By Traci Newell
 Joe Hu/Town Crier Oak Avenue Elementary School sixth-grade teacher May Shelley directs students as they record podcasts for their latest report on endangered species. The Los Altos School District began its mobile laptop program this year for sixth- and seventh-graders. |
Recording podcasts, surfing the Internet for information and creating virtual reports are among the daily tasks sixth- and seventh-graders in the Los Altos School District are assigned.
In the past students wrote and researched traditional hardcopy reports. This year, students are recording podcasts and downloading images they find doing research on the Internet in class.
“It’s been really fun,” said Nick Lillie, a sixth-grader at Oak Avenue Elementary School. “Before I always looked at laptops as hard to use, and now I like them.”
Lillie and Brandon VanRyswyk spent a recent afternoon using headsets, donated by an Oak parent, to record podcasts on their endangered animal, the Mexican long-nosed bat.
“The assignment is like a report - but audio and visual,” said May Shelley, sixth-grade teacher at Oak. Shelley said she integrates the laptop learning for an average of an hour a day.
Shelley said she enjoys seeing those students who didn’t enjoy writing become excited about working with computers.
“They edit more, they write more and they research more,” she said. “They look forward to the lessons.”
The students use Apple laptops to run such programs as GarageBand to create the podcasts. The class uses the technology reports as a way to communicate with other sixth-grade classes in the district, and Shelley said the students plan to share their completed podcasts with students from Loyola Elementary School.
“The podcasts are my favorite,” said Tara Kapany, Oak sixth-grader. “It’s been fun and easier than writing everything down.”
The technology program is new to the district this year, enhancing sixth- and seventh-grade curricula with laptop integration.
Two teachers at each school share a mobile laptop cart, outfitted with 30 laptops, to develop their lessons and broaden the curriculum. The classes are equipped with wireless Internet connection so that each laptop can access the Internet.
Because most students in Los Altos have access to computers and are proficient in their use, district staff looked for ways to use them in the classroom.
Los Altos School District students used computers before the technology program began, but they would have to leave the classroom and go to school labs for assignments. With the new technology program, teachers can integrate computer use and technology in the everyday schedule.
“Technology will touch the life and education of every student who attends our schools and help them acquire 21st-century skills that go beyond the standardized test,” said Brenda Dyckman, principal at Egan Junior High School. “The students will be learning with the computer, not learning from the computers.”
The district hopes to expand the technology program to include fifth- and eighth-graders for the 2007-2008 school year.
