A caption on the cover of yesterday's Today section incorrectly identified one of the Pine Grove Middle School students pictured. Lori Mitchell was the student on the right.
The Sun regrets the errors.
When Baltimore students enter the George Street Elementary School today, they will be greeted by an abundance of new IBM and Apple computers and a gung-ho teaching staff ready to show how they can be used to learn math, science and language arts -- and to have fun.
FOR THE RECORD - CORRECTION
When Baltimore County eighth-graders show up at Pine Grove Middle School's technology education lab next week, they will plunge into a hands-on study of biotechnology, electronic mail, fiber optics, magnetic levitation, computer-aided manufacturing and other high-tech fields.
In Howard County, even kindergarten students will work with computers, using the Logo language to draw a square and a triangle.
The 21st century is just a blink away and Baltimore area educators are hustling to get pre-school through eighth-grade students on line as soon as possible. Technology, defined in one junior high textbook as "a strategy for survival of our species," is the new key to the classroom.
The computer -- as an essential tool for students as well as teachers -- is the obvious centerpiece of technological literacy. No longer are students asked, "Are you interested in computers?" says Bill Hermann, technology education teacher at Pine Grove Middle School. "You don't have a choice, they've just taken over."
Today, computers are commonly integrated into the classroom as one of several instructional tools used to enhance learning. While computers have been widely used in high schools for some years now, educators are introducing students early to the tools they'll be using the rest of their lives.
At George Street School, for example, first-graders gathered around five classroom computers will be able to connect literature and math in a lesson that involves a story about a little boy who capriciously spends all his money. As the story is read by the teacher, students will follow on a computer, using a mouse to subtract pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters from their screen. Later they will move to other non-computer work stations where they will learn to make change and write a story about how to spend $2.
For teachers, staff and parents at George Street, the new computers, purchased with federal funds earmarked for underprivileged students, offer exciting potential for the West Baltimore elementary school.
