Netbooks in the Classroom - Part 2

I blogged last week about the acquisition and use of a small set of class netbooks in my Social Studies classroom thus far this year.  The students really seem to enjoy using them in class and request them on a regular basis (they far enjoy using them and working with others in comparison to listening to me lecture, and I don't blame them).  But, as I said in my last post, I wanted to move beyond using the netbooks on a "one-off" basis for completing Google Docs organizers and answering questions on the class blog.  I want the students to go further with what they can do with easy access to the web and the abiltity to collaborate and create.

As a result, with two of the courses (a total of four sections) thatr I teach (I have three preps this year) I am moving to a more project based approach beginning with the second semester which started for us this week.  For my seniors who take my Modern World History 1945 to the Present course, I have begun a project with them where they will look at the problems and successes of development in six different regions of the world.  The student will use a class Ning to for their project linked to Google Docs to create a research page, outline, and presentation.  The presentation will then be uploaded to VoiceThread for the creators and rest of the student in the class to comment and question about the issues presented.  There will then be a final assessment at the end to analyze patterns of development around the world. 

My sophomores, who take World Civilization 1450 to 1950, will begin a similar project using a class Ning and Google Docs for their collaboration and research in groups.  But the topic and final product will be different.  They will research different political, economic and cultural ideas that were developed during the 19th century and how those ideas still affect us today.  They will use their research to make a documentary segment on their topic.  They will then work with all the other groups to make one extensive video on the topics presented.

In both cases, I believe this will be much more engaging and benefitial to the students instead of me lecturing to them over the next month on the same topics and issues.  I worked with our school's media specialist to get the students using the right kind of reseources, but a major focus of the projects is using the netbooks in the classroom for research, planning and writing, so we do not need to go to the media center or lab as often.  I will keep you, my readers, informed to the successes and pitfalls of my new approach.  Until next time, keep moving forward!

Netbooks in the Classroom - Part 1

As part of the evolution of my teaching, I have been looking for ways for my students to become more connected with learning in the classroom using technology.  At the end of last school year I requested a small class set of netbooks for this school year.  I didn't necessarily want the computers on an 1 to 1 ratio since I wanted the students working cooperatively face to face as well as online.  The twelve were delivered to me at the end of the summer and I set up a mobile lab for use with my classes (I teach in several different rooms, and I also wanted them to be available to other teachers.) by placing the netbooks on a cart with several power-strips.

Initially, I struggled a little trying to find good uses for the hardware (mainly due to the hectic nature of the beginning of the school year, I didn't have a lot of time to sit down and think about how to use them.)  But, as the school year progressed, I began experimenting with them more and more.  The two easiest ways I found to plug them into my classrooms were to use them with my class blog and Google Docs.

With my class blog, instead of having to make all then assignments done there as homework (which I had done previously due to a lack of computer availability), students could use the netbooks to post to the blog.  I would give them some primary source documents and/or video to view and they could work (in pairs) to answer questions and respond to each other's posts.  This was a great way to then foster further discussion on the topics in class.

The second way I have been using them involved Google Docs.  Students would work in groups of three or four to complete an online graphic organizer on the topic we were investigating.  In each group there would be two netbooks, one would be used to post the group's research to the shared document, while the other was used to conduct research using my website, other links, and web searches.  The third person in the group would add information using a traditional source like our textbook or a printed primary source document.  In this way, the students were creating a collaborative document with all of their knowledge that they could then later print out at home.  A similar process could have taken several days of class (where this took only one) and not gotten as good results. (see a very rough video of one of my classes made with our recently acquired Flip camera below)


Despite this major success, much of what I was doing with my classes with the netbooks was limited to single day exercised with little follow up or expansion.  So as part of my push to create a more authentic, project-based, critical thinking learning environment in my classroom I have rethought my use of netbooks as well.  Beginning students in one of my classes began a major project using Ning, Google Docs, and VoiceThread.  They will be using the netbooks for a major part of this project.  More on that in Part 2 of this posting.

If anyone else would like to share ideas for using a small set of netbooks in the classroom I would love to hear your ideas.