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Integrating technology into the classroom: Lessons from the field
Dean Orrell (orrell@vt.edu)
Sally Laughon (laughon@vt.edu)
Purpose of NTIA grant
- Purchase hardware software and equipment for local area schools and
train teachers
- Train residents of Montgomery county in the use of computers for communication
purposes
- Replicate BEV in other communities
Overview of major facility
- Auburn Internet Training and Resource Center (Riner) opened March
28, 1996
- 16 Macintosh PowerPC 5200 students
- 1 Macinstosh PowerPC 5300 instructor
- 2 Video cameras
- T1 connection (1.5 MB data rate)
Classes (training) to date
- Personal observations of 10 classes
- 6 sessions for teachers (2 Basic Mac, 2 ClarisWorks, 2 Internet Netscape)
- One-on-one help sessions Thurs and Fri
- 3 community classes (very positive)
Communication Issues
- Provide a clear lesson plan
- Help students understand the need for greater attention in the computer
lab
- Have written instructions/guidelines/help
Pedagogical Issues
- Verbal lesson vs. demonstrated lesson
- Students lack basic computing skills
- Macintosh interface is new
- Students lack word processing skills
- Students didnœt recognize when system was éfrozenè
- Students lack experience with browsers
- need to know when Netscape is searching (they think nothing is happening
and itœs not working)
Pedagogical Issues
- Effective use of the internet in the classroom requires extra preparation
- provide students with an on-line or printed list of URLs
- How frequently is the web site updated?
- What related sites exist?
- What search engines are best to use and how do I search with them?
- Example Biology class searched Web for information and the same
two sites (in CA and Montreal) were cross-referenced by all the others
Pedagogical Suggestions
- Need several introductory classes for students
- Introduction to the Macintosh
- Introduction to Netscape Navigator
- Introduction to searching on the web and search engines
Pedagogical Suggestions
- How do we do it in only one lesson
- Teacher finds several internet resources and organizes them prior
to the actual lesson. (WebWhacker)
- Teacher provides a brief verbal overview of Netscape and then has
students follow along with them using overhead projector
- Students use prepared bookmarks or HTML files that the teacher has
generated
System Issues
- Establish a look and feel for the lab
- Standard folders for each machine
- Creation of bookmarks and folders for each area
- will teachers use?
- may be hard to maintain
- Daily maintenance and upgrades
- Sparkle 2.45 and SoundManager 3.1
- Foolproof (no easy way to lock and unlock 20 machines)
- Printer problem (removing an extension)
System Challenges
- Systems approach need to plan for technology plateaus
- consider software needed up front
- Example: student storage devices for graphics, video and audio files
(Omega Zip drives available soon 100 MB)
- Dedicated machine for teachers
- Allow them to experiment
- Get buy-in from teachers
- Teacher training and motivation
- Help them understand the process
- Overcome barriers to change or technology
Open Issues
- Internet in the classroom over-hyped??
- extranet vs. internet
- quality of information presented
- who will maintain these information bases?
- will the schools be able to afford access?
- just a community library on line
- with immediate access (no need to drive to library)
- with world-wide access to others (via email)
Conclusions
- The internet can be a valuable tool in the classroom
- research skills, communication, publication
- Preparation (as always) is the key
- Local community response has been very positive
- Systems approach is necessary for the replication of BEV
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