Top Ten Tips for Using Laptops with Students Beverly Williams, 7th grade ELA Teacher Lauren Paris, 7 th grade ELA Special Education Teacher

Before starting: Familiarize yourself with all of the tools before using them in your classroom.

Before starting: Number all laptops Prepare a sign-out sheet Be prepared to assign one laptop to each student.

Before starting: Make sure your students are on MassOne roster before you have them go online and create student folders. Students that transferred from another school or are new to the system need to be registered to have MassOne online access.

Before starting: Make sure you consider, and practice, using other media support equipment with the laptops. –Do you know how to display images from your laptop to the projection system? –Do you need speakers? –Will you be using headphones?

Getting started with students: Set a classroom climate where students are expected to work responsibly: –After presenting the Laptop Maintenance Powerpoint demo, all students must sign a Student Agreement Contract.

Getting started with students: Set consequences for breaching any part of the Student Agreement Contract, and do not negotiate new consequences. Students that breached the contract in my (Beverly’s) class had to immediately shut down, turn in the laptop, and continue work without assistance of the laptop. This only had to happen once, and from that point on, the students respected the contract.

Getting started with students: Pick 2 junior tech assistants from each class where you will be using the laptops. Train them to retrieve Computers on Wheels cart (COW) from a storage area. Train them to give out assigned computers to students. (We do not suggest that students get their own computers.) Train them to retrieve laptops at the end of class and store them (allow 10 minutes to do this). –Place them in a designated order in the cart. –Plug them in, securing laptops in the cart with a lock. –Return cart to secure area. –Make sure the cart is plugged in!

Once you are set up: Caution: Do not overwhelm students with too many tools all at once and do not assume that they are computer literate. Let students get comfortable with computers using a downloaded typing practice program to teach proper hand positioning and facilitate speed. Keyboarding web sites we recommend: – The students practice daily for the first 15 minutes of class. – –You may also have to design mini-lessons for using other computer applications, such as Google. –Use this wisely and in connection to the task and not as a computer class, as this would not be time effective.

Once you are set up: Allow yourself to learn from the students. As students use the laptops, they come up with shortcuts, wonderful online resources, and much more. Keep chart paper up for students to add helpful tips and resources. You will notice that students become independent learners very quickly using the laptops.

Once you are set up: Be Prepared!! For file storage, create folders on the laptops, make hard copies, and have USB drives available. Remember, technology is great when it is up and running, but a server down, a crashed computer, or deleted files can be devastating. Design a USB loan program wherein the parents agree to rent them for $5.00. Upon their return, the rental fee is refunded. A loan contract must be signed prior to the loan.