Teaching the
Lesson
(60 minutes
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Basic Care and Use of the eBuddy® (15 minutes)
- a. Value of this equipment
- b. Definition of a laptop
- c. Start up the eBuddy®
- d. Use touch pad mouse to indicate items on the screen
- Review the rules for safely carrying a laptop to the students'
desks-a two handed hold is strongly recommended. Pull the
laptop ½ way out of the charging bay. Have the students
place one hand on top of the laptop and one hand below to
secure the hold before fully removing the laptop.
- You may want to emphasize the cost of this equipment to
encourage its gentle care. Ask your students, "Would
you leave a diamond ring unattended?" How would they
feel if they dropped a museum's crystal statue? Would they
allow a friend to borrow their parent's wallet?
- Each student should already be assigned an eBuddy®.
As you get ready for this lesson, each student should pick
up his or her specific laptop from its charging bay.
- Explain to your class that these are fully functional
laptop computers.
- "Why are these called 'laptops'?" Accept any
reasonable responses.
- "Where is the mouse?" The eBuddies® come
with a touch pad mouse. Show the students where the click
buttons are. Explain that gentle action extending from their
fingertips will control the movement.
- "What else is different?" These computers weigh
less and are easily transported.
- "What do you see that is missing from these laptops
that you would normally have on a desktop computer?"
No cords. These computers can be carried right to your desk.
- "How can they function without electrical cords?"
The students will certainly respond that these computers
use batteries. Demonstrate the method for removing and exchanging
batteries. You may want to make an analogy to human sleep
requirements. "Wouldn't it be nice if we could skip
a night's sleep and just exchange our batteries?"
- Demonstrate locating the latch and opening the unit.
- Walk through powering up the laptops. You will need to
show your students where the power button is located. Direct
students to press the power button, wait for power to engage,
then ask, "How do we know the unit is powered up?"
Encourage some patience in allowing Windows to fully boot
up. Ask students to explain or hypothesize what is happening
during this boot-up process.
- Emphasize the importance of NOT using fingers or pencils
to point at the items on the monitor. It is best to use
the computer's arrow to indicate a word or graphic on the
monitor thus avoiding screen damage.
TIP: The eBuddy® laptops are a high interest device
for most students. If you want the students' eyes on you
or on the presentation monitor, have the students do a ¾
close of the laptop's lid to regain their full attention.
Create a new Word document (15 minutes)
- a. Open word processing software.
- b. Type one sentence about using the laptops in school.
- c. Save the document.
- d. Use Show-N-Tell software to share out with the class.
- Open the Microsoft Word program by double clicking on
that icon or highlighting the program from the program menu.
You can find this menu list by clicking on START.
- Have each one of your students type one sentence telling
how they see themselves using the eBuddy® in the classroom.
Give them several minutes to complete this task.
- Review the spell check option.
- Demonstrate the procedures for saving a document. You
may want to have individual student folders on your school's
network. Another method may be to create folders for each
student on the eBuddy®'s hard drive.
- Use the Show-N-Tell software to display several examples
of the students' writing on the presentation monitor. Let
the students discuss the value of each of these ideas.
Visit a Website on the Internet (20
minutes)
- a. Preselect an appropriate Internet site.
- b. Open your web browser.
- c. Explore Internet capabilities.
- Internet usage is best managed by preselecting the appropriate
site or sites. You may want to have the eBuddies® preloaded
with screened and appropriate sites on the Favorites list.
These would be screened and appropriate. Another excellent
tip is to use the hyperlink option in Word. Type the desired
URL on a Word document. The icon in the tool bar that displays
a globe with a chain link is the hyperlink tool.
- You may use EarthWalk's web page as an excellent starting
point for your students to begin to exploring the materials
available on the Internet. www.earthwalk.com will take your
students to our home page. From there, click on Education
then the eClassroom section, click on Cool Curriculum Connections
to find a thematic set of related web sites selected and
screened by the specialists here at EarthWalk. This exercise
will give your students an opportunity to explore the various
sections of any web site.
Assess Student Mastery (10 minutes)
- a. Open "eBuddy Quiz".
- b. Students use laptops/wireless keyboard to type answers.
- c. Review answers with class.
- d. Answer any questions.
- Discovery School.com has an impressive quiz-making tool,
which will bring your quizzes to the web. An example eBuddy®
quiz has been posted there at http://school.discovery.com/quizzes30/tishaloulou/ebuddy.html
You may want to use this system or another device designed
into your network for classroom testing.
- Create a brief quiz that covers the key points from your
perspective. Possible questions could include: What is the
correct method for carrying an eBuddy® to your desk?,
What should you use to point to items on the screen?, etc.
- Have your students answer the questions individually at
their seats.
- Then review the answers with the whole class. Allow one
student to use the wireless keyboard to type the correct
answer to each question.
- Always take a few minutes to answer any additional questions
your students may have on the care and use of your new classroom
tools. Return the eBuddies® to their cart making sure
that each is placed in its designated charging bay.
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