Advice about the practicalities of using a laptop in class please.

[BuckBuckMcFate]

DS1, yr 10. Raised our concerns re his handwriting and organisational skills in yr 9.

School head of senco has been helpful. Enquiries made to all teachers. Feedback said very clever but written work dies not reflect it.

She's asking for extra time for him in exams. Also photocopying his work and having a teacher who is able to translate his writing to write in the illegible words. Use of a laptop also been raised but stumbling block seems to be regarding him handing in work.

Previously he has not been allowed to email teachers work done on a laptop.

Has anyone got any experience of their child using a laptop during lessons due to writing issues? How did they get the work to the teacher, was it emailed or printed off?

I am going to make an appointment to see her again and would like to have some solutions at hand.

Thanks

Bump

My eldest has awful handwriting - poss dyspraxia. He's never been allowed to do class work on a laptop but they are allowing him to do written exams and coursework on one in school (laptop is a school one with just a basic typing programme on it - no spell check etc).

Hi, My DS has used a laptop since he was 10. He prints work off to hand in. The onus is on him to do this. He also has to make sure his laptop is charged in case he is not near a plug and also have pen and paper if his laptop doesn't work. I am not sure whether you have to provide one yourself. Weight is very important so get a light one, a good case and do make sure your DS has a safe place to leave it at school at lunchtime/ break etc. We have lockable lockers.
Do ask if you have anymore questions.

I have experience as I used to be an ICT technician.

Laptops can be an absolute boon for kids with special needs, but there aren practical considerations.

For example

Who will own the laptop, you or the school? Will your son use the laptop at home as well as school?

Laptops are quite heavy and are easily dropped by even the most careful of teens. You also need a laptop with a good battery life.

I think netbooks are better for schools than normal laptops. They are relatively cheap, light and have an excellent battery life. The laptops used at the school where I used to work had a nine hour battery life. If the keyboard is too small the you can plug in a USB keyboard, but in my experience only chidren with serious special needs struggled with the netbook keyboard.

If your son is going to use the internet at school the school needs a good wireless network. Does your son want access to the school network and printers from his netbook? If the laptop is on the school network then you may need to purchase a copy of Windows XP Professional or Windows 7 Professional to allow it to join to the doman. If the laptop is on the school network then it will seriously restrict what your son can do with the computer. (Which might be a good or a bad thing depending on what way you look at things.)

Also how are are going to back up any work on a laptop. You could transfer/ back the work to another computer using a USB.

DS has a netbook provided by the school - in fact he's not allowed to bring in his own one. He's not allowed to use a USB or the wireless network (they've had massive issues with viruses)

He prints everything off that needs to be marked, he has a named member of staff to take it to and they send him off to him just before the end of the lesson, or he goes up during registration.

Thank you so much for the replies

I'm posting and running right now, but I'll be back at some point to properly digest and no doubt ask more questions.

Thank you all again

My DS1 (yr 10) uses a netbook which we had to provide and bought from John Lewis for about £200. Its tiny and weighs nothing and he carries it around with him when at school. He is forgetful but has never lost it or dropped it. He has a "processing disorder" (labelled dyslexia but his reading is unaffected) and he is literally unable to write more than 2 words a minute and I am told that it is easier and quicker to word process. He uses it lessons particularly for assessments and his homework, he prints it of at home or school. He is unable to type fast enough to take notes in lessons so tries to do it by hand. It is definitely a help because his writing is so awful but in my opinion not the solution. He has a very high IQ and the discrepancy between this and his ability to process information is I am told exceedingly rare and we have been advised that as he's articulate the "dragon" dictating programme would be better for him but schools are very very reluctant to use it.

My ds is Y10 and dyslexic. He has a laptop which he can take into lessons (school checks it for any inappropriate material from time to time). Practically he can leave it in SEN area over lunchtime /PE time etc. BUT he tends not totake it much this year - helpful in science and he uses it for homework obviously. He finds it a faff to carry about (currently has a collarbone injury as well) and says it's sometimes more hassle to use than not. There are usually notebooks and laptops available in school and he carries a memory stick at all times. To be fair his handwriting isn't as awful as it used to be but he's slow. Uses it for things like timed coursework but says it slows him down in maths for eg.

Ds2 has unbelievably awful and slow handwriting and he is allowed to do his homework on our computer, print it off and hand it in. His typing skills are excellent (much educational use of lego universe!) He has been given an alphasmart by school to use in lessons - it's a basic (and I mean basic) word processor with no Internet access, spell check etc but the pluses are it's much lighter than a laptop or netbook, it runs on AA batteries and it has no nickable cachet. He's supposed to use it for extended writing tasks - extended writing for him is anything longer than about 2 sentences - however he's not actually used it at all in school other than for assessments as generally it's more hassle than it's worth to get it out, turn it on etc etc and as he's only in year 7 he's not actually having to write that much in class at the moment.

always print off and hand in alongside peer group.

some schools have very strict rules regarding use of IT in both home and school due to virus infection risk (our last school would only allow school computers on the network, no external units).

school netbooks and a memory stick are far easier.

also be aware of helpful teachers with macs if you have a pc (or vice versa) - we have had issues in the past with specially differentiated work

Prints it off and hands it in. Has a memory stick in his pencil case. Uses a Netbook. Now in year 12 so not much done in class if for handing in yet.

Happygardening - I thought my son was slow with 12 words per minute written! But it sounds like their issues are very similar and I don't think any form of keyboard will help the fact that what is in his head and comes out of his mouth just never gets on the paper. He also has a huge discrepancy between his IQ and performance/processing. They could not average the 2 sides of his IQ when assessed because thay were too far apart. Ed Psych said he'll be fine once out of the school system!

lazymunofteenagesons we have also been told that all will be better at university although if you can't write and thus do exams how are you meant to get there?

happy gardening and lazymum - do you know that they can have a scribe for assessments and exams?

Out of interest, what happens during maths/science lessons? Surely a laptop would be a reeal burden.

Maths can't be done on anything but paper really - my DS writes in maths and it's transcribed in tests and it will be transcribed in his exam.

For chemistry and biology - it depends what they're doing, in class he uses a combination of the netbook, pre-printed notes and worksheets -he'll type in the exams though.

tabulahrasa Fri 21-Oct-11 23:37:44 said "happy gardening and lazymum - do you know that they can have a scribe for assessments and exams?"

Not sure if this was a question about actual entitlement or theoretical possiblity. Scribes are not appropriate for candidates with adequate word processing skills.

theoretical possibility - I have no idea, obviously, lol, what their DS would actually be entitled to or not as I don't actually know them...

but I was responding to what sounds like inadequate word processing skills - if he can't type fast enough to write notes in class for instance, it's likely that his typing speed is not fantastic and a scribe might be a possibility

I know that scribes can be a bit of an awkward way of working and a lot of candidates prefer to type for that reason alone - but I always think its worth knowing about all possibilities before ruling them out.

My DS is in the position where his writing is poor enough that he can pretty much choose between any support he finds best without much of an issue, he prefers to type where he can and have a transcriber where he can't - but a scribe would have been an option for him if it worked better. (it was considered for maths because we struggled to find a transcriber who could read it, lol)

My son can actually touch type, so not a problem. In maths his figures were very badly formed but he seems to have got through ok (got a B at GCSE). The problem in maths was also to do with no puting the correct figures under each other and making mistakes cos of this. He wrote in exams if the answers were short and typed if they were longer. His speed is good with typing. His school operated a policy of not letting them type unless they could touch type.

Both of mine had Alphasmarts provided by the school which they used in class. Not ideal as they only have a very small screen but incredibly light and easy to carry. I have asked about a scribe for DS (Y9) but the school are reluctant so far as they think having to keep stopping for a scribe to catch up will impede his train of thought. I have often wondered about his maths too as he has the same problem with keeping the numbers under each other.

As a teacher I've had this a couple of times and pupils have both emailled it to me and handed it in as a hard copy.

BUT

If your DS will not be able to use a laptop in his exams you need to think carefully about what he is getting out of using it in class. Whether right or wrong, if he's going to be judged on something he has to write under time pressure, even with extra time, he'll need to practice that.

If he can use a laptop in his exams then, of course, sounds like a fab thing to do but it's worth asking.

If his handwriting is bad enough he should be able to sit exams on a laptop - school can apply for this along with extra time. It must be his usual method of work though (ie he must be using a keyboard in class where possible). SENCO should be able to advise on this though. DD sat GCSEs and A levels on a laptop.

Why do they get extra time? A decent typist can type more wpm than you can write.If you decide to use a laptop then you need to get your typing up to speed!

It doesn't automatically follow that they can get their typing up to speed - the same issues that affect writing can also affect typing speed.