WWWiz: So how did it all start?
B.H.: Actually, the principal of our school, Chris Jurenka, had a vision that that's where we needed to go, so she got the ball rolling, got the state grant just before I came to this school, and she got the money to get the technology and got the network put in, got up a 56kb network—you see the silver pipes around the school—every classroom is networked. Every teacher has a Power Mac, either a Power Mac 6100 or a 660ab, with full Internet connection.
WWWiz: So that's just for the teachers?
B.H.: Teachers and students are using those, but mainly the teacher stations allow teachers do a lot of research using the World Wide Web. They all use Netscape 1.1. Most rooms have at least one or two extra computers, besides the teacher station. I have more than that because of a smaller grant I worked on with a few other teachers last year—it's a separate grant—and I have some Mac LC575s with CD-ROMs which we can do research with.
WWWiz: Do you let the kids do their research unsupervised? Are you worried about that?
B.H.: We are worried about it and we do supervise every student who uses the Web at this point. We physically monitor them. We're very tight on that. That is the policy at this point. We're working on a written contract between students, parents and teachers, so that students know we expect them to take responsibility. We're also looking into things like SurfWatch and various programs to monitor them. Because of the age of these kids, we need to be careful. There's a lot of valuable information and maybe one or two percent may be totally inappropriate stuff, and it seems like that's all anybody's focusing on right now; I think what we need to do is find a way to block it out and look at the positive. Last year when the Kobe earthquake hit, there was a Web site online five minutes after it happened. And my kids saw images instantly. We do the JASON Project by the Internet. Anything that's topical.
WWWiz: Do the kids ever have supervised time when they can just access fun things on the Web, or is that not an option for them?
B.H.: It is an option, but we're trying to teach the kids the responsibility to take their disks and go work on a paper. Right now, they're working on an essay.
WWWiz: Do a lot of these kids have computers at home, or is this the only place they have access to the Web?
B.H.: A majority do not, but in my three years it's been rapidly increasing. I'd say ten of my thirty kids have computers at home. Two years ago it was two or three.
WWWiz: So there really aren't a lot of parents who are using the Web, yet?
B.H.: There are two in my class. As you know, with your magazine, the Web is just exploding, and I have parents come to me all the time: "Well, how do I get access? What kind of computer should I buy?" I have a list of service providers and I say, "Just start calling these people."
WWWiz: Before school actually started, I was told that the kids had taken the computers home for the summer. How do you decide who gets to take the computers home?
B.H.: Our community services coordinator handles that, and we have a lot of Apple 2Es and 2GSs, and we've been able to come up with enough computers to give to students who want them. We don't have Macs to send home—we wish we did—but it just gets them involved in the technology.
WWWiz: Did you find that the kids actually used them over the summer?
B.H.: My understanding is that they got quite a bit of use, because we give instructions to the parents and the students so they can work together. It's been very successful.
WWWiz: What is your class currently working on?
B.H.: We created our own Kaiser Web page. I only had a few weeks last year, because it started at the end of the year, but we're beginning now at the beginning of the year, and I have a group of about six students who are quickly becoming adept at all of this. They're learning HTML. Although my word processor can save as HTML, I don't let them do that.
WWWiz: That would be cheating.
B.H.: They have to put the codes in, and they pick it up very quickly. Seriously, they pick it up faster than the adults I work with. Twice as fast. So my concentration this year is going to be on their creating products, rather than surfing the Web. There's a lot of good material and good resources out there, but I'd rather have them create their own. And we're getting the whole school involved. I've gotten every teacher to give some input.
We're just in the infancy of this, and it's going well. The key now is training and getting everybody up to speed.
Sites for Kids and Parents to Check Out:
The Interactive Frog
Dissection
Kids' Space
SciTech, Inc.
KidPub WWW Publishing
Kids Web - A World Wide Web Digital Library
for Schoolkids
Web 66: Cookbook
Kids' Page
SIGkids Place on the Web
Kids' Web
Exploratorium Home Page
The Kids on the Web
KIDS AND PARENTS HOME
PAGE
A Few of Mr. Hall's Favorite Sites:
Sports & Outdoor Web
Connection
Hands On Children's Museum
GIG 3D Tips and
Tricks
The Gallery