ACCESS Lab trip to MGM!!!

On November 21, 2008 Marlena Marsh, Kimberly Pierce and Myself went and visited Mary G. Montgomery High Schools ACCESS Lab in Semmes, AL. We interviewed Mr. Rose who is one of the Psychology teachers and the Director for the ACCESS Lab at MGM. Mr. Rose was very informative and gave some wonderful information about the ACCESS Lab and how it works and how it will affect schools in the future.

First, he started off telling us about the equipment that is required for the ACCESS Lab. The Kodak is the hub that plugs into a live internet connection that connects all the other schools in the area that have ACCESS. The Kodak is a touch screen device that sets and controls everything in the classroom. It allows the teacher to have control over the class and if the teacher were broadcasting a class then it would broadcast in different classes. IT can also call different schools and project to them called video conference. There is no need for a use of a microphone the teacher doesn’t need to have to raise their voice. The Elmo is another piece of equipment that Mr. Rose explained to us and it is document reader. By using, the Elmo it lets teachers work out problems and it is projected onto the T.V’s that in the classroom so the students can see what the teacher is doing and explaining to them.

Mr. Rose also talked with us about two different types of classes that are available. One is the web base class which is through ACCESS. It allows students to go online and login through ACCESS and do their work. It is equivalent to an online course. The second on is the IBC. This is when two different classes are being taught but by one teacher.

The last thing that Mr. Rose informed us about was the helpful internet sites. The first one he talked to us about was Kompozer. He told us that this was probably the best one to use and it was a free HTML. The second one was FTP Surfer which is also a free site. The last one was the most recent it is a new tutorial called “Hot Potatoes”. He suggested if he use any of these internet sites to use this one.

He also told us that there were 120 teachers at the schools and maybe five know about the technology of ACCESS. Mr. Rose has been teaching for 25 years and this is his second year doing ACCESS and he sounded to be very informative and that he wants to try and get every teacher using this piece of technology.