It is not a secret that not all students have equal access to technology use at home. The reasons for this are many. Cost, location, and individual family beliefs are just a few. I have found that each of these restraints there are possible remedies that are affordable (which I understand is a term that is relative to each instance) and practical.
Allow me to address the cost issue. There are still many without a computer at home or with an out of date machine at home. Even many those who have a computer do not pay the extra money for Microsoft Office. A low-cost option for purchasing a computer would be a netbook. Check out http://www.netbooks.com/ for information on netbooks. Netbooks are smaller machines without optical drives (CD/DVD). These netbooks have little actual “onboard” memory when compared to laptops. The need for the memory can be alleviated by using thumb/flash drives or online storage areas. Netbooks run from $250-$400 dollars and are extremely portable and usually have excellent battery life. In addition, often these netbooks come with video cameras built in.
The lack of Microsoft Office can be solved in a few ways. The school uses Office 2007. If a student does not have the newest the version of Office, they can save work from school as a 1997-2003 Word/PowerPoint document. This will allow their machines, with older version of Office, at home to open projects and assignments from school. This function is accessible via the File-Save As function. If a student does not have access to Office at home then two free Office Suites are available for download that can then be loaded on to your personal machine and provide compatibility with MS office. These are fully functional Office Suites that can replace MSOffice. They are OpenOffice @ www.openoffice.org and Lotus Symphony @ http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.nsf/home . Both of these are installed on the computer and will take up memory – like MSOffice would. Other options, if the Internet is reliable, are Google Docs @ www.google.com and ZOHO at www.zoho.com . These programs are absolutely free. They are very compatible with MSOffice and almost all other file types. These two allow you to create, edit, and store your documents/presentations on the web – no memory needed. This makes them great tools for a netbook. These also allow for real-time collaboration or in simple terms: two or three or more kids can work on the same project at the same time in totally different locations. All of your documents can be reached via the Internet or downloaded as an MSOffice file (or any other) if needed. Google Docs and ZOHO offer several other services for free as well. Take a few minutes to visit these sites to see what each of them can do. They do require “joining” or signing-up. I have used Google Docs for 3 years and ZOHO for a few months and they are excellent tools. ZOHO is more compatible with MSOffice 2007 at the moment. Also, they both offer free email services.
Location can be a problem when it comes to accessing the internet. I live in an area where our only real choice is satellite. Others have dial-up. Others have no internet. The cure for no internet is to go to where the internet is: The Athens Public Library, the school, a WiFi hotspot, or a friend’s house. If you have a netbook – you can easily carry it with you. If not, use a library, school computer, or a friends and save your work to Google Docs or ZOHO.com and it will be accessible the next time you are on ANY computer.
Of course, cell phones are now almost as powerful and useful for personal computing as a laptop or netbook. I can easily create a document on my cell phone, email it and access it later from my computer. Cellular Internet is common today as well.
Lastly, I have no answer for the student whose family does not think that they are ready for the internet or does not want the in-home distractions of today’s technologies (and they can be real distraction). This is an issue that individual families must tackle.
I hope this blog has provided some useful technology information. Of course, if you are reading this – you have access to the internet. If you have friends or student has friends who struggle with any of these issues – please share this info with them. Also, I invite you to have your student take the survey on my Principal’s Page regarding home technology use. The information will provide clues to how to better serve our students’ technology needs.
Have a great week!
Mike
