Dear Mr. Superintendent and Principal Degraffenried.
I am writing concerning the current state of teaching ability within the Nebo School District. I would like to compliment you on the excellent educations that our young people receive under your watchful care. I would you to propose to you however, a new tool for collaboration between our faculty and staff that will greatly increase our ability to analyze the quality and effectiveness of our teaching methods withing the District and the state.
The tool I would like to propose be incorporated into our classrooms is that of high-definition internet-cameras in every room where teaching occurs. Now I know that at first glance, this concept may seem like an expensive, complex and perhaps inappropriate device to put in classrooms with our children, but I hope through this email and future discussion with you about the proposed implementation of this I may persuade you that benefits of this system far outweigh the cost and discomfort that may arise due to its use.
The first aspect I would like to discuss is that of cost. It may surprise you that the per-unit price for a good camera and microphone is less than $50 per classroom. However it may require that the district purchase a website and other software in order for this system to reach its full potential. It is true that this system may cost somewhere in the order of tens of thousands of dollars, but seeing as how the district has recently passed a 14 million dollar bond designated for improvements to school facilities, I do not see this relatively small expense being a problem, especially when compared with the educational value of new paint on the library's east wall.
The second aspect which I would like to discuss is the potential of this powerful new tool to assist us in improving the quality of education offered by the Nebo School District. One of the main benefits of this kind of a system would be using it as a tool for students outside of class. If we use this to record classroom lectures, it could potentially be used to help absent students stay caught up in their studies. This would take a considerable burden off teachers who would not have to spend their time catching them up. This could help students who perhaps did not grasp a concept when it was offered in class. These students could then go back and re-attend their class or potentially other classes of the same subject in order to ensure that they fully understand the material. This is important because it extends the school day beyond the normal hours giving students the option to attend when it is convenient. Of course a strict attendance policy would still be observed, but there would be more flexibility were this to be put in place.
The second, and what I believe to be a more important benefit, is the collaborative power of the device among teachers. Say a student acts up in the classroom of an inexperienced teacher. The teacher could later show the video to other teachers to learn how they may have handled the situation better. In a similar way, these videos could be used in collaborative efforts to improve every aspect of the teaching that goes on within our classrooms. There are also research firms interested in the immense amount of video data which would pour from the recordings. These firms would even pay the school for supplying them with the data to be used in studies concerned with the improvement of curriculum, and teaching education across the United States.
I hope that you can see the power that this kind of a system would put in the hands of educators. I would hope that we could meet to discuss the feasibility as well as the ethical implications of having recording devices in classrooms. I would also like to propose a small scale test of this in a handful of classrooms to prove the helpfulness of these methods to you and other administrators throughout the district.
I eagerly await a reply on this matter, you may email me at fake-email@gmail.com or contact me at any time at 801-8018-0180.
Sincerely,
Ryan Allred - Graduate of Springville High School, Class of 2010
I like that you used several examples and facts to back up you're argument. The idea in itself is terrific and the way you presented it was professional and to the point. You did a great job.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your arguments for webcams in schools. I think schools are in need of reform and integration with technology is getting somewhere.
ReplyDeleteI'm really interested with improving education in public schools, and I think that new technologies are definitely part of the answer. Are we allowed to go back and edit our posts though, because I now realize that I didn't edit this very well at all. - Well, too late. I changed it whether I'm supposed to or not.
ReplyDeleteI have to say, when I first started reading this I didn't really think it would be a good idea to have the webcams, but by the end you had me convinced! However, knowing nebo, they probably wouldn't do anything like this.
ReplyDeleteOne challenge of this, is that I had no idea why one would possibly want these cameras in the classroom for several paragraphs after you introduced it...you gave the paragraph on it not costing very much, but I still had no sense of what any of the virtues were. When you first mention the cameras, I would take one to two sentences to give a sense of how they would be used/what the benefits are, and then that would give the framework/context to drive me to keep reading to find out more about them.
ReplyDeleteAnother question--have these been implemented in other districts? And with success? If you could spend a sentence or two to reference a school or two that uses it, and then perhaps a short testimonial on why it worked, then that could be helpful.
In regards to your question, if it's just minor little wording things, feel free to go back and change it.... if it's big things (new paragraph, new organization), perhaps put that you've "Edited to Add" and then give the new paragraph, to signal that some things may have changed since the original comments were posted.