During the past four weeks I have been observing Mr. Erich Schulz’s third and fourth period 9^th grade World History classes at Lake Catholic High School in Mentor, Ohio. The third period class is an intermediate-level class, whereas the fourth period class is honors-level. Mr. Schulz does not vary the type of technology he uses by the class’ academic level, though both the amount and difficulty of academic content is greater for the students in the honors-level class.

Mr. Schulz’s students in both classes are very familiar with technology both inside and outside of class. All students appear to have an I-Phone, and many students also possess an I-Pad. Keeping students from using these personal devices during class time for non-academic reasons is a constant struggle, and an occasional source of frustration, for the teacher. Students constantly do research, writing, and note-taking during class on their laptop computers. All students have a Google Chromebook laptop computer issued to them by the school at the beginning of the school year. Students are permitted to take these laptops home, but the laptops must be turned in by the end of the school year. Students complete most of their assignments and tests online through the Google Classroom portal, which includes Google Docs, Google Forms, and the class gradebook, which allows students to monitor their performance on an ongoing basis. The teacher posts both homework and classroom assignments on Google Classroom, as well as a weekly critical questions worksheet. Students click on “Submit” when ready to turn in a test or assignment for grading.

Students in a remote learning situation, due to COVID-19 or an extended absence from the school building, may use Google Meets, which is similar to Zoom in providing the ability for a student to have instant live access to the classroom. One drawback for students is that internet access is frequently interrupted due to local power outages and problems with the Lake Catholic internet server. While Mr. Schulz is glad that Google Meets is available to his students, he complains that some students are using its availability to stay home longer than necessary or to be absent from school for non-essential reasons. He feels that students do not receive the same experience or benefits from Google Meets that they do from being in the classroom.

Mr. Schulz uses a Clear Touch Smartboard for his class lectures, which he presents with Google Docs slides. The slides contain illustrations, key definitions/terms for students to know, and questions for student thinking and analysis. These slides often have embedded YouTube videos on relevant topics, which the students seem to greatly enjoy. Most students keep their laptops open during lectures and follow along with the slides on Google Docs. Mr. Schulz also uses the Smartboard for class games, such as Jeopardy, which he uses to help students review for tests and to become more engaged with the academic content. On one recent day, he had both his intermediate and honors classes play a game that he devised on Google Classroom. The game is called “Scramble for Africa,” and students work collaboratively in groups of three or four to take possession of parts of Africa with the best resources in terms of arable land, abundant water, and mineral wealth. The purpose of the game is to understand 19^th century European imperialism and colonialism in Africa. The students worked together on their laptops to earn points by finding and colonizing the most resource-rich parts of Africa, with each group representing a different imperial power: Great Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, or Belgium.

To communicate with his students online and assess their progress, Mr. Schulz uses the Google Classroom portal to post announcements, homework/classroom assignments, and tests, as well as to update the class grade book for students to check their grades. He posts all of his classroom slides on Google Docs for students to review, as well as their graded tests and completed assignments. During in-class tests and pop quizzes, Mr. Schulz uses Go Guardian software to check that none of his students are looking at other websites while they are taking their test or quiz. Any student found looking at another website while taking a test or quiz receives a failing grade and must report to the main office for disciplinary measures.