Logistics of Computers in the Classroom

Limited resources in the classroom calls for a lot of pre-planning on the part of the teacher. Where there is only one computer in the classroom the teacher must be in charge of that computer, but additional peripheral resources, such as multimedia projectors, is vital if it is to benefit the students in the class as a whole.

Learning takes longer with only one computer in the classroom as students will not get sufficient contact time on the computer to practise skills learned in class. This, I imagine, would be frustrating for the teacher and the student because many of our classes have over 30 students. When would all our students learn to use the spreadsheet effectively with only 1 computer in the classroom? This is almost an impossibility and would serve better as a teaching tool for content other than teaching a topic in IT. Just imagine a Science lab with only one Bunsen burner and a class to test that requires each student to conduct the experiment. That class would take days to complete and learner and teacher frustration would increase.

Therefore, one computer in the classroom cannot be used to teach IT skills because the logistics of getting students 'practical lab time' is impractical.

If however, there was a lab with student ration 1:4 I believe this is even better than just one computer per child as children would learn better as a group in learning IT skills. They can watch others perform the same task repeatedly and they to repeat the task for others to learn.

In this instance where students can share the computer fitting four students around a PC is a bit difficult if the lab does not have much space between computers as it will be a jostle and perhaps chaos to fit so many students in a small space. The teacher can have to halve the class: half on the computer with a reduced ratio of 1:2, while the other students participating in a written or discussion activity. The students in the class can then rotate. This would work well and give each student a chance to use the computer.

The strategy the teacher uses would be more towards that of a differentiated classroom to reduce chaos and manage the class effectively.

This exercise pushes you into thinking how to best use the resources available and to accept the reality of limited resources and not to expect to get similar results with a fully outfitted lab. I see that I have to work with what I have and be satisfied with what I can do with it.

Learning is Fun!