Portable laptops or computer suites?

Currently there is a debate over whether an ICT suite is more effective than portable laptops. There are many positives and negatives of both and so perhaps introducing a mix may be the best option?

Portable computers offer flexibility which means that ICT lessons can take place anywhere in the school. Plus, using laptops, there is more chance to incorporate ICT into a variety of lessons across the curriculum so that ICT lessons do not have to be a separate lesson, in which it is the only chance for children to improve their computer skills.

As well as this, there are more opportunities for using wireless as you don’t need to keep to your slot in the suite. Plus, the children can also access all their classroom resources during the lesson. From my experience, some ICT suites have a double function due to lack of space within the school which will reduce the time used for ICT even more.

One more positive of laptops is the possibility of children being able to take them home to complete their homework on if they do not have the resources at home. The only risk with this is that parents need to be made aware that the child may be able to access the internet so they need to make sure they are monitoring their child’s use.

However, on the negative side, there are the health risks of portable laptops that have been highlighted. There has not been enough time to conduct effective research on this issue and so it is still very contentious. Therefore, using a mix of both laptops and a suite, will reduce the amount of time that children have to be using the laptops and give them another option.

As well as this, there is a much higher risk of damage to the computers in a portable trolley than in a suite. Plus, parts or computers may get lost as they are constantly being moved around the school. The more portable laptops there are, the more likely this is to happen. As these are a very expensive pieces of equipment, this is a negative that all schools need to be aware of.

Therefore, there are positives and negatives of both a suite and the laptops so a combination of both could prove to be the most successful way…however; I suppose it could be argued that if you have both, then you also have the negatives of both as well.

The Use of Discussion Boards

I found the discussion board quite useful for this task, mainly because I live in Bournemouth and my partner is living in Southampton. Therefore, although the task required us to discuss and work together, this could be done at separate times and places. It is easy to post comments and attach files onto the discussion board so there were no problems accessing each others work. The only issue that occurred was that I had to save the work I did at home in a format compatible with the university’s software to allow it to be opened without a problem as I have a more recent version of Microsoft.

Discussion boards could be a useful resource in primary schools when doing tasks such as book reviews, as we have done in English. Children could work in groups to write a review, post it and then comment on other groups’ reviews. They could also be very useful to get children to post their individual or group ICT work onto a discussion board so that it can be marked by the teacher online – the children could also feedback their comments after the teacher has marked it so they can carry out some self-assessment and reflect on the work they have done. This can then be re-visited when completing their next piece of work.

Although discussion boards are very useful for the above tasks, Wikis and Blogs could also provide these advantages. The negative side of the discussion board is that once a document has been posted it cannot be edited as easily as on a Blog or Wiki. Plus, on the discussion board, the work has to be posted so another programme has to be used to produce the work on, whereas Wikis and Blogs can be worked on as they are and contributed to by anyone in the group. Another advantage is that it is possible to limit people's access on Blogs and Wikis, which may not be as easy on a discussion board - anyone could read the messages we have put up on the discussion board on Blackboard. Sometimes it is great to share ideas but occassionaly it may be necessary for only the teacher to access certain work so that all children produce soething original.