no computers in class

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

challenges within the classroom are many but when trying to bring your class up to current computer skill as well as benefits well now the bar seems to be raised. i teach in a neighborhood where one would think that the students would have access to computers at home. not the case. then there are the students that are bused in. to get to the quick i research a sight that i think the students would be excited about, give them the sight and give them a two or three part extra credit (two or three weekends) to print out and expain in front of the class 1) why they printed what they did 2)how it relates to our current section in history.

[Anonymous]

:~ I'm shocked that you do not have computers at your school site! I thought all schools were up to speed with technology. My math department alone has two computer labs. We have a large population, 2200, but even so. I'm assuming you must be at a small private school. And to have computers in the classroom...well where would I put them even if I could get them with 35-40 students to a class?

My curriculum project is based upon doing reserch using lots of the good web-sites from our forum. It sure wouldn't work for your students. What a shock and shame that such a great resource is not available to all young learners by now.

[Anonymous]

It is sad that some of the kids at your school do not have access to a computer. You may want to look into a Gates Grant. I know that Bill Gates is spending tons of money on computers in schools in America. Our school got a 100,000 grant from Bill Gates. We used it to buy software mostly, and there is a requirement that like 50% of the grant money be spent on software. But the other half could be spent on computers. I think it is something worth looking into. Your kids should have access to a computer lab.

[Anonymous]

We are fortunate enough at our school to have computers in our rooms as well as computer labs and laptop carts. The public library has computers with internet for the public to use free of charge. It costs money to print, but I allow the students to email their documents to me and I print them at school. I don't know about other schools, but I set up free email acounts for all of my kids through our school. I also have my own webpage that students can visit to find links I choose for them to use. Since they are only in sixth grade, I limit the sources they use for research. They have a difficult time distinguishing between reliable and non reliable sources.

[Anonymous]

I made it my goal to get more computers in my classroom my first year at the school I am at, and by getting to know the IT teacher (who does a phenomenal job keeping things running!) and working hard, I snagged 4 student computers for my classroom. Often times, labs are upgraded, and the old computers may just be sitting around. It was so worth the effort. I love to take my classes to the labs, but I don't always have the time. Classroom computers not only allow for various activities and research to happen at once; they also help the students who don't have computers or the internet at home.

For my unit on Japan in seventh grade history, I set up the four computers with four different websites to supplement the information students have explored in their texts and other books I have. One site is for students to see various Noh masks, one was a PowerPoint about Tokugawa Japan, one was the PowerPoint that came with their textbooks, which has great interactive slides that show and talk about the different levels of society, and one showed students how to write their names in Japanese. This year, I am hoping to add more sites to this list and try to allow students more time to look at the sites as well.

I also think offering extra credit for exploring sites on their own is a fabulous idea, and I provide a list of links on my teacher website. I encourage kids who don't have computers at home to come in to my classroom during nutrition, lunch, or after school...I was a kid with no computer, and I know that kids today feel even more left out. So many students take me up on the offer to come in on their own time, and this year I will try to use this as extra time to show them some of the sites we have discussed on this forum!

[Anonymous]

I have two computers in the class and thirty students. I tried setting up appointments so that students could have an equal amount of time on the computer but that didn’t work. I walk them over to the computer lab but sometimes they don’t finish the assignment and we can’t go back. What I decided to do during the last couple of months is use one computer. I hook up the LCD projector and navigate the internet as a class. I purchased a laser pointer/cursor to make this easier. I’ve also printed out pages for them on the research topic. This saves a lot of time.

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