[September 09, 2011] GHS students get reconnected Tweet Sep 09, 2011 (The Graham Leader - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Graham High School students picked up their laptops this week after spending the summer without them. Each year, the district's technology staff takes up the laptops at the end of the year, wipes the hard drives clean and re-images them or puts all of the programs the school provides back on the machines. Most students were eager to get the tools back for communication purposes. "I didn't have much Internet access, to Facebook," said Samantha Price. "I was disconnected from the world." She said she also missed her music. Instead, she said she had to revert back to using her cellphone for Facebook and an even older media, books. "I read more, definitely," said Price. "I don't watch TV much so I read a lot of books." This year, she hopes to learn how to edit videos using iMovie better. "I just want to learn how to use more of the programs better," she said. Brooke Whitson said she also missed her laptop for communicating, but she named Skype as what she missed most. Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chats over the Internet including internationally for free. She too hopes to learn iMovie especially to use for projects in English. "It's easier to use on projects than Powerpoint," said Whitson. Matthew Thompson said he has a desktop computer at home, but he missed the laptop's portability. "It's easier to access. All you have to do is open it up," he said. Instead of his laptop, he mainly used his iPod Touch over the summer, but he prefers the laptop because it's faster and has a bigger screen. This year he hopes to keep his intact. "I want to understand it more and just take care of it," said Thompson. "My screen got cracked. Somebody stepped on it." Angelo Juarez is a sophomore who recently moved to Graham from Stinett. This will be his first computer. He's looking forward to editing audio, video and using iChat. He's also glad he doesn't have to lug around textbooks. "It's cool that we use them in every class and don't have to use textbooks," he said. Jayne Beale, GISD technology director, helped hand out the laptops this week and said seeing some of the students receive their laptop was quite entertaining. "One of the seniors was so excited, they started singing 'Reunited -- Reunited and it feels so good,'" she said. "It's funny seeing the reactions of them getting them back. It's been real fun." Beale said the first year of the student laptops has gone smoothly. They've completed one full cycle with the re-imaging over the summer and the re-distribution. "It went a lot smoother than I thought," she said. "Shannon (Bozeman, GHS campus technology coordinator) did a good job of re-imaging and getting everything organized. He and Chris (Rasile, district technician) spent a lot of time getting the image just right." Students were called from class for each school day last week by last name. They came in, paid for their insurance and were issued their laptops. "We had very few problems. They came in, hit the Internet and they went," said Beale. She added that some of the teachers were as excited as the students to get the computers in the students' hands. "I had a teacher ask if a kid had his laptop back because they were ready to go and assign work," Beale said. Billie Rees, English teacher, said computers have changed her classroom for the better in too many ways to name. "If they're absent, I can e-mail assignments or they can look on the website to see what they missed," she said. "It's instant access if we need to research something for English." Janson Graham said he appreciates the immediacy which he can find information. "It's an easy way to look something up without having to wait," he said. Jake Graham likes that it makes teachers accessible. "If your at home or on the weekends and you have questions or need to get help on something you don't know how to do, you can e-mail your teacher," he said. "You always have contact or someway of finding something out." Rees said her students look forward to any project that requires the computers. "The kids want a reason to use their computers," she said. "They want you to give them an assignment." Despite having all of the textbooks online, Rees' class still uses paper, books and lectures. "It doesn't replace all books. It just enhances their learning," said Rees. ___ (c)2011 The Graham Leader (Graham, Texas) Visit The Graham Leader (Graham, Texas) at grahamleader.com Distributed by MCT Information Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]