Laptop 1 to 1 with Grade 6 (10 years old)

[Robert James DeAbreu]

Does it work? We are moving to this next year. Students coming to me will be adjusting to MS, adjusting to lockers/planners/fitting in - and they will be given a laptop too. They're probably more tech savvy than most of the adults at our school, but assuming that, how do I make it beneficial for them? How do we make it more of a help than a hindrance/stress? How do we support our students?

[Robert James DeAbreu]

Curriculum

How do we control what the kids are learning, in an environment that can't be controlled? How do we ensure that we can fulfill the school's promise to parents that topics will be covered by year end, and students "will be able to" reach all the objectives of the courses we teach (a question more serious as kids go up levels!).

Independent programming is one way - each student is on an individualized program. Teacher merely provides the resources for the students to use to facilitate their learning/revision/extension. Then the teacher sets the mark that certain objectives need to be covered by year end and monitors student progress throughout the year.

Rotating modules is another - 5 students are selected to "do" the number strand, another 5 the stats strand, and so on, then students rotate through - maybe not all units are same length, but you could extend shorter units by adding projects at the end or adequate extension work or enhance them in some other way.

Is it unrealistic to think the kids will all do the same thing at the same time. I think so. But can't I have them all doing the "number systems" unit at the same time even though they're doing different work, then end withthe same objectives? I'm afraid of losing control.

[Robert James DeAbreu]

How do we ease the burden of transition to 121 Laptops when students are adjusting to lockers, planners, MS, making friends, new.... everything?? Kids are resilient, but introducing 121 laptops in an already stressful year seems silly. However, it's happening at our school - so how do we deal with it?

Managing It: I think each teacher needs to choose one or two technologies that will enhance their subject (ie: Blogs/Wikis for English, interactive java applets for math science, etc - not an exhaustive listing here), and try it. We can't master each and every one of the technologies we have heard about, but if we can become proficient at a few, then add one to our bag of tricks every once in a while as we go along, perhaps this is one way to manage it.

[Allan Algar]

I'll be watching for comments. I'll be in the same boat next year.