Schools

VIDEO: Multimedia Class Brings Oakdale Elementary Fifth-Graders Online

An after-school multimedia class at Oakdale Elementary is linking technology to reading comprehension.

After taking the new after-school multimedia class for fifth-graders at , Regan Kierzek, who turns 11 today, has found herself increasingly struck by the urge to engage in online research.

“When I think of stuff I want to know, I just look at Google,” she said. “One time I was going down the street and I saw a white squirrel so I looked up white squirrels and I found a bunch of pictures of white animals like lions—it was neat.”

As part of the class, students were asked to choose a topic of research. Kierzek chose Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, the inventor of the X-ray.

“He was the one who took the first X-ray, of his wife’s hand,” she said.

Kierken and the rest of the 10 students in the class met for two hours after school three days a week for three weeks. They learned about different software programs, about computer vocabulary (desktop, hard drive, etc.), about using USB drives and about how to navigate and evaluate sources on the Web.

For their research project, the students designed a two-page layout for a book on the website Mixbook.com. At the end of the class, each student was given a copy of the book they designed together. (Photos of the book’s cover and Kierken’s spread are in the photo gallery attached to this article.)

The Class’s Origins

The idea for the class came from a summer program attended by Angela McCabe, Oakdale Elementary’s literacy coach, Stephanie Clark, a gifted student instructor, and Kao Lee, a fifth-grade classroom teacher.

The three wanted to come up with a way to connect technology to reading comprehension. Clark said they invited high-achieving students and students who could use a “motivational headstart” to take the class; only one student declined.

McCabe said that while elementary students are impressively technologically adept, their knowledge comes with some holes.

“Kids now—that’s all they know—they’ve only had cell phones and laptops,” McCabe said. “But they don’t have all the vocabulary that goes with it.”

Over the past few years, Oakdale Elementary has acquired interactive whiteboards, sold under the brand name SMART Board in all of its classrooms.

Clark said that the screens allow teachers to share images, websites and ideas with students and allow students to get up and demonstrate their knowledge in front of the class.

“As a school district, they’re recognizing the importance of making the students more technologically literate,” she said.

(A video of the interactive whiteboard in action is attached to this story.)

This year, Oakdale Elementary received a fleet of 35 HP netbooks, which students used for the after-school multimedia class.

“As interactive as the SMART screen is, it’s still a whiteboard,” Clark said. “Only one student can write on it at a time.”

McCabe said that the school’s regular computer labs get swamped by students using them for standardized tests and are difficult to reserve for classroom use. She said having each student sit in front of a computer helped them gain firsthand technological knowledge.


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