Connecting The Pieces
By Kelly Jasper
BROADWAY — The world is shrinking in Room 103.
Students at J. Frank Hillyard Middle School joke that Lee Ann Baber’s computer lab makes more worldwide connections than most international airports.
It’s the new face of “21st century learning,” Baber says.
She’s surrounded by the glow of 25 sleek eMac computers. Here, in Room 103, her eighth-grade students learn to connect with the world using high-tech and easily accessible software. They work both collaboratively and independently.
Last week, the students showed off their new skills at “School Night At The Apple Store,” a worldwide program that gives teachers and students a community forum to showcase projects created on a Macintosh computer.
Nine Hillyard students traveled to Washington, D.C., to exhibit their work. Family and friends also came to watch the presentations, featuring videos and audio notes the students made in class.
Baber says the students also viewed the work of other students.
“It really helps them understand the world’s not such a big place,” Baber said.
Real-World Applications
The 21st century will be a placed “governed by information” and Baber wants to make sure her students have plenty of it.
In Room 103, she teaches “real-world” applications and the lingo that comes with their newfound high-tech savvy.
This semester, she says, her students learn blogging, open-source applications, social networking, content-management systems, video production and webcasting.
They build “ePortfolios,” a way to access assignments and class content from home. A mapping project lets them view the portfolios of students around the world.
Here, she says, they write about shared experiences, most recently what it’s like to be 13.
The blogging, Baber said, is safe. Only approved students and teachers can access the site, even if they happen to log on from Europe, Africa or South America.
“I’m teaching the students to work collaboratively with students all over the world in a safe blogging environment,” Baber said.
Advanced software makes it possible, she says.
Most of the software is open-source, so the class can download it for free. But costs are still associated with the technology, including buying storage devices and computer accessories, Baber said.
A grant, “Innovative Ideas for the Next Generation,” helps offset the costs. The Blue Ridge Tech Prep Consortium provided the grant, Baber said.
Connecting The Pieces
The new technology also lets students personalize their projects, Baber said. Students can learn in a way most suitable to them.
Some students rely on audio notes, others do better with interactive slideshows or memory triggers, Baber said.
Each method can be tailored to a student’s long-term goals.
“They can pretend they’re newscasters, movie producers, whatever they want,” Baber said. “They’re making learning fun.”
Jessica May, 13, of Timberville wants to be a graphic designer. She says she hopes the skills she learns in Baber’s class will give her a head start.
“It was so exciting to go and show off the work for so many people,” she said after returning from The Apple Store. “They were very impressed.”
Andrew Morrell, 13, of Broadway, says he looks forward to the class, held every other day for 90 minutes.
“I wish I could do it every day,” said Morrell, who wants to be a video game designer.
May says she’s learned to apply the skills to other classes.
“I learned how to make presentations,” she said. “I’m now able to make graphs I can use in other classes.”
And that’s how information spreads in the 21st century, Baber says.
Sometimes information skips across the hall into an English class. Other days it bounds around the world to a computer lab in China.
Either is an achievement, Baber says. Either “connects the pieces.”
And Baber says that’s what it’s all about — connecting one class to another, one student to another, connecting Room 103 to the world.
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