Hello Carolynne,
You wrote to Sheila:
  >You appear to know quite a lot about computer technology.
  >Do you have any ideas about how computers can be used in the primary
  >school classroom.  Should they be used only to enable students to
  >word process their writing or as a reward for students to play on
  >when they have finished early?????
Well I don't know much about computer technology but I can tell you how
computers are used in the primary classrooms where I teach. First let me
tell you that I work for the Scarborough Board of Education which is a
city in metropolitan Toronto (Heard of the Blue Jays baseball team?),
Ontario, Canada. I work as an Elementary Supply/Occasional/Substitute
(choose whichever title you use in Sydney) Teacher. Elementary school
here is Kindergarten to grade 8 (we have Junior and Senior Kindergarten
here in Scarborough - JK and SK are usually taught together - 5 1/2 days
a week)
Here's what I know about how computers are used in our classrooms. Most
schools have a Computer Lab. That is a classroom where the students go
to use the Computers. There is also, usually, one or two computers in
the home classroom. The students have Computer Lab at least once a week.
Some schools do this very formally with a teacher who runs the lab some
just have time slots and the regular teacher takes the class. In a well
run computer lab the students are given certain programs to learn and
practise. If the school is lucky they have a TV hooked up to a computer
to use for demonstration purposes.
Our schools use Apples and Macs. The primary classes tend to have Apples
in them usually the Apple IIgs. We have hundreds of educational programs
that we can run on this machine. The Board has copyright use of these
programs so if we want one all we need to do is send our Computer Centre
a blank diskette and they will send a copy back to you. If a disk is
faulty they will also replace it with a new one.
Many of these games are also used on the Macs. We also have purchased
programs - that we can't copy - and CD Roms. I find that the kids like
to go into ClarisWorks and use the KidsPicks program - where they can
make their own pictures. There are some neat games but I can't remember
the titles.
One of the games that I see the most of has versions for the Apple and
the Mad - it's called "Oregon Trail" and calls for Math skills including
problem solving and logical thinking. I believe it is a little more
complicated on the Mac version.
Many schools have open computer lab time where you can send students to
work on projects during class time, or before and after school clubs or
time.
I think at the primary level there is not too much word processing going
on. Mainly the computer is used for educational games as I described
above.
Many classes have a rotation time for kids to use the computer. There is
also the choice of using it if one has finished all their work or at
"Activity Time".
I hope I have answered some of your questions,
                                                Ruth
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