Laptops and iPods in the Classroom
December 10, 2007

Laptops aren’t just for the busy business professional anymore.  Now, even elementary students are using them in classroom activities.

The students in Jeremiah Starr’s 4th Grade Classroom are starting work on a project about Iowa.  But instead of heading to a computer lab to start their research, they’re checking out some websites, right at their desks.

Through a grant, last year Stowe Elementary received 30 MacBook laptops, 30 iPods, and an Apple Server to use in their classrooms.   The laptops are spread throughout the school, and Mr. Starr’s 4th grade class is home to six of those laptops.  So the students work in groups, to research information online, and then create podcasts of that information.

With so much information on the web, Mr. Starr has to make sure that his students are accessing reliable sites.  So as part of the research, he teaches them the difference between a site like Wikipedia and the University of Iowa.

When it comes to presenting the information they learn, the students have said goodbye to the old fashioned cardboard cutouts for presentations, and hello to a 21st century way to present their information.

In addition to researching information online, the students are also using the laptops to create some fun “reader’s theater presentations” where the students practice their writing.

The new technology may be fun and “cool” for the kids in the classes, but it also reminds them that it takes a lot of prep work to make a quality product

While the students are creating digital audio and video files, they have not made the files available for public download on the Internet just yet.  Mr. Starr hopes that will come later on, but for now, students just bring home their work via the iPod.

In addition to creating content for their own class work, the students have been thinking about ways to make audio and video materials for other grade levels as well.  Just last month, they created a “Body Basics” podcast to help show the first grade students how they should sit in class.  It’s a brave new world out there, and these students are embracing it.