I'd love to see a computer lab in our school along with an instructor. This would aide their prior knowledge and build a foundation for the future. By the time they get to the uppergrades and recieve laptops, they already have basic skills.
I agree. Perhaps this is the step that needs to take place in elementary schools in grades k-4 so that they are ready for laptops.
I completely agree with this as well. I think it would be a great way for students to build their computer skills, that way they can all be on the same level when they get to 5th grade and have thier laptops.
I completely agree. At this point fifth grade teachers are tasked with first teaching basic skills,(such as keyboarding, typing web addresses correctly, saving, saving to a flash drive, properly removing a flash drive, etc.). Then we also have to come up with activities and ideas for integrating technology into the curriculum.
I agree partially on the computer lab as long as it is used purposefully. Some of the examples given are right on target such as basic MS Office skills, internet navigation, saving files, etc. When you said, " Then we also have to come up with activities and ideas for integrating technology into the curriculum." I believe this would be a great opporutnity for the teacher-technology facilitator to step in. I don't mean for him or her to be the lab teacher but to provide assistance to teachers during the lab time. The teacher and facilitator would need to plan the lesson and internet materials (if applicable) that will be needed beforehand. If there is a novice teacher wanting that extra support person while the students are working then the facilitator could pop in from time to time or schedule a whole session.
I would agree with this. The teacher technology facilitator could help teachers plan before hand and work collaboratively if needed. It would be good to use them as a resource for integrating technology into the content areas. The computer lab does have some benefits of helping students in the lower grades become more accustomed to computer features. This in turn will help the students prepare for when they will be part of the one to one program in 5th grade. It will be important for teachers in the younger grades to determine goals per grade level and it would help to align these goals with the state technology standards. The more teachers learn about technology the better their students will learn about technology.
We recently got a lab set up. There is no lab instructor to go with it. We are excited that our 2nd graders have an opportunity to go in 4 of 5 days for 40 minutes to use the intervention programs developed by Mindplay. It has great potential for student growth and achievement. However, there is a great deal of maintenance involved in keeping a lab up and running. Since there is not one person in charge it can get kinda crazy when the classes go in and there are technical difficulties. Javier from IT has been very helpful to us, but he is not always available. Another downside is that there really isn't that much unscheduled time in the lab since the 4 2nd grade classes take the bulk of the time. I guess what I'm saying is that without a computer lab person, you might be asking for lots of headaches.
Is there a grant writer out there to tap into some money for this position? I agree fifth graders should have some basic skills before they receive their laptops.Elementary schools could teach computer skills but the ratio of teacher to student in the lowest grades would need to be maybe three students to one teacher. Has anyone set up a system for first grade that has been successful?
I am not positive about the grant writer, but definitely a good idea. I know of one 1st grade teacher in our school who has 4-6 laptops in her room and she uses them as a center. I don't think she uses it for keyboarding or teaching in the sense of computer basic skills. It is more of a tool for practicing daily math skills, and reading skills like sequencing, etc. I would love to see a full time person in our lab and more free times available for students of all grades to have access.
I agree that a computer tech would be great. Our teachers can use the lab during the one day a week that they don't have a special. Many of our teachers use their time in the lab to progress monitor their students on VPort. Our 4th grade teachers use the lab to teach Microsoft word skills. This keeps it fair enough, but still our computers are always having issues and although we have a technology facilitator many of our issues require district support for new hardware. If we had a computer tech they could also help with SRI testing which would be great.
Though 1-to-1 is the ideal for students, I think that having a computer lab is a great way to build capacity among teachers and students in the earlier grades. If each grade outside of 5th (say 1st-4th) spent one "specials" period per week in the computer lab, the kids would build the skills to be successful and confident as they reach 5th grade and have their own laptop. Not only could this provide the needed basic skills and knowledge of computers, it would teach kids how to be responsible for their own computer when the time came. This lab could also be used for interventions if scheduling permits. Getting the equipment will be expensive and paying the staff member to teach and troubleshoot is a huge undertaking, but I think in the long run it would pay off in children prepared for the responsibility. Along with this, each classroom teacher would need to commit to plan and possibly co-teach during this period to better understand ways to integrate technology into their curriculum.
I agree... computer labs are a great way to teach the basic skills to our students so they have the tools necessary to complete the higher level computing. Our kids will be much more prepared for 5th grade laptops (and beyond) and be able to blog, use wikis, create projects, and go on virtual field trips... this will help them manage their time and focus when they get to high school and college.
I agree. At middle school, this would greatly enhance the opportunities our students would have to strengthen their technology skills as they are preparing to enter high school. They are at the threshold of a decision to continue with their education or drop out. Equipping them with skills may be the element that will keep them in school.
We do not have a computer lab instructor at this time. However, our technology facilitator has been a great resource for teachers. She is in the process of compiling a list of educational websites by grade level that are very helpful. I agree with you that all the students need some basic, fundamnetal skills that would aid them in the future--especially keyboarding skills. There are some great websites available to assist with this and they are student directed, so the teacher would just be observing and supporting the students.
As everyone has said this is a great idea. Our 5th grade has 24 desktops that are no longer needed and should be taken to create a computer lab. Granted this can only happen if our laptops continue to work and none of them are broken. We also created a technology committee at our school much like there is a SLT and a SIT committee. Once the lab is created I think that the technology committee could be in charge of creating weekly lessons for K-2 and 3-4 classes. This lessons could start off with basic computer skills, keyboarding, etc. Obviously once these lessons are created they could be shared with everyone in the district.
Maybe we need someone in the district to create lessons on computer basics (much like the laptop rap) for students to use in the computer labs.
Also for those teachers who need help maybe some well trained 5th graders can serve as technology helpers much like they have in Vail. I thought it was great how older students went into lower level classrooms and aided the students (and teachers) with technology use. It made things easier on the teacher and also helped build a community.
Amanda, that is a great idea about having 5th grade helpers in the computer lab to assist the lower grades. Some of our 5th graders are very computer savvy. This will definitely help build a learning community at the school, and take some of the stress away from our teachers.
As far as planning lessons, I think that the grade level teachers can collaborate about what their grade level needs are and create quality lessons. Of course this means that all teachers need to take part. If kinder starts very basic computer skills and each grade level increase the technology knowledge, by 5th grade these students will be well prepared for one-to-one.
A computer lab is a fantab idea, and now that we're on 1:1, I thinkk we can go ahead & set it up. I like your idea of pre-set lessons, though. I could see it being used as more a video-game arcade, rather than an extension on learning. Perhaps the tech committee, along with our tech facilitator can compile said lessons on a wiki-type format, to help the tecahers who don't have the tech-savvy or the time to "add another thing to their plate". Short of a "tech-teacher", this might be our best bet in making it a productive use of time & best support the kids, so they are ready to fly solo in 5th grade.
I agree that all schools should have a computer lab available for all grade levels. Students should be learning computer skills and terminology as young as Kindergarten. They live in a world filled with technology, but may not have the resources at home to learn the fundamentals. An entering fifith grade class will have students with little to no computer background while others are more computer savvy than the teacher. if all incoming 5th graders had a strong foundation we could use our time more efficiently in the classroom when using the laptops. I feel it is the schools responsibility to make these resources available and to have kids prepared and knowledgeable with the technology they are expected to know how to use outside of school.
I agree with the idea of having a lab. I also agree that a lab would help students with fundamental skills that will allow them to be more successful in fifth grade. Computers were introduced to students since years ago.
Several years ago, for example, my school was provided with a computer lab and a set of about 4 computers for each classroom. Unfortunately the computer lab was removed to create space for a regualar classroom and the set of four computers in each class are so old, they aren't even capable of downloading a website. All the ideas mentioned above are great, and I think that by providing a lab and/or a new group of 4-6 computers is necessary. I know this is expensive; but if we want one-to-one computing to be more successful, I feel this is money well spent.
I also believe that having a "working" computer lab will be an asset to teachers in a one to one classroom. It would be helpful for students to come knowing proper computer etiquette and basic computer word processing skills to facilitate the type of change we want to see.
I, too, agree that a strong foundation in computer basics is important by the time fifth-graders receive their laptops. We don't have a computer lab, but our school librarian has done a phenomenal job of setting up a class bank of library computers with the learning.com programs, so that all grade levels get a chance to practice their computer skills.
A computer lab for the grade levels that we are NOT able to take to the 1:1 level seems to have a baseline of support. Several of the posts to date have mentioned areas of challenge in implemetation or pitfalls, and many of these were covered in the Project Red report. 1) The equipment has to work, or students and teachers become frustrated - our part-time site tech model may not be enough to maintain the lab and all the other devices being added. 2) The goals should be clear for each grade level to eventually support a 1:1 model, the AZ Technology Standards are a place to start. 3) the post that mentioned using the learning.com web-based curriculum organized by the librarian is spot on; support for digital curricular materials was mentioned in the report under the need to invest in learning software or licenses. 4) access to the lab should be equitable - some of our existing sites' labs are dominated by interventions such as Mindplay, and there is little room in the schedule for anything else 5) according to the report, in order to get to "2nd order change" we need to be able to integrate technology into core instructional areas as well as in every intervention area. We are far from achieving any of these mileposts, but it is definitely worth the effort. I like the idea of a "technology committee" to help guide each site...
The idea of a technology committee is fabulous. What better way to get buy in from teachers then to have them be part of the planning. I can see this committee working very closely with the Tech Facilitator in the building. The members of the committee would become the experts in the areas Anne mentioned in her comments and could share this infor with their teammates. I like Amanda's thinking and her comments about getting students involved as "trainers."
It is so reasonable to have a starting point like the one you propose. It is so difficult to start at the basic and then be expected to have a show case as and end product. At first we started to intergrate computers into every lesson, the results, our benchmark scores decreased by 20% overall. Project Red sounds great, but do we have in place what will make one to one successful?
LOUD and CLEAR - after reading the comments generated from this post - it is crucial that schools have a "working" computer lab and a lab tech to prepare our students. Thank you Jessica for your post.
Yes, thank you Jessica for starting the discussion and thank you Valerie for the strong affirmation of the need to have working labs with a lab tech for each of our schools. Doing great things with technology starts with having the basic skills to begin with.
A computer lab would be great!
Right now we have 13 desktops, which is not ideal, but it can work if they are working. Eight of my 13 have been down since Feb 11 and that stops any technology lessons for 4th and under. I'm sure with 1:1 the district has been swamped, but we need to make sure we have some people in place specifically to address the problems of the other tech resourses the district already has in place.
I would totally agree with this statement. Our librarian has done on outstanding job of providing computer skills to all grade levels. But to have that dedicated time for teachers to be able to take their students to a lab and work on projects is crucial for them to start learning to process information on the computer. I worked at a school with 2 computer labs. One had a dedicated computer tech and one did not. We went to computers once a week and they had lessons on everything from email to power point. The other lab we used once a week to research even Kinder. It was wonderful and our students taught their parents how to use the computer.
A school without a computer lab has been a huge adjusment for me. So, I also agree with Jessica. I'm a huge advocate for school labs that are up to date. Not moving labs (where laptops are checked out to a class), not a lab where the teacher has to teach the lesson, but a lab that provides students K-5 with up to date desktops and a qualified tech. teacher who provides students with the essential/basic tools to be a successful 21st century student. On a personal note, I attended an elementary school that provided a computer lab as a specials class. These critical years are what gave me the skills to be a successful student and adult.
I'm with Jessica on the K-4 computer lab, but I'll argue that having a lab instructor is a 1st order change rather than a 2nd order. I'm with Mrs. Ortega on thoughtful planning, K-5 on integration of tech standards in a meaningful, rather than activity oriented way. Technology has to aid, not drive instruction. I see a K-4 teacher with a laptop, document camera, and projector modeling for students in the classroom, before they get anywhere near the computer lab, what they are expected to do when they get there, then aiding those who need it when actually in the lab. It would be nice to have another set of eyes to help, but isn't that true in any setting? All teachers need to be conversant/comfortable with the tech standards and expectations at their grade levels, and thoughtfully and consistently model the vocabulary (words like scroll, menu, cursor, etc.) and procedures (open, save as, close, browse, etc.) whenever they use their laptops with their students for instruction.