Program Shows Computers Are Teacher-Friendly

To get daily temperatures from Chicago and New York for a science project, students in Marilyn Hamm’s Port Hueneme classroom logged on to a computer program run by the National Weather Service.

In Camarillo, youngsters in Sandra Holland’s class shared growing tips with classmates across the country, using the Internet.

And third-graders in Dennis Hatland’s Simi Valley classroom were among hundreds of pupils nationwide who clamored for an “interview,” via cyberspace, with famous authors, astronauts and even former Presidents.

Those teachers are among 28 Ventura County instructors who spent the past year creating classes that draw heavily from information available on the Internet, the global computer network.

About 350 teachers statewide took part in the California Technology Project, said Julia Koppich, a consultant for the state Department of Education. In the next month, the lesson plans they created will be available to educators around the globe on the World Wide Web, Koppich said.

The goal is to show kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers how they can use computers in the classroom, she said. And once they are comfortable using computers, they can teach other teachers how to use them.

“Using computers in the classroom used to be a novelty,” Hatland said. “Now it’s becoming a necessity.”

Although computers have become commonplace in Ventura County schools, teachers often are intimidated by the equipment and shy away from using them, said Cliff Rodrigues, director of technology for the county superintendent of schools office.

“These technology mentors are training other teachers how to do e-mail and also how to access the global Internet,” Rodrigues said. “They are taking some of the mystery out of computer education.”

The so-called telementors meet regularly to exchange war stories and offer tips for incorporating technology into lesson plans, Rodrigues said. What they have found is that computers can, to some extent, take the place of traditional textbook learning, he said.

On-line networks such as the Electronic Schoolhouse and Scholastic On-line post ready-made lessons in math, science, history, literature and languages, Rodrigues and others said. Some find the information to be more current than that found in printed textbooks.

With a modem and a personal computer, students can also work with pupils across the nation on projects of similar interest, Hatland said. For a lesson on American history, for instance, students can contact a class on the East Coast and work with them, he said.

“A child in Simi Valley obviously can’t visit Williamsburg,” Hatland said. “Yet a class right there in Virginia may go visit Williamsburg and my kids can ask them to get some information about it.”

Last year, Hatland had his students post messages for former Presidents Carter and Ford, as well as some famous authors and astronauts.

“Children can sit there and interview a VIP and get answers pretty quick,” he said. “They are fascinated by that.”

Since his training a year ago, Hatland has held a handful of workshops for other teachers in the Simi Valley Unified School District. Each session filled up quickly, he said.

His Internet lesson plan will be on wolves, he said. It will discuss how teachers can integrate information on wolves into science, language and literature classes.

An Internet address has not yet been established for the lesson plans, Rodrigues said, but teachers should be able to find them by doing a subject search.