agree. But most of the use of laptops in our first grade and up (and
even occasionally in our K) is independent. Students are given a task
and they go and use the computers to do it. The teacher is walking
around, but there are often 10 other things (many non tech) happening at
the same time that the teacher is helping with. A lot of my teachers
are not techie, so just getting them to feel comfortable enough to use
the laptops in their classroom on a regular basis in an integrated way
is a challenge. In 3rd - 8th, most of the laptop use is as needed, so
students will just go to the cart and get a laptop when they need it to
write, or do research, or work on a project. Since it is not a
scheduled time, I am not often in the classroom, so having apps - Word,
Powerpoint, Inspiration, Pixie, etc. is often easier for the students
and the teachers.
I cannot imagine a kindergartner (or most first graders) being able to
get a laptop, log in, start Firefox, get to Google Apps, type in their
username and password, select the app they need, use it, save, and log
off independently. I have set up the laptops in K-1, so they currently
can log in and start an application on their own without any help.
Starting in 2nd grade, they have to type in a username and password and
this works fine after a little practice.=20
I have set up Google Apps for the 4th and 5th graders, but the teachers
prefer to have the students use the local apps. (One limitation was I
had to set up email accounts for the 4th - 5th graders which some
teachers didn't want. I cannot imagine doing this with K-3.)
Middle school has really embraced the online applications including
Google and Nings. For most tech use in middle school, student can use
whatever they want, so some use Google, some use Word, some use Open
Office, some Inspiration, some Webspiration... Sometimes a teacher will
request students to work together on a Google App that is shared, or
post responses to a question on the Ning, but teachers are pretty
flexible with allowing students to use what they want.
Renee Ramig
Seven Hills School
-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for independent school educators
[mailto:ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Matt Pearson
Sent: Thursday, October 08, 2009 9:18 AM
To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Re: Backup recommendations
Backup question is a good one. We are moving to a Crashplan model
locally and eventually at a collocation (Crashplan is what Google uses
for its servers).
Regarding the K-2 usage. I would argue that the act of connecting to
Google Apps and using a logon method is a good skill for the students.
Perhaps we nudged the user skills rubric a bit and now do this
earlier...
We rolled out Google Apps for 5-8 and are having great success and
enthusiasm!
Cheers,
m
Matt Pearson
Director of Technology, Security and Safety, MCDS
-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for independent school educators
[mailto:ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Renee Ramig
Sent: Thursday, October 08, 2009 9:13 AM
To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Re: Backup recommendations
Maybe I am missing something, but how is Google Apps addressing the
backup question. Granted, apps used in Google are backed up on Google
servers, but what about the school database, the library collection,
etc., all the other critical data at the school site that is never going
to be on Google.
I also find Google to be difficult to use with very young students. It
is so much easier for them to open up a pre-formatted Word document in
K-2, then to have to log in to a Google Apps account.
Renee Ramig
Seven Hills School
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