Expert: Computers essential for teaching

Low-performing schools need more computers and technology trained teachers to bring up student test scores, an education technology expert said Tuesday.

"I would send as much technology to these schools as I could," said technology expert Tony Brewer, a former teacher.

Brewer operates a consulting business in Pennsylvania that helps schools struggling to make adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Computers and the Internet can change the classroom culture by sparking student interest in learning, Brewer said.

"It changes their attitude," he said during a break in an education technology conference at Southeast Missouri State University.

Students, he said, want education to be entertaining.

About 300 teachers from school districts throughout the region attended the third annual "Educating Educators Electronically" technology conference at Southeast Missouri State University.

The two-day conference, sponsored by the Southeast Regional Professional Development Center, wraps up today with sessions on everything from classroom blogging to the use of interactive white boards.

Brewer said digital technology in the classroom makes a difference. At his urging, a Miami, Fla., high school replaced its printed textbooks with an online curriculum.

That's led to improved test scores, he said.

He sees a future where high schools will equip their students with laptops that have wireless access to the Internet, eliminating the need for hard wiring in every classroom.

In some of the nation's classrooms, students already engage in academic discussions via blogs, Brewer said.

Brewer said the nation's classrooms are becoming increasingly high-tech for good reason. Today's students have grown up in the digital age, Brewer said.

They've grown up playing video games and accessing information via computer.

But the technology only helps educate students if teachers are trained to incorporate it into their lesson plans, he said.

Several area teachers said they attended the conference to learn to do just that.

"I want to be a better teacher, said Sue Rees, who teaches special-needs students at Nell Holcomb School north of Cape Gir-ardeau.

Rees said classrooms didn't have computers when she first started teaching 16 years ago.

Two teachers in the Hayti, Mo., school district -- Stephanie Grantham, who teaches fifth grade, and Twanna Jones, who teaches sixth grade, -- showed up at the conference to learn about how to use their new interactive whiteboards. The district has installed the whiteboards in all of its classrooms.

"You have to be able to grab their attention any way you can," Grantham said.

Jones believes such technology helps get the attention of students in the classroom. "It keeps them engaged," she said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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