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Article - The 2 Computer
School
How to make good use of 1-2 computers with
large classes of primary
grade children
Computers as a
teaching aid
for English as a second language (ESL) provide
an opportunity for children
to improve their oral / aural English skills,
using software with voice
prompts. This is especially useful in situations
where English is not
spoken in the community or the home. However for
the computers to be
effective, the children must have adequate
access.
Using computers to assist learning in other
curriculum areas can stimulate
and motivate students, especially children, more
than any other teaching
resource.
However many schools cannot afford a whole
computer lab and must make
do with as few as 1 or 2 computers for the whole
school. Even in developed
countries classrooms will sometimes only have
access to one or two computers
and in smaller schools, composite classes
(multiple grades in one class)
can be quite large.
This article is written primarily for teachers
involved in the PIMD
program in Sri Lanka - ESL and Computer Literacy
for Grade 1 and 2 Children
in Village Schools. It provides some ideas,
drawn from a variety of
sources on the Internet, on how to make
effective use of one or two
computers for a large primary grade class. We
have also shown how the
strategies can be applied to selected lessons in
the PIMD curriculum.
The article is a guide only and teachers will
need to develop their
own strategies to suit their individual school
situation.
Here are fifteen strategies to get the most out
of a one or two-computer
classroom :
-
Have the students work in pairs or small
groups (3-4 maximum).
Assign each group member a role (e.g.
director, keyboard/mouse operator,
tutor) and rotate roles during the computer
session.
-
Allow a minimum of 25 minutes per session
at the computer –
fewer, longer sessions are better than many
short sessions.
-
Use the computers as an activity for one
group or pair while the
rest of the class does other activities
around the same theme.
-
Make sure you have appointed a group
leader from amongst the group
– ideally a more computer-literate
student. Identify these
group leaders early so that they can be used
to help develop / tutor
the other students.
-
Train the group leaders in the particular
software or exercise
first so that they can then teach the other
students in their group.
-
If the computers are not in the classroom,
use the blackboard
or charts to explain to the whole class how
the software program
works so that when they go to the computer
they can work largely
unassisted. You may still need an older
student or parent to supervise.
-
Where appropriate, create templates in the
software program for
the exercise that you want the students to
complete. This saves
time and enables the students to focus on
the learning experience
rather than losing time just setting up the
software.
-
Create posters and help sheets which are
displayed near the computer
to help students with basic operations. This
will reduce the number
of questions they ask you.
-
Try to hold lessons in or very near to the
computer room, e.g.
in the school library, so that the computer
is semi-integrated into
the classroom experience and children become
more comfortable around
it.
-
Try to have scheduled times for the
students to access the computer
outside of class time and prepare a roster
so that each group has
access and can get through the exercises
that you set.
-
Give the students specific exercises to be
completed and make
use of the parent and teacher tracking
options in the software to
monitor their progress. Or simply have a
chart on the wall and ask
each group to mark the exercises they have
completed. Then you can
monitor their progress.
-
Train parents who are willing to supervise
on weekends and outside,
or even during, school hours. This will
increase the amount of time
that the computers are available to the
students and encourage parents
and children.
-
Train other teachers so that the students
use the computers in
several subject areas and get more exposure.
This will ultimately
benefit the whole school as and when it
acquires more computers.
-
Do not attempt to integrate the computers
into the curriculum for
more than two classes (say 50-60 students in
total) – a whole
school of several hundred students cannot be
dependent on 1-2 computers
for other than enrichment over and above the
normal lessons. However…
-
If you have time outside school hours,
allocate specific tuition
times that other students can sign-up for,
provided that they have
organised themselves into groups of 3-4.
Make access competitive
and in this way you will hold their interest
and they will keep
coming back even though access is limited.
Now let’s look at a couple of lessons
from the PIMD syllabus
and see how these strategies could be used :
Grade 1 – Unit 1 – Lesson
1B
| Introduction |
Core
Lesson |
Recapitulation |
| Show children
the switch to turn the
computer on/off. |
Modeling turning the computer
on. The children then
practice turning the computer on. Once
they’ve turned it on
they can turn it off. |
Children repeat instructions
and how to know when
computer is ready to use and when it is
finally shut down. |
For this lesson, strategies 5 and 6 would be
the most useful :
-
Select group leaders and demonstrate how
to start the computer
and how to shutdown (refer strategy 5). Do
this during a lunch break.
-
Then prepare a chart showing the computer
and highlighting the
on/off button (refer strategy 6). If
possible also prepare simple
charts of what the children will see on the
screen when the computer
has powered on and is ready for use, and
charts showing where to
click in order to shut-down.
-
Take the whole class through these charts
in one lesson.
-
Then allow each group a turn to practice
on the computer at their
scheduled time (refer strategy 10).
-
Make sure that each group marks on the
roster that they have completed
the task (refer strategy 11).
Grade 1 – Unit 1 – Lesson 3
| Introduction |
Core
Lesson |
Recapitulation |
Even though the
students do not know
the alphabet they can recognise letters and
match them to the keyboard.
Teacher prepares template on each computer
with “My name is
…...” at the top of the page.
Teacher models typing in his/her name, using
terms “click
on”, “right”,
“left” and “move”.
|
Students type in their name
on the computer, copying
from Lesson 2 (where they learn “what
is your name?”
and “my name is …” as well
as how their name is
written in English and Tamil) |
Print out each
student’s copy of “My
name is . . . .” and paste into
workbook.
Alternatively the teacher saves each
students work.
|
For this lesson, strategies 5, 6 and 7 would be
most useful :
- First prepare the template on the computer
with one row per student
(refer strategy 7). Make sure that the
template is open in MS-Word
before the lesson commences.
- Select group leaders and demonstrate the
exercise including mouse
and keyboard actions (refer strategy 5). Do
this during a lunch break.
- Then prepare a chart just like the template
and fill in one row
to demonstrate to the whole class how to use
the template (refer strategy
6).
- Then allow each group a turn to do the
exercise on the computer
(refer strategy 10). Ask them to leave the
template / document file
open so that you can save and print later.
- Prepare some reusable cardboard keyboards.
Use these to take the
whole class through the typing part of the
exercise so that they are
better prepared when they go to the
computer.
- Make sure that each group marks on the
roster that they have completed
the task (refer strategy 11).
- Randomly select students to describe in
words (mother tongue) to
the whole class exactly what they did, that
is, every action including
moving the cursor to a new row, clicking the
mouse, typing.
Grade 2 – Unit 1 – Lesson 3
| Introduction |
Core Lesson |
Recapitulation |
| Teacher instructs students
to search through clipart
(or Boardmaker, KidPix) on the computer to
find pictures of activities
that they did during their holidays. Short
stories can be made using
the pictures. |
Students create their stories
using computer tools. |
Teacher will need to prompt
students with the right
English to describe their activities. |
This lesson will draw on almost all the
strategies :
- Choose the software program that you wish
to use. All computers
will have Clipart which is a standard feature
of Microsoft PowerPoint.
However you may find KidPix easier for
students to use. Boardmaker
is primarily a tool for teachers but could be
used also.
- Train one member from each group (refer
strategy 1, 5) in how to
use the software (including saving files) and
allow one or two practice
sessions (they can work in pairs). This will
need to be done outside
class time.
- Prepare simple charts to hang near the
computer showing basic operations
for the software – perhaps the above
students could prepare
these (refer strategy 8).
- In the class, ask each group to talk about
what they did during
their holidays and to choose one activity for
the computer exercise.
Ask them to think about the pictures they will
need to illustrate
this activity. You might ask each group to
tell the class about the
activity and the pictures they need.
- Each group then uses their scheduled
computer time to put together
their story in pictures (refer strategy 10).
- You may be able to do the above three
activities in parallel (refer
strategy 3, 12) – set the groups working
on their story while
you train others to use the software. Ask
groups to describe their
story while one group is at the computer
creating their story. (Refer
strategy 9)
- You will need to check the work on the
computers to provide feedback
to the students as this is a more complex
exercise.
For a printable pdf dowload click here => The 2 Computer School |
