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When we last heard from Judie Sage, Occupational Therapist at Arkansaw Elementary School, the school in Durand, Wisconsin had just been notified that they'd won the 2008 Renaissance Learning 21st Century Writing Grant last May. Through the grant, the school received a SmartOption Mobile Lab of 30 NEO 2s in order to achieve their goal of improving writing skills and increasing student motivation.
In the year that has passed since they won the grant, Arkansaw Elementary teachers and students have discovered in the NEO 2 a learning tool that they'd rather not do without—in fact, the school found them so helpful, they purchased a second cart this year.
Sage's grant proposal was based on a model of the Carnegie Corporation's Effective Strategies for Improving Writing Skills. The school's fourth-graders were divided into two classes—one an experimental group using the NEO 2s; the other a control group using traditional writing strategies—to measure gains in student writing and engagement.
Sage reports that use of the NEO 2 brought some pleasant surprises and discoveries to the school. Although not part of the original project, the students particularly loved to use the Keywords SmartApplet to learn keyboarding—a skill they'd normally not learn until high school.
"The keyboarding program on the NEO 2s is better than what we have [in our computer lab], and the students like using it on the NEO 2s better," Sage said. "They can work on keyboarding when they have free time, without having to have a specified 'computer' time. All the students are done with the keyboarding and are now more proficient at it. They LOVE using them."
In addition, teachers were surprised how much quicker writing assignments were completed using the NEO 2s. "It takes significantly less time to complete a writing assignment with the NEO 2s than with the computer lab," Sage said. "In the computer lab, students can get more distracted by Internet or gadgets and trying to do fancy applications rather than just writing."
Another teacher, Brittney Thompkins, agreed, reflecting on an experiment she conducted using the NEO 2s. "The one group that used the NEO 2s completed their personal narratives almost two days ahead of the other two classes who went to the computer lab," she said of the class assignment. "I believe this is because the NEO 2s are straight to the point—there's no ‘playing' around, which the kids do on the computer. The NEO 2s were fast and efficient. I think every classroom should have a set of these."
Sage said although the school has already made progress toward their goal of improving students' writing skills, they look forward to incorporating the NEO 2 even further into their curriculum next school year. In addition, Sage believes the teachers have really just scratched the surface of what the NEO 2 can do for them and expects that their use will increase the more they learn.
"With any new technology, having training on how to use it is helpful. I am planning on having teachers meet with each other to help each other after school next year to learn together for a while and share and try things," she said. "As teachers get used to the AlphaSmart Manager it will streamline their operations for them, but it is hard to start doing something new. One of the teachers has gotten proficient at using it, and it simplifies her being able to review students' work. She simply downloads all their work onto her computer or prints it off to review it."
The addition of the second SmartOption Mobile Lab is sure to help, too. "Having more NEO 2s will make it much easier to share," Sage said. "Ms. Thompkins has been included on all the trainings so she is up to speed on all the workings of the NEO 2s and is VERY excited about having a cart to use next year."
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