T he Barrington Courier-Review has published a story covering how Macs are affecting classrooms in a local elementary school. The elementary school is the Sunny Hill Elementary School, and the eMacs are part of a donation to the school, whose students the article says have fewer computers at home than at other local Barrington schools.
The focus of the article is on how local high school kids helped train a few of the Sunny Hill students how to use their Macs in a computer camp during the summer. Those students will then help their teachers train their fellow students during the school year. The article also looks at how some similarly donated iMacs helped students the year before, and how both students and teachers are looking at using the eMacs in the upcoming year. From the article:
Fourth-grade teacher Gail Hartis classroom will include 22 new Apple eMac computers this year. After seeing the impact a computer-based curriculum had on colleague Dee Grandeis students last year, Hart said she expects her students to benefit from having their own computers in the classroom.
"I think Iill see a big jump in their skills -- their computer skills, and their academic skills," she said. "I think theyill be a lot more confident as a result. Iim excited about it for that reason." Fourth-grader Sarah Westman said the computers Sunny Hill students used last year "looked cool." She used an eMac computer this summer for the first time and said she thinks it will be fun to have a computer of her own this year.
She said she also looks forward to helping her classmates learn to use them. "Usually people are helping me, but then I can help people," she said.
Hart said she believes Westman and other students trained in July will be effective teachers. "Kids take to electronics like ducks take to water. I think adults are kind of lagging behind kids with computers, to tell the truth," she said.
The full article goes on to look at how the students use Macs, and mention that the Macs were donated through a local foundation by a donor wishing to remain anonymous. We recommend it as an interesting read.