Introduction

Grade Level:
The technologies described on this site are intended for students in the 8th grade, although many of the technologies can be applied and used in other classrooms for various student grade/age levels.

General description of the students:
Ohio Middle School is located in a rural neighborhood and is comprised of approximately 600 students. Our student body population is represented by approximately 91% Caucasian, 3.5% African American, 3% Asian, and 2.5% Hispanic.

General description of the school:
Ohio Middle School provides an outstanding educational curriculum for students grades 6 through 8. Our mission is to continually implement educational programs that provide students the necessary knowledge, problem solving skills, and technological tools to be prepared for future success in the 21st century.

General description of the classroom(s):
Within each classroom at Ohio Middle School, we provide a technological environment which provides all necessary tools to students and educators, enabling optimal quality instruction and learning. Each of our classrooms are equipped with a wall mounted SMART Board, a computer workstation for the teacher, 5 thin client computer terminals for student use, and color inkjet printer.

General description of computer facilities in the school:
Our technology facilities are managed by our Director of Educational Technology, and contain state of the art equipment for our students. Two large computer labs are available for student use:

** Student Work Lab ** The student work lab is a 40 seat thin client computing lab, which provides the basic and most common computing needs for students: a place for students to browse the internet, check their Gmail accounts, complete homework assignments using Microsoft Office, and access any materials posted within our Learning Management System, Moodle. All thin client terminals (HPt5545 model) operate off of a Windows server and contain the following operating system and applications:


 * HP ThinPro Operating System
 * Microsoft Office Standard 2007
 * Internet Explorer 8

** Center for Academic Technology (CAT lab) ** Our Center for Academic Technology is a 35 seat computer lab and technology center which provides state of the art computing hardware and software to promote creativity and development through various medium such as graphic design, web development, and video production. There are 30 windows based computers (Dell Precision 1500 model) and 5 Apple computers (iMac 27-inch model). There is also an instructor’s station computer with ceiling mounted projector for classroom instruction. The computers contain the following hardware and software:

Dell Precision 1500, 2.66 GHz Quad Core Processor, 2GB DDR3 SDRAM Memory, 250G Hard Drive, Dell Professional 20” Monitor (30 Total)


 * Microsoft Windows 7 Operating System


 * Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Master Collection


 * Microsoft Office Standard 2007


 * Internet Explorer 8

iMac 27-inch, 2.66 GHz Quad Core Intel Processor, 4GB DDR3 SDRAM Memory, 1TB Hard Drive, 27-inch Monitor. OSX Leopard Operating System (5 Total)


 * Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Master Collection


 * iLife Suite, which includes:
 * iPhoto
 * iMovie
 * GarageBand
 * iWeb


 * Microsoft Office Mac 2008


 * Safari 3 Web Browser

** Equipment for Loan ** In addition to the computer lab workstations, students may also sign out the following equipment on hand for student projects:


 * 10 Digital Video Camcorders- Flip Video Ultra II Camcorders


 * 10 Digital Cameras- Canon PowerShot 12.1 Megapixel Digital Cameras