Thursday, May 13, 2010

Many classes have one: The shy student who knows the answer but hesitates to speak.

The fear of being picked on as the smart kid in class can be overwhelming for people throughout their academic years, including for middle school students.

But failure to participate in class could lower a student’s grade and prompt teachers to make assumptions about a pupil’s strengths and weaknesses, noted Samantha Morra, the technology coordinator for Glenfield Middle School.

Technology can help.

The instructor beams questions to students using her machine. Students reply by pressing a button on their respective devices.

Each device tracks a student’s individual performance, which helps teachers make accurate assessments on the child’s strengths and weaknesses in academic subjects, Morra said.

“Students that won’t raise their hand will respond with the personal responders,” Morra told The Times.

The Qwizdom device was one of many technological tools demonstrated by Glenfield Middle School students this past Thursday, May 6, when the school unveiled its Technology Learning Commons, the school’s computer lab, to the public.

The goal of the Commons is to “create a space that has a lot of the new technology and incorporate it with the curriculum,” observed Schools Superintendent Frank Alvarez.

About 20 Apple Inc. desktop computers line the Technology Learning Commons, located in Glenfield’s former woodshop. The computer lab contains gadgets of all sizes – from the Smart Board, a touch-sensitive computer screen, which is about 3 feet wide, to the Qwizdom tool with a 2-inch width.

The computer programs bridge social media with academic subjects such as social studies, history and science.

Computer classes have been conducted in the room since February. About 250 students use the facility on an average day, said Glenfield Principal Alex Anemone.

Some students anchor a daily webcast, Glenfield Primetime 2.0, in the greenroom adjacent to the computer lab. The show broadcasts school news and announcements online, said Anemone.

‘Digital storytelling,’ an activity that combines literature, still images and video on the computer, allows students to create modern book reports and history projects. The Commons cost $560,000 in capital funds, according to the school district Business Administrator Dana Sullivan.

Organizations, including the Glenfield Middle School PTA and the Montclair Fund for Educational Excellence, contributed money to the project.

Qwizdom donated the 30 personal response devices, Morra said.

“When you think of the investment, it’s about providing students with the tools that they are going to need in this century,” Alvarez said.

connecting to world issues

Imagine if every time a student answers a quiz question correctly, then a hungry person gets food.

A computer program, Free Rice, one of the academic games offered in Glenfield, does exactly that.

In partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme, Free Rice poses multiple-choice questions to students, and fills 10 grains of rice into a bowl depicted on the screen for every correct answer.

“You’re donating to someone in need,” said Glenfield seventh-grader Harry Colville, while operating the program. “You feel like you’ve helped someone in the day.”

Money generated from corporations that buy advertising space on the computer program is used to purchase the rice.

Morra incorporates education on developing nations and issues of hunger and poverty into the computer curriculum. In February, students talked with their counterparts in Ghana, West Africa, through a Skype videoconference.

“You’ve had them move out of themselves, in their own little world, their own little drama,” and learn about another culture, said Morra.

The online conversation put poverty in perspective for one student, Morra said.

Morra recalled that the student had said: “‘I was able to talk to them as if they were in the same room as me. I will never think about Africa in the same way again.’”

connecting to kids with their technology

“We are creating a very engaging room for students that allows them to use the tools they use at home, that they’re immersed in,” Morra said. “A lot of these tools allow us to give students a voice.”

Colville, as with many of his classmates, often logs onto instant messaging software at home. He appreciates having a social media outlet in the classroom, particularly “for kids that don’t have [computers] at home.”

Learning in the Technology Learning Commons is mutual, said technology teacher Howard Weinrib.

“It’s one of the only subjects that the kids are teaching us,” Weinrib noted.

“We learn from each other.”

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