HIT-->Centralize or decentralize computers

[LMC <acig@ACIG.K12.EC>]

These are the responses regarding the TARGET--> I posted regarding a central
computer lab vs. computers in the classroom:

N.B.  I posted the request on Friday and these responses were all received
by Monday morning.  THE POWER OF THE NET!!

Janice Shea

NUMBER 1: (from Kay Pahl in Ohio)

We have had this problem i.e. to centralize or not.  We decided to start with
a lab so students would receive correct instruction.  We operated this way
two years.  Then the computers were placed in classrooms-one computer to each
classroom.  At the same time the library was in transition via automation.
We are still in this phase of the three year plan.  Through automation I
have five computers hooked to internet and the world for all purposes!  Next
year the computer lab, all classrooms and library will be networked.  This
has been and will continue to be a massive plan.  I am not a "computer"
minded person and thought I would not adapt (I am also old!) . . . BUT
this is really wild stuff and I have had fun learning.  I learn some of my
best info from students. I wish you well.  Perhaps you could develop a three
year plan.  This worked for us  because there was not money to do it all in
one year.  Also, most of us (i.e. the staff) could learn only in small
stages.  This has worked well and none of us has lost our minds. Bye Kay


NUMBER 2:  (From Linda Greengrass, New York)

We have a computer lab (with up to 24 stations) and at least one
computer in each classroom (19 rooms).  Because our library catalog
is available on-line to the school, as is e-mail, etc.,  it makes
sense to encourage access daily and in the classroom.  The library
aspect is a particularly crucial one - when our circ system is up
and running, kids and teachers will be able to find out if a book is
in and put a hold on it till they can get to the library.

Hope this helps.

Linda Greengrass

Bank Street College Library
610 West 112th Street
New York, NY 10025
(212) 875-4452
lindag@bnk1.bnkst.edu

NUMBER 3:

We compromised. Mini labs in old passsageways and large closets between the
rooms....It will also make it cheaper to network them when the times comes.
And they won't be solely relegated to classroom management.  The lab concept
is dated.  All kids doing work processing etc. at the same time ugh!!!

NUMBER 4:  (from Pat Stamp, Missouri)

Our K-5,350 student school decentralized the computer lab a few years ago
and it has been a roaring success!!  We have a small (4) bank of Macs in
the LRC and these are in constant use for CD-ROM research or word
processing.  The technologist's role is changing; where he once worked
almost exclusively with students, he now provides teacher training and
assistance to students on an as-needed basis. When money became available to
purchase 6 more computers, teachers voted unanimously to put one in each
grade level area (we're an open school) rather than create another computer
center.    Good Luck, Pat Stamp, Captain School, Clayton, MO

NUMBER 5: (from Barbara Fiehn, Mankato, MN)

How about a compromise, give teachers who are either computer literate or
have students who are a computer in the classroom and set up another mini
lab with the remainder.

With one main lab and the mini already in the media center, class use
should be adequate.  It is time to get them into the classroom.

Assure teachers that as they become computer literate they can have
computers in their rooms.

Barbara Fiehn, Assistant Professor
Mankato State University
Library Media Education
MSU 20/Box 8420
Mankato, MN 56002-8420




NUMBER 6:  (from Karen Whetzel, Virginia)

We did the computer lab first. We also have an aide assigned
there all day who keeps things running well. Then, as we added
computers, we put old ones in classrooms beginning with
kindergarten who tend to use them more invididualy. Teachers in
2-4 tend to use lab more.

Karen Whetzel
--
Greetings from the HEART of the Shenandoah Valley!
Karen Whetzel                Library Media Specialist
Post Office Box 809          Ashby-Lee Elementary School (K-4)
New Market, Virginia 22844   Mount Jackson, Virginia 22842
703-740-8589                 703-477-2926


NUMBER 7:  (from Anne Knickerbocker, Texas)

We are a PreK through 5 school.  We have one computer lab with 18
networked computers and we have 6 networked computers in the library.
Besides that, each classroom has three networked computers.  The intent
when we started the school (August, 1993) was to have two computer labs,
but we became overcrowded and needed the physical space for classrooms.
Now the teachers and the kids wouldn't have it any other way.  They
*love* having classroom computers:  use them as learning centers, plus
the teachers depend on them for e-mail and grading and so forth.  I'm a
believer that the computers are used a lot more in the classrooms and the
children are becoming computer literate much faster.  The added benefit
is that the morale of the teachers is high; they really appreciate having
a personal computer.

Anne Knickerbocker                           Cedar Brook Elementary
Librarian                                    2121 Ojeman
SBISD                                        Houston, Texas 77080
aknicker@tenet.edu                           (713) 973-6585

NUMBER 8:  (from Carol Simpson, Texas)

Before you make that decision, read Seymour Papert's new book, The
Children's Machine.  It will change the way you think about computers in
schools.

Carol Mann Simpson                   csimpson@tenet.edu
Facilitator - Library Technology          214 882-7450
Mesquite (TX) Independent School District

NUMBER 9:  (from M. Ellen Jay)

In my opinion a lab is more useful instructionally.  I lean toward using
the lab to support writing through out the curriculum and one computer in
a room does not allow for timely completion of writing assignments.
Being able to have a group working and interacting with simulations or
utility programs has real benefits over individual work.  If drill and
practice if what is being done than maybe it doesn't matter.  Since
individuals can work in a lab, kids from different classes at the same
time even, but a group can work on one machine there is greater
flexibility with a lab set up.  My teachers couldn't get along without
the lab after experiencing it.

M. Ellen Jay
mejay@umd5.umd.edu


NUMBER 10:  (from Guusje Moore, Texas)

We have two Mac labs, one with 20 comptuers and the other with 12 and a
mini lab in the library with 8, plus our 2 CD ROM Macs which double as
min lab macs too....We strongly feel we need at least one Lab for teching
keyboarding, general computer lit. skills and word processing.  However,
we have 1 or 2  in each classroom for grades 3-5 and are phasing in the
lower graders in the next year or two.  They are used by students in teh
final stage of writers workshop, to publish class newsletters and do
whatever.  In a nutshell, I think you need both setups if possible.  We
are a K-5 school, with an enrollment of 800.  Both labs and my mini lab
stay pretty busy.

                           Guusje Moore
                 Librarian, Housman Elementary School
                           Houston, Texas
                          guusje@tenet.edu

NUMBER 11:  (from Katie Williams, California)

We are having the same dilemma at our school. I am caught in the middle.
On one hand I see a teacher's point of view for having a
computer in the classroom--it's more accesible. However, only one or two
students can use it at a time, and many of our teachers cannot manage a
variety of activities in the same classroom comfortably. Yet, many
teachers have trouble planning ahead to schedule time in a lab.  I guess
it's a matter of convenience.

We do have a few classrooms with one or two computers in them, and what I
have found is that the teachers use them for themselves and will not let
the students use them. I don't think this is necessarily wrong, as long
as the teacher is learning how to use the computer, but the kids need access.
Our technology committee has decided to set up a second lab for classes
to attend at this point.  Some day we hope to put together a mobile
lab--a laptop for every student in a class that could be moved from
classroom to classroom.

Hope these random thoughts help.

Katie Williams
Los Cerros Middle School


NUMBER 12:  (From Vicki Lunsman, Texas)

We decided three years ago to move all computers from a centralized
location into the individual classrooms.  The response has been an
overwhelming approval.  The students use the computers when needed
instead of when scheduled and they are used much more frequently.  The only
difficulty has been space, but we would not go back
Vicki Lunsman
Meadows Elementary
Plano
Tx
lunsman@tenet.edu.


NUMBER 13:  (from Marilyn Miller, North Carolina)

I grappled with it in  a school system that is planning a remodeling
job on three high school media centers.  We agreed that the future is
classroom based use of the computer as essential tools for the
teaching/learning process and that general labs are crutches,
inadequate, and merely a transition to get the school into the use of
the technology.

NUMBER 14:  (From Larry Parsons, Washington State)

Janice,

Greetings from the Pacific Northwest Coast!

Boy, your problem _way_ down south is the same as ours! Our tech
committee is split and so are the teachers. I am in the camp that will
provide more student access to computers, and I believe that can be
accomplished by breaking up the lab. I see teachers being frustrated at
certain teachers who tend to "hog" the lab for their classes. Also, the
technophobes seem to like individual computers in their rooms AND a
person who can help them with a few problems of setting up, etc.

The Northwest Counsel for Computers in Education (NCCE) basically favors
breaking up labs, but seems to prefer keeping a lab AND having computers
available for individual student use.

Please let me know what you learn. An interesting and very timely topic
for me.

Regards,
Larry Parsons
Ocean Beach School District
Ilwaco, WA 98624
"Money is not the report card of life."


NUMBER 15:  (from Teresa Toy, New Hampshire)

I face the same debate on Tuesday.  At what level is your staff
development?  If teachers are confident they can master on their own,
should be ok distributed.   What's the teaching set-up.  If the teacher can
schedule the kids because they are in the same class all day, projects
are doable from the classroom.  A lab becomes necessary if children
are shuffling to different teachers throughout the day.  As many people
have to get on at a time  as possible to give everyone a chance.  If you
have portable carts, or laptops that circulate through the library, you
or for that matter, any kind circulating through the library, you could
distribute and create a lab only for special projects.  There is no
right sollution, advantages to each.  Go with what they will use.
Theresa Toy t_toy@mentor.unh.edu Rundlett Jr High, Concord, NH 03301

NUMBER 16:  (from Kari Inglis, Ohio)

If you create a central lab whole classes can have access to that lab and all
students can work at the same time if you schedule time appropriately.  I
think there are reasons for putting individual computers in classrooms
such as extending the library resources into a wide number of areas),
but when it comes to access, I question how much one computer in a class-
room can provide.  Also, are your teachers all committed to using
computers in their curricula?  If so, how do they propose to use them?
When you can answer that question, you will know the practical answer.
Until you have uniform and wide-ranging use, labs are the best solution
because access will benefit those who know what they want to do and
allow their students maximum access when they need it.

THanks for asking this question.  We are in the proceess of deciding
similar designs, and you helped me to clarify my own thinking!

Kari Inglis   kbw_inglis@mec.ohio.gov

NUMBER 17:  (From Sharyn McKee, California)

most schools in San Mateo are moving towards computers in the classrooms.
teachers are slowly being trained-sometimes the kids know more than the
teachers-we are trying to place at least one lc520 with cd rom in each
classroom with the cd's in the library to be checked out. In my school we
have a 12 mac lab and the teachers bring in half their class to the lab
and i take the other half in the library and then we switch. The teachers
use the classroom machines in different ways depending on thier skill.


                          Sharyn Udell Mckee
                          Turnbull Learning Academy
                          San Mateo,CA 94401
                          smckee@nueva.pvt.k12.ca.us

Janice Shea                         |
Inter-American Academy              |       "Chimborazo, Cotapaxi,
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