Re: How to Get the Most from Computers in the Classroom

[Dan Robinson Indexing Services <drobinson@INFO.HWWILSON.COM>]

You don't have to travel far to find such generalizations. In our
town, we built a brand new k-2 school. All of the classrooms and
library have multiple access points for a school network. This was
touted in every publicity article about the school.

After the school opened, someone wanted to see the Internet in
operation. There was one pc, hooked to a modem in the library.  No
LAN, no pcs in the classrooms, yet the school was written up as a
modern, wired school, with direct classroom access to the Internet.

Dan Robinson
Indexing Services
H.W. Wilson Company
Bronx, NY
drobinson@hwwilson.com


On  6 Aug 98 at 12:55, Peter Milbury wrote:

> Dear Colleagues,
>
> On Thu, 6 Aug 1998, Anton Ninno wrote:
> > Yarnell writes, "Roughly 80 percent of American schools had Internet
> > access by last year, according to the United States Department of
> > Education, and about a quarter of those schools had access directly in the
> > classroom.
>
> Isn't it striking how some writers, and even educational policy makers at
> the U.S. Department of Education are able to generalize from such thin
> "data"? This sort of article makes me want to barf! Don't they have better
> things to do? How about asking some of the right questions at least!
>
> It is absurd to make gross generalizations from the data cited above.  So
> what if most schools have access! A Mac-SE or IBM-AT located in the
> principal's office is of very little help or meaning to the rest of the
> school!
>
> It is extremely important to also know the quality of the school's access,
> the speed of the connection and the power of the online computers, not to
> mention the amount of training the the teachers and students have received
> in the use of the Internet. It is also critical to know how many
> opportunities the teachers and students have *together* online, where they
> can work on a given activity, lesson or unit. Or, how about the
> availability of trained technology teachers, mentors and support staff,
> network support personnel, or other such aides?
>
>[snipped]
>
> I wonder how the rest of our members feel when they read such reports and
> articles?
>
> Peter Milbury                          pmilbury@cusd.chico.k12.ca.us
>
> Librarian-Mentor Teacher      http://www.cusd.chico.k12.ca.us/~pmilbury
> American Memory Fellow:  Library Of Congress - National Digital Library
> Chico High School, Chico, CA 95926     http://dewey.chs.chico.k12.ca.us
> A National Blue Ribbon and California Distinguished School 530-891-3036
> .......................................................................
>

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