Laptop learning

BY JULIET LARKIN

A pupil at Salford Primary is typing in "Crazy disco man cartoon" into Google on his laptop.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"I'm looking for images to go with my reading," he says, not taking his eyes off the screen as dozens of small cartoons appear.

He explains he will copy and paste his chosen image into the programme he is using.

"Oh," I say, "is it difficult?" feeling a little like I'm back at school myself.

"Not really."

I'm in room 6, a bustling combined year 5 and 6 class, which is the first primary class in Southland, and one of very few in the South Island, where each pupil has their own laptop and learning is centred around using it.

It is five weeks into the first term and pupils Hannah Jane Calderwood and Jack Corkery tell me what they like about using their own laptops.

"We don't have to share a computer; playing the games and publishing our stories straight away," says Hannah.

"I like it when we do `'play' and we go into an application and we find out more about it," says Jack.

That's a 10-minute daily activity set by their teacher Tracy Freeman, where they play with a chosen programme with no particular activity in mind.

Miss Freeman is amazed at how much they have already picked up without being told and how they help each other to improve their knowledge.

The concept behind this novel and controversial class comes from principal of six years, Marlene Campbell, who was formerly an Information Communication Technology facilitator involved with upskilling teachers in technology.

She is convinced of the important role technology can play in a pupil's learning and in enhancing creativity.

Her passion has taken her to visit schools in Australia, United States and the North Island to observer similar classes.

"I just see it as the most amazing opportunity that we can provide for a child and they can become very intrinsically technology savvy. I also think it prepares them for life work skills, it's just starting a little earlier," she says.

But not all agree that it adds to childrens' learning. Several educators and parents spoken to wanted to see evidence of the benefits for the children and questioned whether 9 and 10-year-olds should be spending so much time on computers, quite aside from the issue of forking out more than $1500 for the Apple laptop for their child at a state school.

Said one parent, who did not want to be named: "The kids are far too young. I know that's the way the world is going but when I grew up there was more to learning than computers."

That parent, who chose not to put their child in the laptop class, had seen no obvious follow on for continuing at high school with computers and also felt those not going into the class were left out.

However, Miss Freeman does not believe the class has caused any divisions, and if there were any issues children would have told her. Another parent, Suzette Richardson, is pleased they signed their son on for room 6. They didn't want him missing out, and although a lot of money, it had been worth it.

"He loves it. He knows it all now and he could certainly teach me a thing or two," she says.

Talking to Ms Campbell it is hard not to be caught up in her infectious enthusiasm for the concept, which she calls her "baby".

The class was established after three parent meetings last year where Ms Campbell pitched the concept and found there was enough support – "we got 25, which was perfect" – to create one laptop-run class.

"No-one missed out. Some parents were cautious and are watching what happens.

"That's fine. Everything new is going to have that level of looking at seeing how it's going to go," she says.

The class will be monitored for evidence of improved engagement, looking at how other schools (mostly private in New Zealand) have done it, though she acknowledges it is so far "quite subjective".

It's not as if this decile 9 school is under-resourced in computers anyway: each class has three, plus what they call a COW system, or Computers on Wheels, where 10 laptops can be booked out by a class when needed. That works out to about one computer to every two children, an enviable ratio for most schools.

"This class just steps it up and means a child can take it home and do their own practice," she says.

Ms Campbell doesn't believe the class is elitist and denies there are any equity issues.

She says the laptop can be paid off for the price of two bought coffees a week; that was how a Latino mother at a low-decile school in the United States put it to her.

"I would rather forgo the lattes, and I'm a coffee freak," says Ms Campbell, whose son is also in the class.

However, she also acknowledges some families do not have that level of discretionary income.

Ms Campbell's aim is to keep adding a laptop class to the school every year until all the older pupils have them.

Next in the plan is to bring in the parents for sessions on the programs the children use, as many feel they are a bit left behind.

"I think that's really exciting because we want to be a learning community. And it might not just be parents who have kids in the classroom," Ms Campbell says.

I watch the room 6 children doing a reading exercise, with the pupils reading a story on their own and recording it on to the program GarageBand.

They then press replay and see where they've made mistakes with words or missed out punctuation.

Miss Freeman says the class just uses a different way of learning, while still retaining the basics. About 70 per cent of class time is spent on the laptop, the other 30 per cent includes teacher presentation time and handwriting.

Yes, handwriting is still practised – it was something parents emphasised they thought was important to retain when the class was being set up.

Miss Freeman is by no means a computer geek. Chosen specifically by the principal as being a "high-achieving, risk-taker teacher with the X factor", she says she is learning alongside the pupils and if she can't figure out a program, she gets them all to help out.

When she first heard about the class she had already handed her notice in to go travelling. But she said, "I was in" when the concept was put to her, laughing that she had to then withdraw her resignation.

Miss Freeman's enthusiasm matches if not surpasses that of the principal.

"It's fabulous. It's very high engagement here, especially with the large amount of boys here." (The class has 18 boys and seven girls).

"Some parents were afraid they wouldn't be talking to anyone: This is my noisiest class yet. They tell each other how to do something and then pass it on to the next," she says.

Given the way our technology is evolving, perhaps in 20 years' time a laptop class for primary school children will be common place.

Until then, such ways of learning will be followed closely.

LAPTOP ACTIVITIES INCLUDE:

• Learning to touch-type
• Internet safety
• Using programs Microsoft word, Iphoto, Comic Life
• Keynote Spelling practice at Spelling City
• Writing activities presented and published in different ways, for example, on Publisher, Word, Keynote and Kids Pic
• Maths games and activities on a variety of websites
• Reading practice through recording on to GarageBand

- © Fairfax NZ News