WESTLAKE VILLAGE : School Seeking Technology to Aid Learning

Learning about how animals and insects eat, 7-year-old Jordy Sherman placed a spider on top of a beetle and watched as it devoured its prey.

The second-grader didn’t even squirm as he watched the arachnid finish its meal--he knew that he could revive both on his computer screen with the push of a button.

Helping to showcase White Oak School’s computer systems during a technology open house, Jordy joined the Westlake Village school administrators in their ongoing effort to gain support for an ambitious technology acquisition plan launched earlier this year.

As part of the plan, White Oak Principal Richard Malfatti hopes to make a $735,000 investment in computer software and hardware over five years, with the goal of eventually having one computer for every two students in the school.

At the technology fair, which was open for parents, Malfatti and more than a dozen students demonstrated systems such as a laser disc interactive encyclopedia that students enter by pushing a button. Malfatti also presented a wish list of computer equipment and supplies he hopes to obtain for the school.

The list includes Apple LC IIIs with color monitors and a library computer with a CD-ROM equipped with a Grolier’s Encyclopedia. Malfatti hopes that parents and corporations will donate computer equipment that they no longer use.

Many parents who showed up for the event said they were enthusiastic about the school’s plan.

Alyson Sherman said that using computers at school has encouraged her son to work on them at home. “I tend to be a fundamentalist in terms of education, but working with computers has increased his reading and learning,” Sherman said. “Rather than watch TV, he works on the computer.”

But Jordy insisted that his other interests would not be eliminated.

“Sometimes I’m in the mood for learning about space,” he said. “But sometimes I’m in the mood for just playing outside.”