Classrooms on TV are REALLY dated....

Classrooms on TV are REALLY dated.... - Printable Version

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Classrooms on TV are REALLY dated.... - Dark Jaguar - 12th October 2013

I've seen enough modern classrooms lately that I can say that TV shows seem to be under the impression that schools still exist in 1982.

They are using CHALK BOARDS of all things. Every modern class room I've seen is using a massive touch screen projector system instead. Also, why do teachers just have paper on their desks? Where's their computers?

Classrooms on TV are REALLY dated.... - A Black Falcon - 12th October 2013

"Touch screen projector system"? What would that be? I don't think I've ever seen such a thing... unless you mean a projector connected to a laptop? I doubt most highschools have those in all their classrooms... when I was in highschool at least most classrooms had whiteboards (so markers instead of chalk). In college the lecture halls did have projectors you could attach a laptop to, but that was only infrequently done...

I would agree that chalkboards, as opposed to whiteboards, are perhaps more common in TV than in reality, but still, they're the thing you think of when you think classrooms, so they put them in. They aren't used as much because they're more expensive...

Classrooms on TV are REALLY dated.... - Dark Jaguar - 13th October 2013

Okay it has likely been a long time since you've been in a public school (much like today's writers).

So let me describe today's classrooms. They all have projectors mounted to the ceiling which project an image to a massive screen which also functions as a touch surface. These are both fed into the teacher's computer (ALL teachers have computers these days, a classroom can't function without it considering grades are now stored in databases) and they use special software to sync that up. The biggest company for this is: http://smarttech.com/smartboard , and they are nationwide, covering even the local school systems here. Do you honestly think that this is an anomaly? Oklahoma isn't well known for the best education in the country, in fact ranking pretty low, and even THIS state has this technology, even in the smallest towns. I've asked around. Oh no, it's huge, a change that NO ONE seems to be aware of because people haven't bothered to stop and ASK kids what is different. In fact, Dead Space 2 lost me the moment I entered a super future classroom with frickin' CHALK BOARDS in it.

Writers just aren't bothering to see if schools have changed at all. I'm not surprised. Remember all our 80's shows where schools seem to have wandered out of the 60's? It's an ongoing blank space possibly brought about by writers just not wanting to ever set foot in a school again.

Look into it. Ask around. You'll soon see the reality of it.

Classrooms on TV are REALLY dated.... - A Black Falcon - 13th October 2013

You really think that "all" classrooms today have projectors which can project a touch-enabled picture or something? I don't know how that'd work, but yeah, no way in the world do schools "all" (or even most I would think!) have any such thing... I guess a few schools here and there probably have those things, but I think you are very significantly overestimating how many schools have anything remotely like that. No way does a large percentage of schools have anything like that yet.

Classrooms on TV are REALLY dated.... - Great Rumbler - 13th October 2013

The school I went to [and where my mom and brother work] have Smartboards in every classroom and it's the smallest, cheapest school in the county.

Classrooms on TV are REALLY dated.... - A Black Falcon - 13th October 2013

You're also in Oklahoma, though...

Looking it up a bit, it sounds like some schools have these things, while others don't. I don't think it's as ubiquitous as you people make it sound, unless things are different in Oklahoma than elsewhere (since you both live there).

As for me, my last school experience was in college of course, and if they had anything like these I didn't hear about it. Of course though, in college, in the kinds of classes I was in only low-level classes had all that much of a use for a board... a smartboard would have only limited use outside of large lecture halls, I think, and they didn't have them there either, not as of '09 at least anyway. They had projectors you could connect a laptop to in large lecture halls, though, sure. Most classes didn't use them though, I don't think. I can't entirely remember, really... those 100-level college classes were a while ago, and as I said higher level classes didn't use such things (maybe some used a computer to put a presentation/notes on a projector? Not sure how common that was though.).

I do know that my last two years of college, in graduate school ('06-'08 in classes)... our classes for history grad school were held in a conference room. I think it had a whiteboard, maybe, but certainly no projector, or computers. It/they would not have been used anyway. I was in that room again last year, to defend my thesis, and it looked the same as ever as far as I could tell.

I do have several relatives in education (highschool and college), though... I could ask them if their schools have these things. This is probably something MUCH more common in elementary schools than any higher level, I'd guess -- it seems more useful there... at a college or highschool level, would it really be much better than just having a whiteboard or projector you can put the notes/subjects list up on?

Classrooms on TV are REALLY dated.... - Dark Jaguar - 14th October 2013

The projector itself doesn't detect touch, it's the "board" that detects touch. It's like a touch screen surface (think like a Nintendo DS) but without the ability to generate an image. Instead, the projector projects one onto the surface. I believe the PC software that manages this has a "sync" option to line things up correctly (press the dots, that sort of thing).

If there's a percentage of schools that don't yet have these, they will, or something like it, very soon. College is no comparison, because colleges are privately owned, so they are going to be run differently.

At any rate, ALL teachers now have PCs in their room at the very least. You'd be hard pressed to find a single exception, except of course on TV, which was the original reason I posted this, to say that TV writers (and movie writers for that matter) aren't doing their research on how schools have changed.

Classrooms on TV are REALLY dated.... - Sacred Jellybean - 15th October 2013

I never knew these existed either, so such a setting wouldn't bring me further into a movie/TV scene. If anything, it would take me out of it.

DJ, I should probably know better than to ask you personal questions, but are you a teacher / work at a school?

Classrooms on TV are REALLY dated.... - Dark Jaguar - 15th October 2013

Maybe it would take you out of it, in the same way that if a lab looked like an actual lab, most people might think it was really weird, but for a lot of people, it would make things seem more up to date, and I can promise that most kids are taken out of school scenes set in modern day when they look so dated.

Let me put it this way. A time will come when either you or a relative will have kids, and you'll be needing to go into schools. At this point, you will likely be a little less amazed at the changes than I was, if only because I prepared you for what you shall see. (Note: I personally don't have kids, but I have siblings that do. It is rather eye opening.)

Classrooms on TV are REALLY dated.... - A Black Falcon - 18th October 2013

So yeah, I asked a relative of mine who works in a (public) highschool around here. He said that they don't have smartboards in the school, but some elementary schools in the district might; he wasn't sure. Most teachers do have laptops in school, though. (Note - this is one of the better-off districts in the state. Not a poor area at all.)

Classrooms on TV are REALLY dated.... - Dark Jaguar - 18th October 2013

I suppose it isn't too surprising that there are a few districts that haven't quite caught up with the times yet. This is America after all :D. (Really though, Japan may be ahead of us in education, but apparently are even slower to adapt to new technology than we can be, and I find that surprising and not surprising at the same time). Mark my words, that'll change in your district too soon enough.

Classrooms on TV are REALLY dated.... - Dark Lord Neo - 14th November 2013

Around here elementary schools tend to have SMARTBoards in every classroom. High schools have them in some rooms and not others.
What I found interesting is that the provincial education system is really pushing technology in the classroom, and university teacher preparation programs talk about how important it is, but the universities themselves haven't adopted the same technologies. The Faculty of Education where I went to school had two mobile SMARTboards (one was bought by the student association to use for training). We were told all about them and how important they would be in a classroom, but most students didn't actually see one (let alone use one) until they actually ended up in a practicum. It was the same with a lot of things there though, instructors in courses on student assessment would preach one thing about how assessment should be done, but didn't apply those principles to their own courses.

- - - Updated - - -

Around here elementary schools tend to have SMARTBoards in every classroom. High schools have them in some rooms and not others.
What I found interesting is that the provincial education system is really pushing technology in the classroom, and university teacher preparation programs talk about how important it is, but the universities themselves haven't adopted the same technologies. The Faculty of Education where I went to school had two mobile SMARTboards (one was bought by the student association to use for training). We were told all about them and how important they would be in a classroom, but most students didn't actually see one (let alone use one) until they actually ended up in a practicum. It was the same with a lot of things there though, instructors in courses on student assessment would preach one thing about how assessment should be done, but didn't apply those principles to their own courses.

Classrooms on TV are REALLY dated.... - Sacred Jellybean - 18th November 2013

The hell you doing back Neo? Damn. What made you type in tcforums.com/forums? Or did you find us in an old Bookmarks folder?

Good to see you, brother. How've you been?

(he won't see this, will he?)

Classrooms on TV are REALLY dated.... - Dark Lord Neo - 19th November 2013

I found an old e-mail about Cypherstation, and it made me think of this place.
I usually end up looking around the forums once or twice a year when I remember them, but I never have anything to contribute.

- - - Updated - - -

I found an old e-mail about Cypherstation, and it made me think of this place.
I usually end up looking around the forums once or twice a year when I remember them, but I never have anything to contribute.

Classrooms on TV are REALLY dated.... - Sacred Jellybean - 19th November 2013

Is there some weird bug going on with the forum? Most posts I make end up double-posting, and I have to delete one of them. In both of Neo's posts, I see the content twice, separated by a divider that says "- - - Updated - - -". Is this happening to anyone else?

[Image: 1WZ0mJj.png]

Classrooms on TV are REALLY dated.... - Sacred Jellybean - 19th November 2013

Neo, your update is insufficient! Tell us more. Do you still play video games? You still in Canada? What you doing? You meet a nice girl and pop out babies yet?

Fun fact: Darunia has twin boys. The Goron Empire is growing!

Classrooms on TV are REALLY dated.... - Dark Lord Neo - 20th November 2013

I'm still in Canada. I moved further north where there was slower internet, it was colder and there was more snow. It sucked so I moved back. No babies. I still play video games but not as much as I did, GTA V is the first game I've played all the way through since Final Fantasy XIII. I spend more time on Reddit and other useless things than I do playing games.

Classrooms on TV are REALLY dated.... - A Black Falcon - 20th November 2013

Sacred Jellybean Wrote:Is there some weird bug going on with the forum? Most posts I make end up double-posting, and I have to delete one of them. In both of Neo's posts, I see the content twice, separated by a divider that says "- - - Updated - - -". Is this happening to anyone else?

Yes, it is. It seems to be a bug introduced with the latest forum revision, like the "the main forum list page shows you as logged out and you have to click on a forum in orter to log in" bug that has been happening since this upgrade and etoven hasn't fixed.

For me, this double-posting bug works like this: So, now a confirmation warning message has been added when you try to post from the Quick Reply box. If you hit 'post' then a box pops up in Seamonkey [my browser, of course] saying 'do you want to leave this page or stay on it'. If I choose 'leave page', it double-posts the post. If I choose 'stay on page', it looks like I haven't posted yet, but actually it did post the post (only once) to the forum. Then I have to either hit reload page or close page or something, then hit 'leave page' twice when the box pops up (because it always pops up twice, for whatever reason), which it will either way.

Yeah, it's annoying. Other forums have this 'do you want to leave the page' warning on pages where you are entering a post -- Sega-16 for example does -- but it does not have the double-posting bug, so all I have to do is hit post, then 'leave page' twice when the box pops up and it posts correctly. It'd be great if etoven could figure this out and fix it.

Classrooms on TV are REALLY dated.... - Dark Jaguar - 21st November 2013

It is odd, and I would recommend to Etoven to completely clear his browser cache, and try a few different browsers, if he is having trouble recreating the issue. (I know from experience that an issue you can't recreate is almost impossible to solve.)

Neo, I have a solution to your problems, from Neil Cici... cerca... cerc de sole.... Areia, or however that is spelled.

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