Written by: Dan Maas
1/30/2009 

Today, I visited the 5th grade classrooms at East Elementary School.  These classes have taken EeePC laptops and have officially blown the doors of learning old-school.  Scott Murphy (our Superintendent) and I watched as students accessed online videos and tutorials on the circulatory system, then marveled as they wrote in their cognitive framework (not sure if I'm using the right term here... one of the 5th graders tried to explain this to me [;-).  They use wikis and blogs for their writing.  Blogs are their publishing medium like a news service.  Wikis are their online document workspace.  And the wealth of the Internet and subscribed databases are their information source.  And did I mention that these classrooms have students with disabilities and students who don't speak English as their first language... no matter!  The traditional labels don't mean much anymore.  These are students... scholars... writers... intellectuals... the NEW 5th graders.

Here are some pictures I took today (I won't show kids in this post because I don't have permission... maybe later):

This essay was posted on the wall with the others.  I appreciate how the student work is displayed both in the halls and on the web.  You can easily see how the students use crayons and markers, pencils and paper as well as computers and printers to produce their work.  This essay was written by a student who doesn't like to write.  What grabbed my attention was how he wrote three persuasive arguments about not writing in his 2 page essay... nicely done.

It reads

"I think writing is not fun because I have 3 supporting ideas for that idea.  1 idea, get tired.  2 idea, write a lot.  3 idea, come up with ideas.

"Writing is not fun because your hands get tired too much.  Then we sometimes have to write like two pages a day and I don't like that because writing is my weakest subject in school.  Everyday when we come in after recess, we always have to write an essay.  Then we sometimes also have to write an essay on the computer and I don't like that either.  When ever you don't do your patch for homework, you have to stay in for recess and that's the end of my first paragraph about writing..."

Sounds like high expectations and a reluctant student meeting those expectations. 

Here Kay Bolerjack shows Scott how the EeePC can access the Discovery Education science modules and show videos in full color and animation.  The EeePC is up to the challenge.

So, now let me call out to these fabulous students at East who have found their voices... I'd like to hear what you think about this:

I believe that if you only access the computer 30 minutes per week, all you do is look up information.

But if you have access to a computer every day, you will create information too!

What is the value of having access to a computer everyday in class for YOU?

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Location: Blogs Dan Maas, Ed.D. Chief Information Officer

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