Success Stories from 2001

Each year the Techmobile Instructor identifies students and sites that have taken full advantage of the mobile computer lab and highlights the gains in these short summaries.

Successes and Standouts

In 2001 the Techmobile traveled on its own odyssey from the flatlands of eastern Montana to the crags of the West. Migrant children from all over Montana learned to use photo and picture editing software, write and animate plays, research planets on the Internet and much more.

The smallest children are often the most excited when they master a skill on the computer. This was certainly true in the case for little Juan of Fromberg. Juan is four years old, and though he had been on the Techmobile in previous summers, this was the first summer that I could see some real development of hand and eye coordination. His class learned to use the simplest tools in Kid Pix, a graphics program for children. In previous summers all Juan could do on the computer was listen and watch an animated story. He had no skill with the mouse. However, this summer he was able to make the connection between that oddly shaped, white plastic thing and what happened on the computer screen. Ironically, what made this connection was not what Juan could draw, but rather what he could erase. When a child wishes to erase something in Kid Pix, a mechanical hand throws a stick of dynamite into the middle of the picture and everything blows up to the sound of a grand explosion. After Juan's first stick of dynamite, his eyes got wider, his face moved closer to the screen and a mischievous smile crept onto his lips. From then on, he laboriously drew a few scribbles on the screen and slowly moved the mouse toward the hand with the dynamite. Though Juan didn't produce much that he could print, his gains were clear and obvious: he matched screen symbols to his desired result and effected that result with the use of the mouse.

One of the goals for this summer was to have more site-based teacher involvement in the creation of lessons for the Techmobile. This was very successful, but there was one clear standout-Pat Lowthian in Huntley. Pat's second and third grade class prepared an acrostic poem about an animal they had studied. The animals ranged from king cobras to bush babies. Each letter of the name of the animal started a sentence about the animal. On the Techmobile the students typed in their poems in Kid Pix, learned to scan in pictures of their animals and insert digital pictures of themselves. This lesson was content base and the regular classroom teacher created aligned it with what the students were studying. I, as the Techmobile staff, helped the students figure out how to make their poems look the way they wanted them to. The gains of these children are obvious for all to see, and every single poem went home for what I'm sure will be a prominent place on the refrigerator.

As schools are becoming more and more technologically advanced, it's hard to find a place that doesn't have access to computers. One may ask then, what is the reason for having a Techmobile? There are many reasons including staff training, the excitement for learning the pink bus creates, a large library of quality software, and emerging technologies. In Sidney the students experienced an emerging technology that was fun, but may also help them in the future. Videophones have been in science fiction for decades but they are staring to make their appearance in the main stream. With web cam technology and a computer, anyone can make a videophone call to anyone else with a web cam. So I sent the middle school class in Sidney streaming across the Techmobile intranet lines. The students learned to make calls, receive calls and how best to set camera options for the greatest quality of sound and video. Should any of these students decide to enter a field where video conferencing is necessary, they will already have a good start on the skills they will need.

One challenge the Techmobile has each summer is motivating high school students to think about college. Though it is not my job as an educator to "get kids out of the fields," it is my job to show them that they have more than one option. Internet research is one way to do this. On the Internet, the student can read all about a college, see pictures, download and fill out an application and do a financial aid application. They not only see that college is a possibility but can make the first steps toward enrollment right on the Internet. Oscar in Hardin started filling out the Federal Application for Student Aid while on the Techmobile. He told me as I was guiding him through the process that he had no idea that it would be so easy to apply to a college. He didn't have a computer at home, and he didn't know that even while working in another state, he could do what needed to be done to continue his education. I believe that he saw doors opening to him that he never knew existed. The power of the technology tool is that it gives the students a jackhammer to break down barriers instead of just their bare hands.

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