To be totally honest I have not used laptops with my kindergartners this year. So I don't have a management plan for the use of laptops with my students. As I am thinking about developing a plan I am remembering to keep things simple and basic and to think about each individual task that is required to safely and effectively use a laptop.
So, when I decide that it is time to begin using laptops with my young learners my management plan will begin by answering guiding my students while we answer the following questions together:
How do you hold and carry a laptop?
How do you open and close the screen on a laptop?
What is the correct way to turn the laptop on and off?
What do you do if you want to move to a different place with the laptop?
How do you get a laptop and put a laptop away?
Of course as we answer the questions there will be lots of modeling and guided practice for each one.
There will always be one important question that I will need to answer before any screens are opened: Are the laptops the best way to enhance the learning of my students?
My partner in crime, in kindergarten and the Certificate of Educational Technology and Information Literacy, Susi and I are going to be working with computer partnerships and sharing while implementing our final project for this course. So next semester I think we might want to explore the use of laptops with our students. Our first questions will be: Which department will let us use 8 laptops from their already overbooked laptop carts? Wish us luck!
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Hi Cindy,
ReplyDeleteI am pleased to see that you are starting the little ones with real basics--proper carrying and storing of laptops, turning on/off...basic management that DOES need to be modeled and practiced and structured.
AND, your questions about "Are the laptops the best way to enhance the learning of my students"....you are a GREAT teacher to think that through first. At the kindergarten age, the laptops are highly stimulating and can deter from the 'learning' process..that age old question (must be at least five years old now)--Why are they using the laptops to enhance their learning? What is the learning objective in which laptops enhance the learning criteria? Novelty? I'd buy in for novelty, diversity, and it is their generation's learning ticket for now.
Babble-babble....I like your post!