Alan Youngblood
Buy photo
A small laptop shows a Web page that is part of a Lake Weir High School English class project at the Candler school on Thursday. Student Brittany Moyer is shown in the background. The laptops are part of mobile computing labs in the pilot program
Tucked in a classroom on Lake Weir High's campus, a group of ninth-graders is just completing a pilot program that is considered the future of learning.
In rolling cabinets, more than two dozen, 9-inch laptop computers sit in charging stations. Each one can hold every book a student needs for a school year, which means students in this freshman English class have been doing almost all their reading on a computer screen.
Jaquan Newmones, next year's sophomore class president, said the laptop experiment has made a difference in how he views English class.
"I do read more now," he said.
The pilot program, which is being used in the freshman English combination classrooms of teachers Christopher Roy and Laura Martin, is the future of education.
Roy believes every student in the future will carry one small laptop, which will have textbooks downloaded on the hard drive.
"It's better to get the kids to carry this than a backpack filled with six textbooks," he said. "And they would have access to their books 24-7."
Principal Cynthia Saunders said students have become accustomed to using computers at home, listening to music on an mp3 player, sending a text message on a phone and looking up information online.
"That is their world," she said.
"The way we were taught is not acceptable anymore," she said, noting that chalkboards and projectors have given way to white boards and DVD players.
Education officials agree that to really educate today's student, more technology is needed.
Scott Hanson, director of technology and information systems, said the pilot program is about trying to find a cheaper way to provide more computers at middle schools and high schools
By August, all of Marion's middle and high schools will be upgraded with campus wireless Internet. The last to join the club will be Lake Weir High, Fort King Middle and West Port High, which will all get wireless for the 2009-10 school year.
At the schools that have had the wireless Internet, the School District supplied laptop computer carts that can be checked out by a teacher for a period.
Students usually use these laptops for research purposes, and some instructors tailor lesson plans so the students can use the computers periodically.
A 30-laptop computer cart costs about $30,000 for regular-size laptops, while 30 of the mini-laptops, which have 10-inch screens, cost about $12,000.
"We're experimenting with the smaller computers to see how teachers and students like them," Hanson said.
The drawbacks to the smaller versions are that the keyboards are too small and there's not much storage, usually between 4 and 8 gigabytes.
To combat storage issues, Hanson hopes that by August all secondary students will be able to access school computer projects from home.
Hanson is hoping that, through Microsoft Live@edu, every middle and high school child will have 5 gigabytes of free storage on the Microsoft storage site.
That will mean children can work on a project at school, store it on the secured Web storage site, and then access it again from their home computer.
Lake Weir's pilot program, which has been testing the cheaper, smaller machines, has allowed a class for the first time to incorporate a lesson plan using laptops every day.
The Lake Weir experiment is unique because the freshman English students have been using the computers every day for nine weeks. The results have been promising.
Martin and Roy say improvement among the students has been phenomenal.
Last fall, all Lake Weir High freshmen averaged 40 on a state English assessment test that reviewed setting, character and plot.
Before computers, the pilot classroom - which includes students who scored less than 3.0 on state reading tests - averaged 25 points.
Just a few weeks ago, scores of ninth-graders schoolwide rose by 24 points, while pilot computer student scores rose by 36 points on average.
And every student agreed that the modern technology is the reason. Jordan Lind and Sierra Johnson, both 14, said the computers made English fun to learn.
The students in the pilot program are completing a Pirate Adventure research project. The students read Treasure Island and then had to start a pirate blog.
They had to choose a pirate name and write blogs about life on the ship. Some even added video blogs about their fictional life on the high seas.
These types of projects, Roy said, are important to making learning fun in a very digital, electronic way.
School District officials say that students may one day be issued laptops, with all books installed, by the School District. Just like books, the laptops would be returned at the end of the school year.
Beginning in August, students will be given information about how to purchase one. Officials had hoped the cost would be less than $300. However, Hanson said since Dell is upgrading to 10-inch screens, the cost may be about $400.
Roy said the pilot program only means that the high school has been upgraded.
Jaquan Newmones, next year's sophomore class president, said the laptop experiment has made a difference in how he views English class.
"I do read more now," he said.
The pilot program, which is being used in the freshman English combination classrooms of teachers Christopher Roy and Laura Martin, is the future of education.
Roy believes every student in the future will carry one small laptop, which will have textbooks downloaded on the hard drive.
"It's better to get the kids to carry this than a backpack filled with six textbooks," he said. "And they would have access to their books 24-7."
Principal Cynthia Saunders said students have become accustomed to using computers at home, listening to music on an mp3 player, sending a text message on a phone and looking up information online.
"That is their world," she said.
"The way we were taught is not acceptable anymore," she said, noting that chalkboards and projectors have given way to white boards and DVD players.
Education officials agree that to really educate today's student, more technology is needed.
Scott Hanson, director of technology and information systems, said the pilot program is about trying to find a cheaper way to provide more computers at middle schools and high schools
By August, all of Marion's middle and high schools will be upgraded with campus wireless Internet. The last to join the club will be Lake Weir High, Fort King Middle and West Port High, which will all get wireless for the 2009-10 school year.
At the schools that have had the wireless Internet, the School District supplied laptop computer carts that can be checked out by a teacher for a period.
Students usually use these laptops for research purposes, and some instructors tailor lesson plans so the students can use the computers periodically.
A 30-laptop computer cart costs about $30,000 for regular-size laptops, while 30 of the mini-laptops, which have 10-inch screens, cost about $12,000.
"We're experimenting with the smaller computers to see how teachers and students like them," Hanson said.
The drawbacks to the smaller versions are that the keyboards are too small and there's not much storage, usually between 4 and 8 gigabytes.
To combat storage issues, Hanson hopes that by August all secondary students will be able to access school computer projects from home.
Hanson is hoping that, through Microsoft Live@edu, every middle and high school child will have 5 gigabytes of free storage on the Microsoft storage site.
That will mean children can work on a project at school, store it on the secured Web storage site, and then access it again from their home computer.
Lake Weir's pilot program, which has been testing the cheaper, smaller machines, has allowed a class for the first time to incorporate a lesson plan using laptops every day.
The Lake Weir experiment is unique because the freshman English students have been using the computers every day for nine weeks. The results have been promising.
Martin and Roy say improvement among the students has been phenomenal.
Last fall, all Lake Weir High freshmen averaged 40 on a state English assessment test that reviewed setting, character and plot.
Before computers, the pilot classroom - which includes students who scored less than 3.0 on state reading tests - averaged 25 points.
Just a few weeks ago, scores of ninth-graders schoolwide rose by 24 points, while pilot computer student scores rose by 36 points on average.
And every student agreed that the modern technology is the reason. Jordan Lind and Sierra Johnson, both 14, said the computers made English fun to learn.
The students in the pilot program are completing a Pirate Adventure research project. The students read Treasure Island and then had to start a pirate blog.
They had to choose a pirate name and write blogs about life on the ship. Some even added video blogs about their fictional life on the high seas.
These types of projects, Roy said, are important to making learning fun in a very digital, electronic way.
School District officials say that students may one day be issued laptops, with all books installed, by the School District. Just like books, the laptops would be returned at the end of the school year.
Beginning in August, students will be given information about how to purchase one. Officials had hoped the cost would be less than $300. However, Hanson said since Dell is upgrading to 10-inch screens, the cost may be about $400.
Roy said the pilot program only means that the high school has been upgraded.
0 comments:
Post a Comment