Hello from West Virgina. My name is April Ramsey Boyce and I am excited to learn more about helping my students in rural West Virginia become more connected to the world. The majority of households in my school district do not have computers in their home or if they do--they do not have internet access.
In order for me to consider this course successful I need to be able to translate the information into skill-based lessons for my 9th grade students. My students, for the most part, did not even have an email address until we created one this past week during class. I spent a full hour walking them through the steps and then helping them create google accounts. We will be using google documents within the next few weeks and I hope by that time they will be feeling a little more comfortable in front of the computer. I was a little surprised by the lack of basic computer knowledge and the fact they didn't have at least an email address, especially in the age of myspace and facebook.
I have been teaching English at Buckhannon-Upshur High School for the past 11 years. I currently serve as the yearbook advisor and the Broadcast Journalism teacher. We are working on equipment that was new when I was in high school in the early 1990's. We have been raising money to purchase a new computer to do video editing. I am the mother of two young children (ages 2 and 6, at this time) and commute one hour each way to work. Living in rural West Virginia has its drawbacks in that corner, but it is one of the safest places to live in the US, and both of our families are very close by.
Another teacher and I have been working on developing what WV calls 21st Century lessons that introduce our students to various web 2.0 applications and last year our students hosted a TV show that we put out on DVD called "Keeping It Real: 21st Century Style". This year we are hoping to have our students host a new show that works to bring in additional resources from outside the school environment in the form of storytelling by older residents. At this stage we are still looking at different titles, but "Living Legacies" seemed to stick in our minds. Should you have any ideas or unput we would appreciate all help.
See you in the forum!
