Dr. Kist's Book

When looking through Dr. Kist’s novel entitled, New Literacies in Action, I found that the chapter that dealt with rural classrooms really caught my attention. I liked this section due to the fact that I live in a somewhat rural area which seems to be lacking in the technology department. Although my school had many new electronic devices in the classroom, several of the schools around me were unable to have these luxuries. By reading about Mr. Fisher, and the excellent program that he has created at the rural school district of Snow Lake, Manitoba, I feel as if these same actions can be applied to a similar school in the Northeast Ohio region. After seeing how Mr. Fisher took a school that was in a town with only one radio station, and turned it into a place where students could produce video clips and create websites, I see that it would be very possible for someone to do the same thing in an area in Ohio.

When looking at some of the area schools in my county, I feel that the technology aspect is lacking in most of them. And, even in my old high school, although it does have a class that helps you learn how to make websites, there were only a handful of people that took it per semester. It would be nice if a teacher in these schools could do something like what Mr. Fisher did at his school in Snow Lake, Manitoba. In today’s society, the use of technology is becoming more of a necessity in nearly every field of work. As educators it is our job to prepare our students with the necessary knowledge that will help them strive later on in life. If we are unable to teach our students at least the basics of a computer and how to use it, then we as educators are not fully preparing our students for the ‘real world’ that they will meet later on in life.