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Published on 11/18/1996 All articles from this issue

Local teachers win high-tech prizes

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By Kristina Allen / Town Crier Staff Writer

Three local teachers won Intel 133-MHz Pentium processor based personal computers through Smart Valley, Inc. PC Day. These teachers successfully presented an extensive plan for integrating the technology into classroom curriculum.

Los Altos High School teachers Gary Bacon, Learning Community instructor, and Carmen Gomez, social studies instructor, will each receive six computers and Mountain View High School history instructor Dennis Devine will receive seven. Teachers were set to receive a PC for themselves plus one per five students in their class last Saturday.

PC Day was created to maximize the usefulness of the networks that have been installed as part of the SmartSchools NetDay program and to develop integration with current curriculum. The recipients were selected from 853 applications submitted by teachers from 204 schools in several Bay Area counties. The computers also come with a variety of internal boards and cards, software, and CD-ROM drive.

"The (free computer) announcement went out to schools, and I immediately went to work on the rigorous application," Bacon said. "Some application requirements had us show how the technology would be used and a collaboration of PC use with other teachers."

"The overall quality of the applications was so outstanding that it was difficult to narrow the selection to 361 recipients," said Pete Sinclair, president and chief executive officer of Smart Valley. "We need to continue to look for ways to help more teachers who are trying to bring innovation to the classroom."

Bacon's class, Learning Community, has been available at Los Altos High School since 1972. There are 25 students who spend four hours in this interdisciplinary studies course. The class fulfills a liberal arts requirement.

"I take students who are motivated or wish to be motivated," Bacon said.

His students will use the computers to create a web site and learn to surf the Internet to locate information.

"This site will serve students in seven states who are collaborating on an oral history project," Bacon said.

Gomez turns her social studies classrooms at LAHS into Vietnam. Her class will use the new PC's to participate in a program through Stanford University called "Global Negotiations Project."

"The class becomes Vietnam and negotiates with 11 other high schools throughout northern California that will represent other countries," Gomez said. "These students need to learn about our country. In addition, they will be on-line and use the World Wide Web to research."

The students in Gomez' world studies class are English language development students, but she said the program is for any student.

The Latin American history class that Devine teaches will use the computers to get on the Internet and do research on a pre-selected Latin American country.

"There will be three students per county and one is responsible for researching the geography, another researches history and the third researches a general biography of the country," Devine said.

A complete list of winning teachers and information on PC Day is available on the Internet at http://www.svi.org/pcday.