"Giving Patana students a 21st Century education"
This section of the Bangkok Patana School website is to support our 'Laptops for Learning' programme.It has been running for a number and before that we had been planning for it for almost ten years. We have been impressed with the opportunities it has opened up for our Secondary students (Years 7 to 13).
Please use the buttons to the left of this page to navigate around this subsite in order to find out more information.Your comments and suggestions are very welcome at this time as we continue to update and develop this information.
In a three year study of the Anytime, Anywhere Learning project conducted by
Rockman et al (1997 -2000) significant changes in student learning have been
noted. These may be summarised as follows:
• Laptop students are better writers, outperforming their non laptop peers in content, organisation, language/voice/style and mechanics.
• Students report that computers allow them to do more extensive editing, redrafting and improvement of their writing.
• Laptops encourage collaboration amongst students.
• Laptop students are more confident in their computer skills as a result of increased access.
• Laptop students report that using computers increases their pride in their work.
• 80% of teachers report that since introducing laptops into their classrooms, students more often explore topics on their own and work on longer projects.
• Laptop students are more likely to agree with the statement, “Computers help me improve the quality of my school work.” Non-laptop students are more likely to agree with the statement, “I
enjoy playing games on the computer.”
At Patana we have found that laptops provide an efficient way to infuse information and communication technology (ICT) into the curriculum. The technology then becomes more embedded as a tool for learning in the classroom and beyond. Separate ICT suites (computer labs) whilst providing benefits for whole class teaching run the risk of the weekly timetabled slot to “do computers”. Similarly, while clusters of desktop computers in classrooms may provide opportunities for teachers to integrate ICT resources into their lessons the computer cannot be taken easily to another classroom, outside the school or to the student’s home. Laptops, however, potentially provide a neat compact wireless solution where space is at a premium.
Secondly, rather than taking students to the technology the converse applies and children have technology more readily at hand when the need arises. The mobility of laptops allows for individual, paired, small group or whole class work. Classroom dynamics may change as more opportunities for communication occur.
The laptop may be used as a mechanism to foster increased links between home and school. The sense of ownership engendered by the one to one ratio of students to computers has been shown to increase student motivation and engagement with learning and to lead to improved learning outcomes. In short, increased learning opportunities through ICT are provided where there is greater access to these resources and one to one is obviously the optimum.
We are in the midst of the digital information revolution – just by looking at the changing nature of the workplace: hot desking, telecommuting, video conferencing, the increasing use of internet tools in the workplace and the variety of different careers our children are likely to have. Our students have to be prepared for the world of tomorrow. There is no doubt that access to technology should be driven by the needs of the learner and that an anytime anywhere access is the key to improved learning outcomes and supporting children to achieve their full potential as independent learners.
We are committed to keeping children safe while online and spend a significant amount of time in school teaching our students how to recognise inappropriate ways of using technology. We also recommend the following website for up to date information about eSafety issues.
Sets of laptops are available in the Primary school. How many?
22 in Year 2
46 in Year 3
46 in Year 4
64 in Year 5
52 in Year 6
12 in Primary Thai
10 in Primary MFL
These laptops support learning alongside iPads.