Teachers Learn Role of Laptops in the Classroom

When the students at and head back to the classroom in a couple weeks, every freshman will be armed with a laptop for the first time in school history.

It will be a big change for students, but perhaps even more so for their teachers.

Joliet Township High School District 204 starting mapping out a plan for this about a year and a half ago, and last year, a pilot program allowed teachers to hold classes in which laptops were given to every student to get a feel for how it would work.

"Teachers have been working with the computers for a year," said Mike Wilkes, the district's applications services manager. "These teachers learned a lot about classroom management and procedures.

"You have to know when to use technology and when not to use technology," he said.

Parental concerns

By the time the laptop program gets rolled out to freshmen students this year, parents will have had ample time to weigh in with their concerns. In fact, it was feedback from parents, teachers and some students that led to the administration to choose tablet netbooks as the machine of choice.

"The size was cohesive to easy carrying, and in math, it was invaluable," Wilkes said of the writing function.

Tablet computers allow students to write directly on the screen with a stylus.

"They needed that functionality," Wilkes said.

The district administration also had to consider that students were coming to the two high schools from a wide variety of feeder schools, each of which has a different level of technology to which the students were exposed.

"There's a big focus on getting the students up to speed," said Kristine Schlismann, community relations director.

District Supt. Cheryl McCarthy said she is enthusiastic about adding this kind of hands-on technology to the currculum and so far has had a lot of positive feedback from community members.

"It is really exciting, and for parents, I think, sometimes a little bit scary," she said. "We're talking about motivating and engaging people in their own learning."