Holy Cross School introduces a mobile lab in the classroom

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
November 3, 2005

Holy Cross School in Sioux City has decided to move towards the latest trend in education and incorporating technology into different subject areas by purchasing a mobile technology lab. The mobile lab was unveiled on Oct. 27 at the Blessed Sacrament Center.

There are 25 laptop computers that travel with the lab to different classrooms. The number of laptops was based on the largest homeroom section having 25 students.

"The lab was purchased with our auction funds from the Catholic schools auction last spring," said Cindy Spenner, Holy Cross technology instructor. "We got the computers from Gateway. They did an awesome job of working with us on the price and making it a reality. It is not a cheap proposition and they really met our budget."

According to Spenner, the decision to bring the mobile lab to Holy Cross was because "we wanted to add to the technology, not just replace the technology. Typically when we get technology funds, we look at what we need to update. We chose to add this mobile lab so that we could bring the class into the curriculum area rather than having to worry about the curriculum pieces getting down to the lab."

The lab is currently available to the middle school students - sixth, seventh and eighth grade students.

"Due to the constraints of the building, we cannot move the lab," said Spenner. "There may be an opportunity sometime where I will have fifth graders come take the computers out, take them upstairs and learn to use them a little bit. Right now it is meant for middle school use. I have a feeling it is going to get a lot of use."

Spenner had orientation day on the computers with the students during study halls on Oct. 27.

"It's not just internet use that they are doing," said Spenner. "They are accessing their data that is held on our server."

The students have documents on the server for English, religion and other subjects that they will be able to access from any of the laptops.

"It is much easier to work with the laptops in the classroom during their core subject areas than it is for a teacher to try to schedule a lab," said Spenner. "It is advantageous all the way around."

Spenner already has teachers that are requesting to use the lab in their classrooms and have scheduled a day to use it. Any class that technology has a focus in will have access to the lab. She added that the social studies teacher used it to take the student to an interactive Web site.

"The English teacher is also scheduled to use it," said Spenner. "I know that there are interactive science Web sites - a Web site on dissecting a frog. It is going to be used in just about any curriculum area."

She hopes that the students and teachers will be able to show what technology can do in education.

"As I told the kids, I much prefer to see how they utilize technology within their education rather than learning how to use it," said Spenner.

A lot of the textbooks that the students are using come with Web sites that have activities or learning tools for the students to use.

"We are very grateful to the people that have supported the Catholic Schools of Sioux City through the auction and in other ways," said Spenner. "I am appreciative of my administrator, Mr. Sweeney, for making the decision to move in this direction. I also appreciate Gateway's support."