Group+5

For our grant, we are addressing computer literacy within the classroom. We are addressing this issue specifically towards 5th graders in low-income schools in order to ease technology usage between elementary school and middle school. It is important for students to learn the basic usage and applications of a computer in order to prepare them academically. Due to the fact that low-income schools are not able to afford computers, cameras, or other tech savvy gadgets students are not able gain the knowledge and ability to use computers and other related technology efficiently. Through focusing our attention on computer literacy in the classroom, our target students will be able to learn the basics on how to use a computer and become digital natives. According to //Technology’s Value in Education// by Chris Rother, research has shown how access to computers in the classroom benefits the classroom, benefits outside of class, and also benefits the teachers. In a research done in 606 public and private schools, that include elementary, middle, and high schools, a majority of teachers polled indicated strong evidence that “in-class computers improve academic performance,” and “increase student attention in class.” Not only that, but in-class computers aid students to comprehend certain material that the teacher is unable to teach effectively. Most importantly, the use of computers within the classroom is linked to the improvement “in a wide range of skills, including math and writing, collaborative problem solving, organization and planning, visual and information literacy, creativity, risk taking, project-based learning, and interpersonal skills” (36). These advantages also benefit outside of the classroom for parent-teacher communication. The web gives parents and students access to homework assignments that are assigned in class. According to Rother, 58% of teachers indicated that posting assignments online for parents and students to view has increased homework completion rates which affects student learning. Furthermore, parents are able to communicate with the teacher in order for them to become more involved. Not only will having computers benefit the students, but it will also benefit the teacher and their performance within the classroom. Having access to computers within the classroom for teachers has made them more efficient when planning lessons, initiating routine functions, or other various tasks. 85% of teachers have stated “using computers more frequently for administrative purposes would be extremely or very useful” (37). In addition, it has changed the way they run their classrooms making students inclined and motivated to learn. While having computers in the classroom benefit the student and teacher, they also help appeal to the digital native generation. These are the students who are “used to receiving information really fast” (Prensky 2). Though they may not have access to technology in the classroom, they are exposed to it outside of school. With the rapid development of new technology, the new generation is constantly surrounded by new products and gadgets that endorse entertainment and an easier lifestyle. Due to this, students tend to pay more attention to these products because they prefer instant access to information. According to Prensky, this generation is “used to the instantaneity of hypertext, downloaded music, phones in their pockets, a library on their laptops, beamed messages, instant messaging” (3). Due to this, teachers have a hard time motivating students to learn. By providing computers in the classroom, teachers will be able to catch students’ attention and create a fun learning experience that caters to the digital natives. Not only will computers benefit the students and teachers, but it will help stimulate students to learn. We plan on using Netbooks to address computer literacy in the classroom. Netbooks are compact, low-cost mobile computers that will meet for our students. Unlike laptops, Netbooks can be easily accessed in student work areas and are much easier to transport due to their small size. Not only that, but they are fully capable in meeting school-related tasks. Among the many skills they will be expected to master and apply includes essential software such as the Microsoft Office suite. These applications will not only help them gain new skills that will be beneficial in their everyday life, but it will prepare them for middle school, high school, and also higher education.
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**__Project Description __** To implement classroom goals, there will be various exercises that pertain to a particular curriculum standard. The use of the Netbooks offers a great deal of possibilities for learning exercises/activities from writing, math, science, reading, and basic computer literacy skills. For students who do not have computer foundations, basic typing games will be assigned in order to improve words per minute so that the student can attain a level of proficiency with typing. Internet research will be an ongoing activity for the students to engage in reading and writing. Students will research the World Wide Web for legitimate sources and be taught how to evaluate website sources. To improve writing skills in the classroom, students will be encouraged to write in class essays using the Netbooks, in this manner they will be able to have a more flexible flow of writing ideas since they can easily type and edit their essays without the hassle of erasing or being unable to change their entire paragraph structures because Microsoft Word easily facilitates such actions. Furthermore, students would be encouraged to use Microsoft Excel to create charts and graphs in math and science activities. Expanding upon application, Netbooks are also a great medium to teach all the essential, core-academic subjects. With applications such as Wordle, WikiApps and VoiceThreads, the classroom will be immersed in a uniquely technological learning experience like no-other. The applications of the Netbooks will allow the classroom’s teacher to step outside of traditional media and mix in a new sense of involvement and interaction thanks to the modern software and technology that will be available to the students. It will also provide an avenue which is conservative and much more time-efficient. For example, a major project in fifth-grade is basic comprehension of the Declaration of Independence. While reading the document on a whole is important, it can be supplemented by a Wordle image which highlights important words by size and color to increase visualizations for a typically “word-landed” article. ’ For the most part, the students will get to use the Netbooks as much as they want to during the school day. This will encourage the students to not be afraid to actually experiment and explore with technology. Students are expected to carry out the responsibilities of caring for this technology. Although the students have a lot of freedom with the Netbook, they will be limited in some instances where they are inappropriately using the Netbooks. Additional, there will be a “power off” time in which students must refrain from using any technology. When students are using the Netbooks, there must be a degree of teacher supervision, or at least the teacher must be present in the classroom when students have access to the Netbooks.
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At the beginning of the year students will be assigned laptops to use for the entire school year. Students will have to sign a contract, agreeing to follow a set of rules that indicate the responsibility guidelines in order to insure students do not take advantage of the laptop. This precaution is also to make sure students use the laptop appropriately. Parents must also sign this contract so that they are aware of what the students are doing in class with the classrooms. Additionally parents have the right to deny permission for students to access any part of the Internet. The classroom teacher has the right to check any of the laptop’s browsing history at any time in order to ensure the safety of students. Nevertheless, the teacher can still work around the regularly scheduled lesson plans while the access to the Netbook will provide enrichment to typical learning practices. Teachers can carry on with their curriculum and supplement each lesson with interactive assignments online. At the beginning and end of each new lesson plan, teachers can assess which assignments were the most effective in students’ learning and then determine for themselves what other activities can be used or which tasks should not be used again. Ultimately, integrating the curriculum with the use of Netbooks will give a lot of flexibility for teachers to do whatever they feel is the best direction for the students. If something doesn’t work out, teachers can easily change and modify assignments due to the swift adaptability that computer technologies like the Netbook provides. Overall, the classroom is no longer a rigid structure of curriculum that is planned out and set in stone; instead the classroom becomes quite compliant to the individual students’ actual needs. Thus, each classroom will receive customized lesson plans to go with the project timeline. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Furthermore, to insure the success of the Netbooks in the classroom, additional resources will be needed such as Wi-Fi internet access for all the Netbooks so that the students can go online for various resources. An IT technician will be needed to maintain the Netbook’s longevity and also in case the teacher faces technical issues in assisting students with the Netbook. Lockers or some sort of cupboard with locks will be necessary to ensure the safekeeping of the Netbooks. Other precautions that need to be taken might also include individual carrying cases to store and protect the exterior of the Netbooks from any damage.
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**__<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;">Management __** <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">This project will be headed by a single teacher, whose unique understanding of his or her fifth grade classroom will allow them to utilize the netbooks in the most effective way possible. This is a individual grant aimed at a personal touch towards education, rather than a district or even school wide application. This allows money to be funneled into a more autonomous way in order to adapt and flex to the needs of the learners. While the fifth grade teacher will act as the sole leader for most part, he will be held accountable by the administration of his school and district to present results over a course of time in order to project the worthiness and value of a forward and progressive grant towards a netbook-immersed classroom. Also, a close relationship must be built between the schools already standing IT staff and the teacher in charge. In order to provide a flawless and smooth education, preparedness and reaction must be expected between these two educators.
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<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The single teacher will be expected to teach, apply, and reinforce his students. By teaching, it is not only a memorization of the basic functions of a netbook, but understanding as to how the technology allows an immersive learning experience. Teaching includes roles of basic computer literacy, understanding of basic copyright, application of computer software and “apps,” and safety. While students who are admitted into the course should have some computer literacy, the teacher will focus on providing the students how to best carry out their education with the technology presented to them. This means teaching them essential computer skills such as typing and other interface peripherals, maintenance, and proper use. Understanding basic copyright will create expectations of students to follow the legal limitations and laws expected of a technology user. The fast-pace and short-life of computer software and hardware goes to show the importance of mastering the use of various softwares. Last students should be taught the importance of safe computer use, inside the classroom, outside the classroom, on the web and off the web. The apply role of the teacher expects the teacher to provide an atmosphere which adequately uses and tests the understanding of the students. While these skills may be taught, without proper application, the skills prove little or no use without the proper environment. Last, by reinforce, the teacher is expected to prevent, intervene and/or discipline his or her students in order to apply both teach and apply. The initiative to teach and apply is prevent, which focuses on the environment. By thinking ahead and creating an environment and structure which allows the kids to learn and apply their computer skills in a safe and controlled environment, the teacher may very rarely need to intervene and discipline. Intervening takes place when students fail to meet the expectations of the teacher. Intervention seeks to realign students with agreements of the classroom. If the expectations of the classroom may fail to meet the uniqueness of the students, an intervention may need to reassess their model of reinforcement and seek new preventative measures. Last, discipline is often a final measure which includes staff and parents in order to assess a student's learning and application of the technology. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The teacher will need presence, understanding and flexibility in order to properly apply the use of the netbooks in the classroom. Presence demands a sort of charisma or respect which allows him to guide students into the proper uses and understanding of technology. Like with many other affairs, the use of a technological interface offers very many unknown ventures which will require the teacher to provide a confident means of conveying information and knowledge to his students. Failure to do so may result in a lack of control which may even spiral into a dangerous and unsafe cyber-environment for students involved. Next, understanding falls into two different spheres: education and technology. Educational understanding is an expectation in where a teacher is knowledgeable in the field of education. Understanding student learning and the classroom environment are two such important factors in order to deliver a proper learning experience. Technological understanding allows the teacher to understand the nature of technology and seek a progressive path towards mastering technology and academics in a safe environment. Finally, by flexibility, the teacher is able to keep an open mind about the application of technology; while some students may prosper in a technologically-based education, others may need attention elsewhere. Flexibility also requires the ability to improvise due to the nature of technological failures.
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<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">A single teacher will be provided more encompassing styles of education to best make use of the technology in his classroom. Alongside him, the IT department must be given similar expectations on how to manage and administer to a classroom of this nature. This will be provided through a single or several training seminars as well as application to test for competency of the material covered.
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**__<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;">Evaluation __** <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">A person once said, “With great power, comes great responsibility”. Therefore, if netbooks are given to students to engage them in learning and develop their 21st century skills, they must be monitored and evaluated. The evaluation will take place throughout the school year and will consist of various components. In the beginning of the year the students will take a typing test that measures accuracy and words typed per minute. By the time the end of the year arrives a second typing test will be administered to the students to see if there was improvement or not. As the year progresses they will be given several assignments that will be evaluating the skills they learned. As previously stated one of the goals for the students will be to utilize the netbooks to learn how to use the internet as a tool for research. After receiving guidance and a lesson plan for researching the internet effectively, the students will be asked to complete a scavenger hunt. The scavenger hunt will show if the students have really learned how to search the internet or not. A second way to measure the benefits of netbooks in classrooms is to compare two classrooms in a small scale study. This could either be by comparing test scores between the two classes or by comparing motivation through a survey. One could also compare the wpm and accuracy between the two classes because regular teachers take their students to the computer lab at least once a week. It would be interesting to see if using the netbooks on a daily basis increased their typing speed and accuracy. A student survey will be administered both at the beginning of the school year and at the end. It will include questions like, “On a scale of 1 to 10 how comfortable do you feel using a computer?” Other questions will focus on what motivates students to learn and if they enjoyed using the netbooks in class. The surveys will be created with the website “Survey Monkey”. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">One of the goals is to increase the literacy of programs that will be crucial in middle school such as, Word, PowerPoint, and the Internet. That is why another part of the evaluation will be to type a couple essays using the program Microsoft Word. This will be an in-class assignment so that they will not be able to get help from home. That way an accurate evaluation of the students’ ability to utilize and understand Word can be taken. Due to the nature of PowerPoint the evaluation for this program will be by assigning a group project. Each group will be assigned a different event in history that was discussed during the school year. According to the California content standards fifth grade students should study the cause, course and consequences of through the War for Independence and western expansion in order for students to understand the framework of the American republic. Creating a PowerPoint and presenting it in front of a class will show that the students not only learned the material but they understood it and knew how to apply it. The PowerPoint project will test students’ ability to work with others as well as to evaluate their knowledge of the program. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Lastly, a checklist will be provided for the teacher that contains a list of skills that her students should have at the end of the school year. Some of the items included in the checklist are, “Has this student mastered the use of Microsoft word? Can the student navigate the internet with little or no help, Does the student demonstrate sufficient knowledge to operate a netbook?”. The netbooks are a crucial for the students’ growth towards computer literacy. It is essential that proper evaluations like the ones listed above are used to ensure that a difference has occurred. Since evaluations and projects will be given across the school year it allows teachers to understand where the students are struggling and help them master that concept. All evaluations will be implemented correctly to ensure the success of netbooks in the classroom.

__Work Cited__ Prensky, Marc. "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants." //On the Horizon//. 9.5 (2001): 1-6. Rother, Chris. "Technolog'ys Value in Education." //T.H.E. Journal//. 31.4 (2003): 35-38.