Laser Computers Help Children Learn How to Write
By Karen Welsh, Staff Writer, Snow Hill, NC

Light-weight, portable computers are being used at West Greene Elementary School to help special needs children learn to write.

Computer technologist Rebecca Reagan and Cheryl Malone, special education teacher, gave Greene County School Board members a brief demonstration Monday of how the laser PC6 portable computer works.

Only an inch thick, the computer looks more like a laptop. Each unit costs well under $300 and operates over 20 hours on a rechargeable battery pack, Reagan said. Students can beam their work into the desktop computer using an infrared connection.

Board member Pat Adams asked how the computers are holding up in the classroom. "Great," Reagan said. "They're very sturdy, very durable." Malone said she and Reagan read an article about the PC6's, which are designed to aid both exceptional and mainstreamed children with word processing, databases, spreadsheets and calendars for homework assignments.

"It's a tremendous resource for children who need extra help." she said. "The new PC6's are easy to use and any child can learn to operate the entire program independently," Reagan said. The PC6 automatically saves each child's work, sparing the frustration of lost work.

Reagan and Malone approached Greene County School Superintendent Mazingo with the idea. He decided to buy a few of the machines for a trial run with special needs children. The exceptional students were excited to have their own computer, Reagan said. Even children who had a difficult time with the mechanics of writing with a pen became adept at typing on the full-sized keyboard.

Soon, children who were struggling with writing a sentence were typing half-page paragraphs. "You just excited to get your hands on things that work," Malone said. "It's wonderful to see students pick up their PC6's, go to their seats and start writing."

The trial was considered a complete success. The schools system now owns about 80 PC6's. "At first we were targeting exceptional children," she said. "Now we're broadening out to all the children."

West Greene Elementary will now have two carts loaded with PC6's that can easily move from class to class and be recharged with one plug in the wall outlet. "It's like a portable computer lab," Reagan said. The school system is already planning many different uses for the PC6's. "We're anticipating using these for the writing test," she said. "Right now the children dictate while someone writes it down. The PC6 will replace that process."

"It's nice to be on the cutting edge," Superintendent Mazingo said. "The PC6 is a tremendous discovery."