That's Not a Drinking Fountain
or
How to Survive in a One Computer Classroom
by Whit Anderson
Bottleneck
Some teachers with only one computer in their classroom line up their
students to use that computer like it was a drinking fountain. While it is
important that all students get access to a computer, the drinking fountain
approach is rarely the best model to adopt.
Classroom time is too valuable to have a line of students waiting around for a
turn to use the computer. In addition to being inefficient, that kind of a
bottleneck in the classroom is just begging for behavior problems.
If you don't have as many computers as you would like in your classroom you
aren't alone. Few schools have the resources to provide a computer for each
student, and many classrooms feel lucky to have one computer for all the
students to share. Teachers have developed a number of strategies to make the
best possible use of scarce computer resources.
Stations
One strategy that many teachers use is to create multiple activities
with stations. Students are given a problem to solve where the computer is only
one of the available tools. While the Internet and CD-ROMs are great research
tools, they probably aren't the only source of information that students should
be using. In the station model, students, working in small groups have a
limited amount of time at a number of stations to gather information and to
construct knowledge from it.
One scenario for this approach might be fifth grade students looking for
information about prehistoric animals that lived in their state. Each group can
choose to find information about one particular animal and to prepare a brief
report about their animal for the rest of the class. At one station students
might find information by examining dinosaur textbooks obtained from the
library. At another station the teacher might have a set of encyclopedias
available. A third station might be material from the teacher's clip file such
as articles about paleontological digs in the area. The fourth station might be
a computer with CD-ROMs or bookmarks to Web sites with information about
prehistoric animals. The students might rotate from one station to another in
small groups at fifteen or twenty minute intervals. At each station the groups
would work together to gather information and develop notes about what they
were learning.
Print
Another way to make efficient use of limited computer resources is to encourage
students to print the resources they find. Students gathering information
should skim pages and headers to find likely sources of information and then
print those pages to be read later. Most people prefer reading a printed page
rather than reading lengthy text from the monitor. While students are going
though material they printed, extracting and pondering the information they
found, other students can be using the computer to find and print pages with
the information they need.
This may occasionally lead to printing some pages that are not what the
students were looking for. They may be able to share those pages with other
students who were looking for that information. In any case, paper and toner
are inexpensive compared to the cost of providing computers to students. A
teacher who can get more use from limited computer resources at the cost of
paper and toner has done well by both students and district.
You may also decide to print some pages ahead of time for your students. One of
the advantages of the Internet is that it often has very specialized and very
up-to-date information. If you can print that information for your students
they can all have access to that information without each student needing time
at the computer to read the information.
Projector or Large Monitor
A strategy similar to printing out pages ahead of time is to use a
projector or large monitor to present some material from the computer to the
entire class. A disadvantage of this approach is that students may not be as
actively engaged in gathering and evaluating information. An advantage of this
method is that you can control the pace and the content.
This might be particularly effective as a introduction/preview of Web pages.
Students get an overview of what is available and later are able to make better
use of limited time at the computer to find the information they need.
Plan Ahead
The idea of using a projector or large monitor for a preview is closely related
to the idea of planning ahead. If computer time is limited, make sure that
students are ready before they start to use the computer. Many online resources
provide students with access to online experts who will communicate with
students via e-mail. Before students come to the computer they should have
carefully defined what it is they want to know from the online expert.
A hard copy organizer can help students plan ahead for the information they
want to find. Rather than simply browsing for whatever information comes their
way, students who have planned ahead can focus on getting the information they
need. If they have a more specific idea of what they are looking for they can
make better use of keywords on search engines, and more quickly evaluate
whether a Web page is a likely source of information they need.
If your students are looking for information on the Internet be sure that they
know how to use a search engine. With students new to the Internet to it might
be a good idea to pick one search engine and teach them how to use that search
engine. There are a number of good search engines available, but many of them
work in slightly different ways. Picking one search engine lets students master
the "ins and outs" of that search engine quickly so that they can focus on
finding information and not struggle with the mechanisms of a variety of search
engines.
You may want to bookmark Web sites that you would like all the students to see.
Encourage students to make their own bookmarks and to share with others good
Web sites that they find.
Beg, Borrow, and Trade
If you have one computer in your classroom, it's likely that other classrooms
also have a computer. Are any of those computers available at the time that
your students need access? If your school allows moving computers between
classrooms you might be able to work out a "deal" with another teacher to
borrow their computer and lend them yours at another time. Or perhaps one of
your students could work quietly on a computer in another teacher's classroom
if the other class was not using the computer.
Some schools have placed all computers on
rolling carts so they can be
assembled into small or large groups as necessary. Others use laptop computers
which are more easily moved.
If other classroom computers aren't a possibility you might be able to have a
small group of students work at a computer in the library or resource center.
In any case, students working in another room will need supervision and
preparation. It is especially important that students in these situations
organize their learning tasks ahead of time so that they stay focused on what
they need to learn.
Match Task and Resource
If you have only one computer, think of it as a resource for gathering
information and don't plan to have each students create a multimedia
presentation. If you have more than one computer try to match student tasks to
the computer that they use. An older, low end computer may be fine for writing
reports, leaving a more capable machine free for Internet access or multimedia
projects.
Word processing can be done with AlphaSmarts,
Dreamwriters, etc. Students can input text on these
machines which can later be uploaded into a computer with a word processor to
fine tune a report or presentation.
Alternate Access Times
Are there alternate times that students can get access to the computer? If you
are in the classroom before or after school, during lunch, or when the room is
not scheduled with students, there might be some students in the class who
could make use of the computer at that time. You may find that given the
chance, and the opportunity to use the computer, many of your students will use
some of their free time to seek out information, write reports or prepare
presentations.
While using alternate access times, be careful that the computer doesn't become
a reward for fast students who finish other classroom work early. It isn't just
the fastest and the brightest who need access to the computer.
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