Using Technological Advances

School administration sometimes allows class instruction to be interrupted; find out how these disruptions can be reduced.

I think this is really a universal problem in school districts—under-use of 21st century technology for convenience. I think that so many of our communication problems can be solved by using technology effectively, plus classroom disruptions can be kept to a minimum.

For example, the use (abuse) of the Public Address system in the school, during classes, is a huge disruption. If you work in an older school, you know firsthand what I am talking about. Announcements are blasted over that annoying horn whenever someone is looking for someone else or when there is a sudden late-breaking announcement (A teacher is making the point to the lesson, the A-HA that will underscore the meaning, and a voice blasts over the teachers words—“All students must be escorted to the bathroom; no students should be in the halls at this time!”—and the kids are lost, distracted with no bringing them back to the place they were a minute ago.). Why can’t these communiqués be sent via e-mail or posted on the school web page? Or, at the very least, printed out and copied, and placed in mail boxes? Why can’t there be phones installed for when a certain student needs to be located? In this way, only one class is disrupted, and the teacher can hear the person on the phone over the classroom noise. With all of the new methods of communication available to us now, there should be reforms that minimize disruptions and maximize instruction.