by Tejas Chadha, staff writer
This year the photo class received eight new iMac computers from the technology refresh by the district. While teachers are grateful for the equipment they receive and benefits they get to enjoy, there occasionally is an issue with equipment not being updated enough.
“After being ten years, old computers pretty much don’t work anymore, so they don’t run industry standard software like photo shop and light room,” said Lauren Anderson, a photo teacher at Fountain Valley High School.
The problem being that the decision on who gets new technology when the district decides to update, is up to the administration and district. So when teachers feel that their technology is out of date, as was the case for Anderson, there is not much in their power that they can do to expedite or assure that they will in fact receive new equipment.
While Anderson was grateful for the computers that her class was given, it still isn’t exactly sufficient to the needs of the whole class. In a class of 30 students, eight computers can provide a little over a quarter of the class with the resources they need.
Anderson said, “I have a visual art credential, and teachers with that credential don’t receive CTE funding. At Huntington Beach High School, because a teacher got a career in Technology Credential, they have 20 new T3I-DLCR computers; we have one. It’s a credential that I don’t need to teach but I would have to pay out of pocket to get, not for my own benefit but for the benefits of the students, so to me that’s kind of a problem; what is at Huntington Beach High School should be at Fountain Valley High School.”
