New computer lab ends scheduling conflicts for NEVC Elementary students

Saturday, October 10, 2015
Submitted photo NEVC students work in the new technology classroom at the elementary school. Erica Mott, the technology teacher teaches the students with a software that allows her to control the student's screens.

Editor's note: Erica Mott, the technology teacher, played a large role in putting the new lab together, but was on maternity leave as this story was written.

By Noah Jones

Nevada Daily Mail

The NEVC Elementary School is looking toward the future, and shows no signs of slowing down.

The Northeastern Vernon County School District made the decision this school year to give fourth and fifth graders tablets and sixth graders Google Chromebooks. All students at the NEVC high school (grades seven to 12) have Chromebooks. Kendall Ogburn, principal of the elementary school, said the school paid for all of the technology with money from a technology fund set up in the school's fund. Parents pay a small amount for insurance for their student's computer.

On Monday, Oct. 5, the elementary school opened a second computer lab thanks to Erica Mott, the technology teacher at NEVC Elementary.

"I didn't put her on a fact finding mission," Ogburn said. "She just started digging, and she found where you can get computers." Mott said she used the website www.computersforlearning.gov, via email, leading the school to get new technology from a warehouse in Kansas City.

Ogburn said the school was given 28 computers, one "large" industrial printer and 72 flat-screen monitors all at no cost, Ogburn said.

"All of it was less than two-years old so it was in good shape," he said.

The school spent time setting Mott's classroom up with the computers and monitors around the room in a way that she can see their screens while she teaches.

"The new computer lab means NEVC Elementary now has two functional computer labs, which helps scheduling and will change the every day use of technology," Ogburn said.

"We have an existing lab, and it's in the main building, we created a computer class three years ago -- for Erica -- we were doing only Friday's. Only have technology on Fridays, first through sixth grade, for an hour a day," Ogburn said. "Well, that tied up the computer lab on Friday, so if a teacher wanted to take their class down there on Friday, they couldn't do it.

"Well then, we kind of transitioned. While we were still doing the Friday thing, we added an extra specials class in the week because we wanted to give them more technology."

Each class -- pre-K through sixth grade -- would take technology class an extra day a week for an hour.

"What that did was take the lab away for another half a day," Ogburn said. "So really the accessibility went from all the time to 'now we can't do that on Friday' to 'now we can't do it on Friday or half of the day the other four days a week.'"

With the new lab, Mott moved to a trailer next to the main school building where she teaches her classes, allowing the main computer lab to be open all day.

"We've really multiplied what we were able to do," Ogburn said.

Ogburn said the use of technology in the classroom will help students be more prepared for state assessments and testing.

"The big change is kids are now taking those online, and we got away from the paper and pencil to now we're doing this online," Ogburn said. "Well we don't just want to throw our kids in there the day of [testing], and expect them to be as successful as they would if we had been practicing with them all year long."

Of course, the computers will help students learn more than just how to take tests. Ogburn said the students learn from educational websites and develop good computer habits.

"This will be our third year with a technology class, and the kids are learning how to type. I know typing, per se, is kind of a thing of the past, where you learn home rows and home key, but we're going through all that with the kids because we want to start these kids with good habits at a young age.

"We also use our computers for a lot of educational websites; there are a lot of useful websites out there that when we find a weakness in one of our students, they are able to plug into one of these sites and they are able to really target the area where they are falling short.

"I know when I visit these classes it is very common for me to see at least 10 different things going on. It's all very education in nature -- they're not playing games, they're actually working. And it's really exciting for the kids. They get really excited doing that on the computer."

Ogburn said this new lab could not have happened without the hard work put in by Mott.

"Number one, she found the resources for us. So, she put in a lot of time. Finding those things, you may not think is a big deal once you find them because you've got them, but getting to that point, I'm sure she had a lot of time invested," Ogburn said. "She had to set up the room, making sure we have enough keyboards and mice and making sure it's all good to go. Once again, it's one of those projects if you knew where everything would go, where if you could put number one computer in front of number one chair, but it's not that easy. She just did an extreme amount of coordination. She had a lot of patience."

For now, Ogburn seems content. He said he strongly believes in the use of technology for his students, so much so that he prefers to allocate as much donated money as possible into the school's technology fund.

"Whether we want to embrace it or not, technology is where it's going," Ogburn said. "So, we can choose to keep up with it or we can fall behind. I think what we are doing with technology is we are empowering the kids to not be afraid of technology."

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