Royal Students Try Out Media Center

Royal High School has a new media center that will give students a place to surf the Internet, research projects and find books in the library.

“The idea is to provide access to students who don’t have it at home,” Assistant Principal Sergio Garcia said.

For the past week, students have been attending seminars in the library, where the media center is located, to learn how to use 24 new computers.

School Librarian Kerry Brown is providing instruction about using the computers and databases, and gives students a short research project.

On Tuesday, ninth-graders did research about the Depression.

“It’s quicker, less confusing,” ninth-grader Kelsi Boyle said. “It’s better than looking through all the books.”

Many students already know how to use computers and how to navigate the Internet. But Brown is teaching them how to refine and focus their sources in addition to learning how to use the databases.

Part of the lesson focuses on students learning to recognize a good Internet source for research versus an unreliable one, said Garcia, who is in charge of technological development on the campus.

“One thing we are trying to educate our kids on is to be good information users so they can differentiate between good and bad information,” he said.

Simi Valley’s three high schools are now writing proposals for technology grants from the state Department of Education to expand access to computers to every classroom on campus.