NETBOOKS: CHEAP AND E FFICIENT TECHNOLOGY ON THE FLY
By Jason Siko, MACUL Grant Recipient How many times have the following happened to you?
• You take your students to the computer lab for an activity, but not everyone finishes.
• You book the computer lab for two days, and most students are finished with the activity within 10 minutes of the second day.
• You have a student ask you if they can use your computer to email a file to another student.
If you find yourself nodding your head, perhaps you could use a netbook or two in your classroom.
I was able to purchase 3 netbooks with a grant from MACUL during the 2009-2010 school year. To meet our district specifications, we purchased 3 HP Mini netbooks running Windows XP, as well as a wireless access point which connected to the school’s network. The access point was placed in my classroom, but had a strong range throughout the school. The computers were not given the access to the network distributed applications, but were subject to the district’s web filter. We installed Firefox, OpenOffice, and Audacity on all three. The netbooks were stored and charged in my classroom, but were available to the entire science department.
The netbooks served several purposes. First, they were readily available for my students if they needed to have access to the Internet for research or email. Second, students were able to complete projects that were started in the computer lab, which allowed me to book fewer days in the lab. The flexibility of OpenOffice allowed us to easily work with documents originally created using the district’s MS Office productivity products. The netbooks were equipped with a microphone and webcam, which allowed students to record voice and video for Web 2.0 artifacts. In my Environmental Chemistry course, we created wikis, slidecasts, and homemade PowerPoint games for a unit on alternative fuels. I gave my IB Biology students the same three options for their unit on photosynthesis and respiration.
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Conference 2011
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MACULJOURNAL
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