the opportunity to use this technology is so beneficial for students and I believe as time passes, these problems will be resolved and more and more students will be using the ACCESS lab.
The room was set up with rows on rectangular tables and chairs. There was a white board on the right wall of the room and a promethean board in the front of the class. Also, there was a camera suspended from the ceiling and a large desk in the front of the room with laptop. In the back of the room was a storage closet where 24 student laptops are stored.
This is such as awesome form of technology. A student getting the opportunity to take subjects that are not taught at his high schools is so important. Especially if these students are college bound and need the subject to help them prepare for their major. For example if a student wants to major in engineering but can only take up to Pre-Cal then that is a problem when he goes to college. He will have needed to take Calculus also or else he will be playing catch up his freshman math classes. With the ACCESS lab and distance learning available it is possible for students to get the classes needed. However, there are problems that can arise with scheduling. Mr. Roh explained that bell schedules do not always match with other schools and sometimes breaks do not either such as spring break and Christmas break. These are some of the issues that must be worked out when using this program.
Mr. Roh showed us how to use the promethean board and how a teacher can go online and pull up a lesson on a particular topic for her subject area and grade level. This can really get a student’s attention and keep him focused. Mr. Roh also showed us the website for his distance learning class AP Biology. He is teaching students that are in a small high school in north Alabama. He showed us how the site worked and how he goes in and checks on the student’s progress. However there are a few problems with this also. The lessons are all located online and will refer to particular websites. Sometimes when students go to these websites, they are no longer active. This creates a problem because quizzes and test questions come from these websites. For the most part, the opportunity to use this technology is so beneficial for students and I believe as time passes, these problems will be resolved and more and more students will be using the ACCESS lab.
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