The students arrive at class each day, greet their friends, hang up their backpacks, take out their notebooks and log on to their computers. No, Glass doesn't teach programming at a local college or a high school graphic design class; he teaches fourth grade at Harrison Elementary School.
Each student in Glass's class has a computer on her or his desk. Glass said the computers play a part in studying every subject in the fourth-grade curriculum through the use of interactive video lessons, online resources, communication tools like e-mail and Weblogs and keyboarding programs.
The interactive video lessons are available through a video-on-demand program called Core Curriculum Content. CCC was given to Warsaw Community Schools this year through a partnership with local phone company Embarq. Glass's students are excited about the program.
"I think it helps you learn better, because it's pretty easy to learn when you like what you're learning with," said 10-year-old Riley Newton.
Justin Lee, 9, agreed. "I think it's pretty cool," he said.
Thursday, school and business officials, including Embarq CEO Dan Hesse and WCS Superintendent Dr. Rob Haworth, visited Glass's class for a demonstration of the technology in action.
The class has been sharpening their writing skills by studying the process authors use to develop their ideas into stories. In recent weeks, the class has read several books by author Roald Dahl. Dahl died in 1990.
"I have a special guest for you today," Glass told his class Thursday. "We're going to hear from Roald Dahl."
The students watched a streaming video lesson with interviews with Dahl before he died. In the video, Dahl talks about where he got his ideas for stories and how developed his ideas into books. During the lesson, Glass paused the video periodically to ask the students for feedback and to help identify key points of the lesson. Afterwards, the students completed an online assessment or mini-quiz on the video content and took out their notebooks to brainstorm on subjects for their writing.
Glass said the writing lesson is just one way the class uses the on-demand video content. He said the class can take virtual field trips to the places and times they study in history, see demonstrations of scientific concepts, practice spelling and using new vocabulary and sharpen math skills with the technology. The class also has been able to use their computers to communicate with other fourth-grade classes around the world, creating presentations about their communities and schools.
"I'm thrilled with the program," Glass said. "What our society demands of us today is that we be able to collaborate and use these tools. So, we're learning to use them."
Glass began teaching three years ago. His class now has its own Web site, has digitally developed a school newspaper and will soon have a wiki site where students can work together to write collaborative stories.
"Having spent nearly 30 years in the business community, I had experienced the expanding effects of technology on business, industry and society," he said. "When I entered education, I was determined to give my students every opportunity to learn and develop their own technological skills. When the opportunity of a 1:1 student-computer classroom was confirmed, I began to develop a year-long instructional plan that would be aligned with Indiana curriculum standards and current recommendations of WCS."
WCS is the first school system Embarq has provided with the CCC program. In the future, Hesse said, the company plans to offer the program to other communities in the 18 states the company serves. Hesse said the company purposely chose WCS to be the first recipients of the program.
"We chose Warsaw because of the leadership we see in the school district," Hesse said. "We're committed to education and the communities we serve. We find that education is an area that we can make a big difference."
"We are proud to be the first one," said Haworth.
Glass said, this year, his students will learn to create and maintain their own Web site and work with Grace College students to increase their presentation skills using specific software.
"This is a process," said Glass. "As new tools come along, we want to learn to use them."
