Back to the school...

I returned to school after three weeks of being away. The children were so excited to see me, so was I. I spent time with them talking about what they've learned and what they've done with the computers...

They have been taking the computers home for almost a week (not every day, though). There was a meeting with the parents at school last week. The parents talked about how proud the children were being the center of attention and teaching their brothers and sisters about what they've learned. I am planning to interview few families in the next two weeks.

The have done projects on solar system, culture (Columbus day week) and country... They've used mainly Microworlds, but they have combined the work on the computer with other activities such as doing some research, writing some composition, etc. We will have a formal presentation tomorrow, so I can document.

I met with the teacher at the end of the day today... we have decided to do the 3D model of the solar system using the community. We will do some work with Robotics and sensors to measure distance between houses and places at the school.

I think the most interesting thing I noticed today was the ownership over the technology. The children (and their families) have made bags for the laptops, they have created their own screen savers, they have started to exchange information using the network and even runned an experiment to see how far apart the machines can be in order to still see each other.

I will be posting more information this week...