Using Computers as a Classroom Tool

Introduction

        How can you use a computer in class work that expands the function from the computer from a tool for word processing to a resource, a communication tool, and a notetaker as well?

How does the project work in the classroom? 

            The project requires the students to apply their academic knowledge and work both cooperatively and collaboratively in designing a genetically engineered product and presenting it in a classroom seminar.

             By placing the requirements, grading rubrics, and job descriptions on the Internet, the students were given a definite reason to use computers for a reason other than word processing. The web also allowed the students to access this information at any time of day and at any computer.

          The active links I included allowed me to guide the students in their choice of jobs and in the beginnings of their research. In class, we would talk about how to determine the validity of information on the web. They learned to evaluate, determining critically if the information was sound. Once they learned the basics, they were off on their own, searching the web, following links. They began to use the computer as a research tool.

How did students communicate with one another?

          As part of this project, each student was required to have an email account. They used email to communicate by email to me and to their group members. I taught my students how they could, while searching on the Internet, open their email account. When a student found material of interest on a website, they could copy and paste the web address and the text into a new mail message and they could email themselves the information. They learned to use the computer as a communication device and as a notetaker.

           Using the computer in a guided yet independent way helped many students. The quicker students tended to delve more deeply in research on their subject than on a traditional written assignment. Students, especially those who traditionally had difficulty completing assignments, did work online and the partial results - having emails of material they could put together for a paper and presentation, spurred them onto completion.

          The students learned business, they learned science, and they learned computer skills that took them far beyond the walls of classroom. The students learned that the freedom of the internet - that anyone can set up a website - is also the bane of the Internet because it required them to critically evaluate their sources, something they don't really need to do with books in a library.