Teaching with Netbooks

The Saugus Union School District (SUSD), through funding from the EETT competitive grant, will provide a technology-rich writing achievement program for students in the fourth grade, entitled Student Writing Achievement Through Technology Enhanced Collaboration (SWATTEC.) With a focus on writing within the science curriculum, the SWATTEC project will engage every fourth grade student by providing a sustainable, one-to-one computing environment, which will be used to advance writing skills, build science knowledge, increase student and teacher technology proficiency, engage students and teachers in 21st century collaborative environments, and promote student writing achievement.

Two trends in the world of technology are making a big splash in education: web applications and netbooks.

Simple Spark, a directory for web applications, has over 9,900 web apps listed. Besides looking there, check out the list of links to the right. These are web applications I've recently bookmarked. Click here to see my complete list.

Advantages to using netbooks in schools is that they are about the size of a hardcover book, easily fitting into a backpack. Would-be thieves can't tell a netbook is in a bag, unlike when students tote around laptop bags. Because netbooks are so small, they can have a place on a desk along with a textbook. Additionally, netbooks tend to have quick boot-up times, taking just 20 seconds to power on.

A netbook is a laptop with a shrunken screen, an undersize keyboard and a processor that’s so slow, you’d have laughed at it in 2007. The netbooks’ crucial attractions are tiny dimensions, light weight and low cost, usually $350 to $500. Otherwise, they’re all about compromises.

In general, these four have identical specs: Windows XP ;1 gigabyte of memory; 1.6-gigahertz Intel Atom processor; 160-gigabyte hard drive; Wi-Fi wireless; 3 U.S.B. jacks; a webcam above the screen; video output and Ethernet jacks; and a memory-card slot.