Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!elroy!cit-vax!ucla-cs!cc1
From: cc1@CS.UCLA.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Computers in Elementary School
Message-ID: <11012@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 7 Apr 88 16:25:08 GMT
Sender: news@CS.UCLA.EDU
Reply-To: cc1@CS.UCLA.EDU (Ken Bartlett)
Organization: UCLA Computer Club
Lines: 44


Hi!  (First posting in this newsgroup, so I thought I'd say hi first...)

I'm currently working part-time (12:30 - 2:30 every day) at an elementary
school near UCLA as one of two "computer teachers" or whatever...  Here's
the setup:

	o  Each classroom has one Apple //c, a monitor, and sometimes a
	   printer; a few classrooms have more

	o  There's a signup sheet for teachers to sign up for either me or
	   the other computer assistant, in blocks of one hour each, so
	   conceivably I could go to a different classroom each time

	o  The grades are first through six

	o  The common routine is for the teacher to choose two or three
	   students to "work" at the computer for that day (this can
	   vary in different classes)

	o  Mostly, the kids use the computer to play Math Blaster

	o  For the most part, the teachers are computer-illiterate

Okay, here's the dilemna:  what should I do?  Usually the teachers leave
it up to me to decide what to do, since with most of them, their extent
of computer knowledge is putting in a disk drive and turning on the
machine.  So should I sit back and watch the kids play Math Blaster? 
(Which is what the other "computer assistant" does basically <a POLY
SCI major...>)  Should I try to teach them BASIC or LOGO?  (One class
was trying LOGO but they had a hard time drawing intelligible pictures,
so I wrote a short program to allow them to draw better looking pictures)
Should I try to teach things to the whole class at once, or stick to the
small (2-3 kids) groups method that seems to be common at this school?
Should I teach them how to use application software and such?  (In one
class we just finished writing a "newspaper" using News Room or whatever
the name of it was...)  Plus any software reccommendations would be
appreciated; also responses and suggestions should state the appropriate
ages (i.e.  "First graders should learn how to program in Pascal, third
graders in C, fifth in assembly, sixth in BASIC", or whatever...)

Any advice that you could offer would be appreciated!


				--Ken