-> Will the lab have an instructor or will all of the teachers be
-> trained in its use?
As I understand it, there will be someone who is hired full-time in
charge of the lab. But I don't believe that the classroom teachers will
be able to just drop their classes off and have the lab teacher take
over. He will not be there with a specific curriculum that he is trying
to teach to the kids. It will be more like a resource, like the library,
and teachers who bring their kids in will probably want to conference
with the lab instructor first about appropriate activities and software.
Then they will accompany their class to the lab and assist in the lab
activities along with the lab teacher.
At least, this is what I envision.
In the math department, we are taking care of training our math teachers
in the use of software that we would like to see purchased for lab use.
So, if I took my class to the lab, I would expect I would be leading
them in the activity. I would like the lab tech to remain in the lab
during our session, though, in case there were any hardware
difficulties.
Admin has not spelled out clearly if this is how it will operate, or
otherwise.
You are the lab tech at your school this year, right? Do you get all the
students for one period instruction each day? So you have an actual
course to teach? You try to select activities to support the subject
area teachers, or you just do your own thing? If you are doing something
along the lines I've described here, then it is very different from what
we will be doing at our high school.
-> We are getting some more government computers, all 286, but I can put
-> them in the classroom so students can use what they have learned. I
-> may try to make a short inservice for teachers, my students know more
-> about computers generally than they do, especially WordPerfect 5.1.
I am sure we will be getting at least 486 computers. For high school
applications, we want to make sure that the lab is going to be useful
for software coming out 5+ years from now. It is already difficult to
purchase software that will still run on a 286. It's great for you that
you are getting free stuff, but I am certain our admin wouldn't want to
set up an entire lab with this type of computer.
-> Eventually, I hope to have all of the computers wired to the BBS I am
-> setting up. However, I do not know where the $ for such a goal will
-> come from--maybe grants?
There is a lot of information about grants, grant writing, and available
grants on the Web. I have no experience with writing grants, but I know
some teachers (not at my school) who have been able to do amazing things
with grant money they got. If you have the time, and someone to help you
(someone who has written grants before, and ... better yet... won them),
then you should try it.
Sheila
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