Technology
The use of technology is a part of everyday learning in the classrooms at University School. The school’s technology coordinators work with teachers to integrate technology into the classroom. As students get older, their USJ teachers will be more likely to send them to the Internet to research topics and complete assignments.
Besides computers in the classrooms, the 2-5 Campus, Middle School, and Upper School have computer labs. USJ's media center computer laboratory is accessible to middle and upper school classes and students. With 27 Apple computers, students are able to work on research assignments, word processing, podcasting, creating multimedia presentations, and even photo editing between the hours of 7:45 a.m. and 4 p.m. The lab is located in the Mary Frances Campbell Library and supervised by the middle /upper school library media specialist.
The teachers also have access to a projector and computer that they and their students can use for presentations. USJ’s mobile laptop center allows an entire class to access the Internet from their classroom desks.
Students begin learning keyboarding and about the Internet in Lower School; computer classes begin in first grade. The Kindergarteners also are introduced to the computer; they come to the lab once a week for six weeks and practice using the mouse, typing their name, and are introduced to the parts of the computer. Students in grades one through five learn about the parts of a computer, the history of computers, and Internet safety. They work with Microsoft Word and Excel in all grades, learning about formatting font, setting up documents, typing reports, and formatting graphs.
By the time they finish Middle School, they are very familiar with Microsoft Office, including Word, Excel, and the ability to do PowerPoint presentations for school assignments. Computer learning is enhanced in Upper School where students can brush up on rusty skills, but also learn how to do computer programming.
Students learn lesson from ‘Angry Birds’
As a part of Union University’s Day of Remembrance, students in Linda Truex’s Upper School computer class got a lesson in Smartphone programming using the user-friendly AppInventor which allows apps to be built by the user of an Android smartphone. Dr. Jan Wilms, head of Union’s Computer Science Department and several students who are majoring in computer science taught the USJ students how to create an application in visual Java that allowed the students to play a game of tag on their Android-based smart phones.
The program used the popular “Angry Birds” game character to play a game of tag on their phones by having the character bounce over the screen. Players earned a point each time they successfully touched the movingbird on their phone's touch screen. The program required the students to time the movement of the bird, recognize a "hit" on the bird, keep track of the number of hits, display the current score of the player, and reset everything when the game ended.
Union’s Day of Remembrance is held each year to commemorate the services the school received during the tornado of 2006 that devastated the school’s campus. Members of the Union family go out into the community to “give back” to the community that gave so much to them at their time of need.
Businesses open in computer class
From UT merchandise and flower shop owners to haberdashery and candy store owners, Eighth Graders learn how to become business entrepreneurs in their computer class.
After learning the basics of Microsoft Office in Sixth and Seventh Grade, the students apply this knowledge to create and market their own “pretend” business, said computer teacher Linda Truex. “This is a hands-on, fun way of learning and applying intermediate Microsoft Office procedures.”
At the end of the nine-week course, students “open” their business and show off their creativity with an “Opening Day Celebration” attended by friends, parents, and school administrators.
Students use many of the tools in Microsoft Office, from Word and Excel spreadsheets to PowerPoint and Publisher. Their assignments include creating logos, writing letters and commercials, doing research, establishing inventory, designing a flier and business card, and developing a presentation.
“Each quarter, I look forward to seeing our new businesses,” Truex said. “The skills the students learn will be used many times over, when they are in Upper School, college, and even when they start a real business.”
|
 |
|
