Robert Fitzgerald, University High School and Curriculum and Instruction; Jim Kelly, Jim Kurz, and Jim Kinsella; University High School
During the 2006-2007 school year, University High School began a Laptop Initiative, outfitting four classrooms with wireless laptop connections and 27 laptop machines. One of these classrooms was in Social Science where six sections of mandatory sophomore U.S. Studies is taught by three different teachers. Because of the access to rich materials via the Internet, the Social Science Department dropped the textbook in the class, focusing primarily on the use of primary source documents, scholarly articles, and web pages. These, coupled with our use of Blackboard Academic Suite, have created an interactive, engaging environment where the acquisition of historical knowledge has became highly student driven. In these classes, students are learning to do research, gather relevant information, and think critically about historical concepts and events, while simultaneously gaining the technology skills they will need to be successful in our ever-growing world of technological reliance. While some may assume that without a textbook our students are not reading, nothing can be further from the truth. Instead of reading secondary textbook sources, our students are “doing history” by accessing and analyzing primary sources documents, images, articles, etc. We have found that the laptop classrooms foster a greater degree of student participation, interest, and engagement in our U.S. Studies courses.
