2. Charged and ready
• Establish the consequences of what happens if the
students do not bring their laptop charged and ready to
class. They should not be given an opportunity to plug
in unless everyone has that opportunity.
3. Back to basics
• Don’t assume that your students know how to set up
folders in the right place, or how to save a document.
• Some of my students didn’t know how to email,
model basic ICT skills for the whole class using a
student laptop.
4. ICT helper
• Find out which of your students have good ICT skills
and enlist their help with peer tutoring students who
need help.
5. Routine
• Establish a routine where the boys are not allowed
to come in to class and open their laptop - they must
do (insert activity) - reading is always a good one -
and even 5 mins of reading is better than starting off
the lesson in a negative way by telling them off.
6. Structure
• Segment your lesson into a 15 min whole class
introduction or input followed by individualised or
group work for the remainder with a coming together
for the last 5 minutes to reflect.
7. Classroom layout
• Structure the classroom to suit the activity such as
groups of four tables for group work and single tables
for tests. Allow plenty of room for you to move
between desks.
• Move around the classroom so your students know
that they will be checked up on and helped with any
issues.
8. Lids down
• When you want them to take notice - during the lesson
- use the routine of "lids down" the Apple will be fine
with this and open quickly when you need to. It is a
clear visual of who is paying attention.
9. Gaming and Social
Networking
• Create a class rule about using their laptop for games
or IM - if you see it - the student cannot use the laptop
for the rest of the lesson - or whatever consequence
your class thinks appropriate.
10. Web tools
• Set work that is individualised or small group based -
and use the web tools such as wikis or other sharing
forums for the boys to do their work. This will make it
easier for you to watch them progress and review their
work.
11. Work quality
• In a laptop class, students tend to finish quickly - not
always their best work - so establish what you think is
a benchmark for quality work in your class and let the
boys know that if this is not achieved they have to do
it all again for homework.
• Invite students of high quality work to showcase their
work.
