So, sometimes as parents and educators, we ask ourselves what technology really does for students in the classroom.  Are students really learning more when there is technology available to them? While all sorts of student achievement tests give us statistical results, the real proof is in the experience of the students: are they enjoying learning, and is the wealth of information imparted appropriating knowledge.

I recently had the privilege of being with some 5th and 6th grade students at the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta. The 5th grade students prepared for their spring break trip to New York City while the 6th graders prepared for their international excursion to London and Paris. Although I was not at the school every day in the weeks before the trips, on this particular last day before the 5th grade trip, there was quite a lot of activity around the last minute details of the educational benefit of the outing. While the teachers at the school reviewed with the students their prepared journals, regarding the places they would visit, I found myself watching the way the students absorbed the information.

One of the teachers, Rhonda Lokey, had the students prepare on their Dell computers a PowerPoint slide of some of the places they would visit. Working in teams, the students researched the location, such as the Empire State Building, and created bullet points on the slide about the location. So, at first glance you might say, well that is not so special. But the next step, showed the ingenuity and commitment to the learning these students possess. They took their team slides, and created a slide show that they could then play on their Microsoft Zunes. The students shared with me, and while the information was easily accessible to them, they had all translated these details into knowledge, in part because they had spent so much time putting together this creative learning tool, not even needing to look at their creative travel guide.

In the 6th grade classroom, it was quite fun to watch how the students reviewed their journals and created a historical record of the places they would visit. Ron Clark used his digital presenter to display a picture up on the screen and would ask questions about the location, and students readily raised their hands with the answers. The jingle they learned for the order of the British monarchs, and the knowledge bestowed upon them through this educational preparation process honestly made me feel that I was not “smarter than a 5th grader.”

The Ron Clark Academy is a unique school, but the students are kids just like in any school across the US or around the globe. They are growing up in a world surrounded by technology and view it as a tool to provide them more information than their parents and grandparents may have accessed. It is what we as educators do with the tools in the classroom that helps these students transform information into comprehensive data that they use to shape the future.

As someone who supports education not just as a job at Dell, but as a college instructor, and a volunteer in K12 education, I could not help but be very proud that I am lucky enough to bring technology to the classroom.  My job is great – provide tools to teachers and students to enable them to be better leaders in the community.  Make a difference in not just one person’s life – but the life of every person lucky enough to come in contact with a student or teacher who has the opportunity to teach or learn in a technology-enabled classroom.