NEOs give students jump on computer skills

Third-graders in the Gilbert Unified School District will get a head start on their typing skills during the upcoming school year when a NEO 2 will be available for each student's use in the classroom.

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The NEO has a full-size computer keyboard with a small, black and white LED screen. The plastic, durable unit runs on three AA batteries and weighs about two pounds.

Students use the NEO to learn how to correctly type on a keyboard and improve speed and accuracy. Students can also use the NEO to write in a journal.

Teachers also can ask questions and have students anonymously answer using the NEO's responder program to get the classroom's real-time understanding of subjects. The NEOs also have features such as a dictionary, thesaurus and spell check, said Jennifer Merrill, the district's coordinator of technology projects.

"Students weren't getting as much time in the keyboard lab (as we would have liked)," Merrill said. "We've always had typing curriculum classroom teachers were expected to teach, but it's fallen off the chart with other accountability measures with kids needing to perform in benchmark tests.

"Before (the NEOs, students) had to go to the computer lab to do this, which they typically did a couple times a month," she said. "NEOs are nice because it brings this to the classroom, and the extra computer lab time can be used for higher level types of activities that require a computer."

Using a program, teachers can also create tests or quizzes and send it electronically through the NEO for students to take. Accelerated reader tests can also be taken through the NEO, instead of waiting sometimes for days to use the classroom computer, Merrill said.

An infrared beamer on the NEO also allows students to direct math problems and spelling questions to classmates for peer editing.

The NEOs will be paid for through a $7 million annual technology budget override passed in November 2007. The 2,700 NEOs bought for the 108 third-grade classrooms will cost $517,500, Merrill said.

"If it weren't for the override, we couldn't do this," she said. "It's a very inexpensive price considering what you get out of it."

The success of a pilot program last year with third-graders at four Gilbert elementary schools spurred the district to buy the NEOs for all third-graders.

Eighteen third-grade classrooms from Harris, Mesquite, Highland Park and Boulder Creek elementary schools used the NEOs since March.

"Teachers were really excited about all the things they were able to use (with the NEO), and being able to use technology in their classroom was well worth it," Merrill said.

The pilot program, which also used money from the technology override, cost the district $85,500. Early Childhood Grant funds through the curriculum department also were used to pay for training teachers, Merrill said.

Close to 80 teachers were trained in June to use the NEO in the classroom this fall.

Gabriela Gonzales, a third-grade teacher at Mesquite Elementary School, used the NEO in her classroom last year.

"Most of the kids didn't have any keyboarding experience at all," Gonzales said. "When I first started, they were very excited, and some of them just really took off from it. After a while, they started getting into story writing with the NEO because they wanted to. I saw a great growth of writing with them because they were excited about writing with the NEO."

She was able to incorporate the NEO into many of her teaching subjects, including math and spelling.

"It can be beneficial all the way through the curriculum," she said, adding she wants to use it for social studies and science. "I'm happy they'll continue using them. I've been teaching for 22 years, and this is one piece of the puzzle that's been missing for a while to get the kids interested in technology."

When the NEOs were first introduced to the third-graders, many students were only typing four to five words per minute, "which is really horrendous," Merrill said.

"Teachers were saying it took so long to do anything because they (students) couldn't keyboard," she said.

Merrill remembers one eye-opening moment two years ago in a fourth-grade classroom, when students had to type a pre-written poem that was about 20 to 30 words. After 40 minutes, only a few students had finished the assignment, she said.

"When I heard one student asking how to make a capital 'W,' I knew we had a problem," Merrill said. "It really is a big problem."

At the end of the NEO keyboarding curriculum, students were typing an average of 20 to 25 words per minute, she said.

Third grade is a key time for learning how to type because of students' physical development - their hands are big enough to use the keyboard correctly. Also, their learning, reading and writing skills are at a point where they "blossom," Merrill said.

"It's exciting. It's engaging," she said. "It's a good age for kids to be motivated by seeing their own success."