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Power to the Pupils; Hanover Teacher is Among Those Making Technology Part of Daily Class Routine

Posted on: Thursday, 24 November 2005, 06:00 CST

By Juan Antonio Lizama

Sixth-grade math teacher Laura Cossaboon was ready to start teaching a new decimal unit in her class last week.

To review what the class had done and introduce a new lesson, she used a computer and a projector.

"It's kind of like a game," she told her students, once she had explained how they would drag bars and squares into a box on a screen to form decimal numbers.

Cossaboon, who has taught for 10 years at Liberty Middle School in Hanover County, is one of more than a dozen "technology power user" teachers in the county who couldn't live without computers in their classrooms on a daily basis, said Pete O'Brien, lead teacher of technology integration.

Technology offers them another way to teach material, they say.

Some parents and students who were interviewed also favored the use of technology as a learning tool in classes and at home.

Integrating technology in the county's schools is up to teachers and school administrators, O'Brien said. When computers are upgraded with new software, teachers are trained and expected to use the technology to assist their teaching.

Cossaboon is Liberty Middle's Blackboard representative, webmaster and technology representative. She assists teachers in her school who want to integrate technology in the classroom.

"Laura is just overall a good teacher," O'Brien said. "She's going to embrace things a bit more enthusiastically and passionately."

Cossaboon received a master's degree in curriculum and instruction with technology integration from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2003.

One of the challenges at Liberty Middle was handling a class of 20 to 25 students and having only five computers in her classroom, she said.

She developed a routine so that at the start of each period, five students work on math on the computer for 20 minutes. Students also can access homework information and work on self-check quizzes and extra credit from home on Cossaboon's Web site.

"It can be very enriching," Cossaboon said. "They're learning better."

Ever since she began using Blackboard three or four years ago, the number of students using it has increased, Cossaboon said. Blackboard is an online system that allows teachers to use advanced tools and share educational content.

After she began using computers in her classes, she received letters from parents who were angry that their kids had access to the Internet, where they might view inappropriate material, she said.

But students know they can access only Web sites approved by her, she said. If they break the rules, they can lose computer privileges.

One of those concerned parents was Duane Berger, whose son was in Cossaboon's class last year. She assured the father that his child would be monitored closely when he accessed the Internet, Berger said. Berger's son, Chris, was not doing well in math, and the extra help made a difference, he said.

"It was a huge change for my son," he said. "I think is a fantastic way to teach."

During Cossaboon's class last week, Jenafer Johns twice easily converted a number into a decimal using the computer. She accesses Cossaboon's Web site from home all the time, Jenafer said.

"I think it's pretty cool," she said during a break in her math class. "It's definitely more fun than text books."

Her classmate, Austin McCullough, also said technology made math a lot more fun. "It's an easier way to learn," he said. "Less complicated."

Source: Richmond Times - Dispatch

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