Keyboard Virtuosos : Elementary Pupils Master Advanced Computer Skills

Less than a year ago, Santa Paula fifth-grader Carmen Moreno did not know how to use a computer.

*

Today the 11-year-old Barbara Webster School student not only knows how to use a computer, but can turn a written report into a project featuring sound, graphics, drawings, text and pictures.

Carmen is one of about 100 third-, fourth- and fifth-graders at the school who are learning the same computer program taught at local high schools.

The school is one of only a few in the nation--and the only one in Ventura County--to teach the sophisticated program to students at the elementary level, said Deanna Higson, a representative for IBM, the program’s developer.

“I think Barbara Webster has done an outstanding job,” said county Superintendent of Schools Charles Weis. “I don’t know of any other elementary school that teaches students this program.”

Known as LinkWay Live, the program offers students technical skills such as writing, typing, editing, programming and organizing, as well as allowing students to use their imagination.

“It was a lot of fun because I got to be really creative,” said Carmen, as she demonstrated her skills at the school’s computer lab.

“I spent a lot of time thinking about how to transfer the information into the computer, and figuring out what kind of music I was going to use and what kind of drawings would best illustrate (the text),” she said.

Class instructor Debbie Willeford began to teach fifth-graders the so-called interactive multimedia programs three years ago. As students showed their ability to learn quickly, Willeford allowed third- and fourth-graders to enroll in the class as well.

“It amazes me that these kids can crank out the information so quickly,” Willeford said. She said that about 80% of the students in her class, which is taught in English, speak Spanish as their native language.

When Willeford introduces the course to new students, she asks them to write a report on topics as varied as science, geography and issues of the day.

For instance, after choosing Asia as a topic, Carmen gathered information about the continent’s geography and history and its social and political issues.

Carmen then spent hours trying to illustrate the information with music from India as well as maps, graphics and drawings from China and Malaysia.

Choices she made in the process included where to insert maps in her written report and what colors to use for her drawings. Carmen also had to figure out how to write headlines for her reports and how to compose computer illustrations depicting life in Asia.

After students complete the course, they feel like they can do more with their futures, Willeford said.

“My greatest satisfaction is knowing that these kids will grow up and they will have choices in life,” she said. “They won’t have to sweep floors and work in fast-food restaurants because they have the skills to do otherwise.”

Willeford said she has presented her course as a model at several national conferences.

Sandra Murillo, a computer lab technician and an elementary school teacher at Emilie Ritchen School in Oxnard, said she was impressed with a Willeford presentation and plans to begin teaching the program to her students next fall.

“It’s a great program because it allows children to be creative,” she said. “And it teaches them real-life skills.”

At Channel Islands High School, science teacher Dennis O’Dea said he teaches the same program while helping students put together a campus magazine.

“A lot of the kids in my class were never taught computers,” he said. “And after they have been here for a while, they are using video clips to put together the magazine.”