Day 3: Excitement in Grade 6!

Today was such an exciting day for the students as their new net-books arrived. Each student in this class has now their own net-book. Each student was allocated a computer and was given the opportunity to personalise it. That is, they were allowed to use their own backgrounds, cursors, screen-savers, etc. The students were given a "talk" about how to look after them and about the responsibility they now have to make sure that they do the right thing, as nobody else will have access to their computer. The students were very engaged personalising their desktops. Some students did not know how to customise the looks of the desktop, taskbars, screensavers and so on, but most students helped each other. The students were unable to use the internet because the technicians were at the school working on the server and it was down. Some frustration was evident, as now that they had a free hour on the computer students wanted to go on the internet.

The teacher displayed more frustration than the students as she could not check nor send emails (she is in charge of communication at the school).

I focused my observations on the students' reactions today. They were engrossed in making their computer look just as they wanted. Some were frustrated that couldn't access the internet because they couldn't look for photos of their favourite footy player or singer. Some students had no clue what to do and they would come to me or the teacher, but most would ask each other for help. I think this is an important point: students know that their peers can have as much knowledge or more than the teacher in regards to this type of activity on the computers and they resorted to seek assistance from them, whereas when they have a question about a task, maths or spelling they seek assistance from the teacher straight away.

The students were happy to be given this opportunity to personalise their net-books and were working independently or collaborating with each other.