Laptops in the classroom

What are ways you manage the use of laptops in your classroom and what additional best practice ways might you add?

As a coetail class, we used voicethread to discuss and share many techniques on how to manage “technology tools” in our classroom.

I know I have learned lots of new ideas from this discussion.

Here are some easy practical steps I follow:

-Timing: Allow enough time at the beginning and at the end of class for students to save their work, log off their computers and return them to the carts. If you can’t manage time well like I do, ask a student to remind you of the time.

-Computer: Assign a computer to a student at the beginning of the term. They will be responsible for plugging the computer and keeping it in good shape.

-Saving work: Create a personal folder for your class on their flash drive as well as on the server and teach students the mechanism of saving in both places. They will lose their work, so teaching them the mechanism of saving in 2 places will pay off some time or another.

-Focus on instruction: One thing I have learned from experience…you can give students instructions orally over ten times and they will not follow it if they are engaged on something, especially if there is a computer in front of them. I usually count down and ask students to lower their screen while I give instructions. One thing I learned in the Coetail class was that you can use your fist to measure how much one can lower the laptop screen without shutting down the activity.

-Peer helpers: It’s nearly impossible to answer all questions at once. As long as it doesn’t become a distraction, I encourage students to help each other. They are great with problem solving.

-Instructions: As mentioned in my peer language educator’s blog, giving instructions in the target language when it involves the use of technology can be challenging for students and teacher! Of course, breaking down the steps and the language of instruction as much as possible is essential. Other technique I have used have been to provide students with specific checklist for each step they need to accomplish.

Photo Pudú Introducing OLPC by: Lizette Greco