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Sunday, November 2, 2008

Way to go, Ida-ho!

As I was reading my sister's blog post about the end of the school quarter, I was very impressed to see that her school (a small school in rural Oregon) is using technology to not only help kids become savvy and aware users, but to help reduce the amount of paper that schools as a whole crank out. (okay, so the school's not in Idaho, but it's close enough and the writer's at Disney are better with little quips than I...hope you've seen Toy Story.)

Their assignments are on a central server, and each child is able to complete the majority of their assignments on their own lap top, provided by the school, saving it to the teacher's files where that teacher can grade it without ever having to print off, or physically be handed anything. I asked about internet access, and they don't have access on those laptops outside of the school, so it stems the issue of MySpace and other sites of concern at home.

What a great way to teach kids not only about accountability (the teacher can see where the student is, progress-wise) on their assignments, but also about being more conservative and globally conscious. Not to mention, it was always a big job to lug around and empty the recylce bins at school. I can't stress how important I think it is for college-bound kids to be computer savvy, and comfortable on the Internet.

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