Barat Academy provides the IBM Think Pad Lenovo X60 Tablet Computer to each of its students and faculty as an educational support tool. Each laptop has 1G of memory and 120G of local storage.On campus, students use a secure wireless environment while operating on a Windows XP platform.As part of the lease agreement, families sign an acceptable use agreement and are encouraged to take their laptops home to further support their course work.
Maximizing the flexibility in meeting students’ various learning styles was a main consideration in selecting the IBM Think Pad Lenovo X60 Tablet.Students can keyboard with the screen in the upright position and can use a stylus on a touch screen or interface with the handwriting recognition software to take notes in a more traditional format.
Each classroom is fitted with a networked LCD projector which allows for full screen whole-class viewing of a teacher’s or student’s laptop screen.This enhancement fosters dynamic interaction with information whether displaying an Internet page, analyzing a document, presenting a series of digital slides, or playing a DVD.
The educational benefits of one-to-one computing include:
fluid communication between students and instructors via applications such as e-mail, blogs, and wikis.
beyond-classroom idea sharing via digital discussion forums.
increased collaboration via team projects that can be shared, accessed and edited digitally
reinforced primary learning modalities along with strengthened secondary and tertiary thinking styles, as not all students are linguistic; some are more visual-spatial or logical-sequential; some are intrapersonal before interpersonal.
individualized application of the writing process via various modes of feedback and revision tracking
enhanced organizational skills via digital calendars, file management, web postings, and even virtual sticky notes
heightened research skills via greater understanding of how to effectively locate and weigh the merits of on-line information.
deepened sense of global citizenship via interaction with people in other parts of the world.
improved technological competence via trouble shooting and problem solving.
Barat’s technologically savvy students will be prepared for 21st century communication, college and careers.
