ShareThisBy LINDSAY MELVIN
Scripps Howard News Service
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Alex Carpenter never worried about running out of ink or lumbering home with a backpack full of textbooks.
Since seventh grade, everything the recent graduate from Lausanne Collegiate School done -- from art projects to science experiments -- has revolved around his laptop.
"It's like pulling out a notebook and using paper. By the end of ninth grade, it was old hat," he said.
Lausanne is among a growing number of schools that have traded in textbooks for CD-ROMs as laptops become more integrated into classroom learning.
A "laptop school" for seven years, this week educators and school technology specialists from all over the world came to the East Memphis school to learn more about getting wired.
In its fifth year, the Laptop Institute attracted nearly 600 people from 14 countries and 37 states.
"It's really a think tank," said Lorrie Jackson, director of Communications for Lausanne.
With 80 different sessions going, teachers and technology support staff swapped ideas on what programs are worth downloading and how to teach everything from math to music on a laptop.
"There's so much stuff out there. It's hard to know what's junk and what's not," said first-grade teacher Laura McDow.
Shelby (Tenn.) County Schools began using laptops nearly five years ago. With three to seven classrooms worth of computers at each site, students take turns using them.
The technology captures the kids' attention in a way paper and pencil can't, McDow said.
Even though her students are young, she picked up a few tips at the conference on how they can create blogs and podcasts.
"They're going to have to use them anyway, so why not teach them from the beginning," she said.
The explosion of integrating technology into a daily routine has been mostly among the more lucrative private schools.
But in the Memphis City Schools system, a $980,000 grant three years ago has allowed every Longview Middle School student to use a laptop.
And every student has one at the Memphis Academy of Science and Engineering, the system's first charter school.
The three day institute drew speakers from as far as India and Australia to present to a crowd of technologically savvy and the not-so-advanced educators.
"It's hard for the teachers. But the kids love it, they're ready," said Jennifer Bradford, technology support specialist with Briarcrest Christian School.
"This conference is good because it shows the teachers where we're headed," she said.
