Article

Plugging in to laptop learning

Sunday, October 22, 2006 • BY JOHN WIHBEY • Star-Ledger Staff

In Randolph, using search engines, analyzing Web site credibility and ensuring Internet safety are being added to the three R's -- reading, writing and arithmetic -- that are traditionally the core of elementary education.

This year, Randolph's schools are wiring in their students at the earliest ages, pushing laptop technology and Internet-based learning into the lowest grades.

A $200,000 district initiative this year put dozens of laptops with wireless technology into the district's four elementary schools, and it has been coupled with teachers' efforts to use the computers directly in classrooms.

Second-graders will use the laptops to study dinosaur fossils, and fifth-graders will use them to research the three branches of government, for example.

"Not only does a teacher use it to instruct," said Ironia School vice principal Jennifer Fano, who is helping to lead the district's initiative, "but students use it to demonstrate their knowledge."

The key is to teach young students to be safe and competent, and then use that knowledge to expand their learning opportunities, Fano said.

Laptops allow for computer-based learning to be used in every classroom and unit, moving past the limits of having a single technology lab, educators say.

Schools around the state are employing laptops, and 84 percent reported using them at some grade level on a recent Department of Education survey, according to spokesman Jon Zlock.

The School District of the Chathams uses laptops at all grade levels and has done so for several years, and Hunterdon County's largest school district, Flemington-Rartitan, employs them extensively as well, according to school officials.

But incorporating laptops deeply into an elementary school curriculum and teaching basic Internet skills at the earliest ages is just beginning in most districts, state and county educational officials said.

On Friday, Ironia teachers and students moved carts of some 60 laptops from room to room, with each child being able to access an individual folder on the school's server. Second-graders were listening to headphones that were linked to on-screen programs, as students practiced fine motor skills such as typing and using a mouse, and learned to navigate Web links.

Fourth-grade teacher Patricia Bourke said students' enthusiasm is palpable, and "they retain so much more information" because the Internet often engages students visually and through sound, catering to different learning styles.

Sophia Wells, a 10-year-old fifth-grader, said she has learned Internet safety skills such as "Don't give anyone your e-mail address" and "Exit out and tell an adult" when confronted with an uncomfortable site. But it's the academic possibilities, and having a laptop all to herself for a class period, that excite her.

"When I go home, I can do some of the things I learned," Sophia said.

Though computer technology made its way into many public school classrooms a decade ago, most students now in high school had to learn to use the Web at home, Fano said. The new generation, she hopes, will be better equipped to deal with the vast -- and often unsettling -- online world.

Juanita Unhoch, director of the county's Education Technology Training Center, said there are other progressive technology programs at Dover Middle School and in Rockaway Borough's elementary and middle schools.

She called Randolph's initiative -- which officials hope to expand each year -- "really innovative" and said teaching Internet safety is an important trend in education.

Lily Chang, the district technology supervisor in Roxbury, said her district also has a new initiative to use Web-based learning and now has about 100 laptops. But she said the big challenge is to integrate them into learning: "Having kids have the laptop is one thing, but the other thing is the application."

Internet etiquette and ethics are being taught within some parts of the Roxbury district curriculum, Chang said.

Randolph Superintendent Max Riley said there's been more advanced work with technology in high schools and it's important to get students accustomed early to using technology as a natural part of learning. But, he said, "doing it at the elementary school level presents a significant challenge. The kids are not as sophisticated."

Lee Ann Pellegrini, an Ironia technology teacher, said she must teach younger kids how to carry laptops properly, and plug and unplug them. She said it often takes time for kids to set up the laptops, and that can cut into learning time.

Sitting amid 16 second-graders quietly glued to their screens, Pellegrini, a 27-year veteran, said the laptops engage the students deeply. Still, she said with a smile, "I don't think we can just do away with the teacher."

The young and the wireless

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