13389 Downing Street
Thornton, CO 80241
February 1, 2013
Adams 12 Five Star Schools
1500 East 128th Avenue
Thornton, CO 80241
Dear Adams County School District 12 Board:
I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy day to read this. I am writing this letter as a concerned
8th grade student from Century Middle School who would like to relay my concerns about the lack of use
of computers in the Adams 12 School District. Students are expected to perform most schoolwork and
homework with a traditional pencil and paper, instead of with the help of a computer. I urge Adams 12
Five Star Schools to implement the extensive use of computers into their curriculum. It is important that
all students and teachers are able to take advantage of the numerous benefits of current technology.
First and foremost, using a computer is scientifically proven to improve the test scores of students. In a
study of 986 fourth graders by researchers at Boston College and at the University of Massachusetts,
“. . . the study found that the more regularly students use computers to write papers for school, the
better they performed on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment Systems English/Language
Arts exam.” (medicalnewstoday.com) Keep in mind that the students weren’t allowed to use
computers on the exam. By writing school papers on computers as opposed to on paper, the young
students were able to pick up more advanced words, terms, and sentence structures. Additionally,
Thomas Fuchs and Ludger Woessmann have concluded that “. . . analyses show a positive correlation
between student achievement and the availability of computers both at home and at schools.” (cesifogroup.de) Furthermore, there are a variety of educational tools that “can help you to make lessons fun,
interesting, and more effective.” (edudemic.com) These tools include the following: Edmodo, Khan
Academy, iMovie, Google, Evernote, and Wordle. In fact, I have personally created many critically
praised products using tools like iMovie for my Spanish class. I had a great time while doing it, and I
really feel as though it was a lot more effective than doing a written lesson in class. Through the use of
computerized educational tools, teachers and students can connect, and students can ask and get
answers to their questions almost immediately. Students can also interact with their peers while
sharing class projects. On Edmodo, my science teacher, Mr. Land, can send me messages related to the
current project, and he can even tell when I’m doing my homework!
It is said that, “Computers can make cheating easier than ever before.” (glass-castle.com) There are
those that think computers make cheating easier because of the many tools, such as instant messaging,
copy and paste, cliff note sites, and essay writing services, that are available. However, with modern
technology, teachers can install monitoring software on the computers or on the network itself to block
certain websites and programs from the computer’s allowed processes. Teachers can also check to see
if a student’s work is plagiarized by using modern online tools. When teachers block these websites or
programs, it will help to prohibit students from being able to cheat, therefore helping to eliminate the
problem.
I strongly encourage Adams 12 Five Star Schools to seriously consider this issue, which I see to be a
prevalent problem. There are many solutions that could seamlessly integrate computers into the
current school system. Teachers could begin going to the computer lab or getting a computer cart at
least once a week for their students, increasing the student’s technical literacy. They could create
classes on Edmodo, and have the students sign up for the classes. Instead of doing all assignments on
paper, teachers could also assign quizzes, readings, and assignments via Edmodo. Teachers could make
it a requirement for certain assignments to be completed using a specific tool, like Skype or Mind Node.
Adams 12 Five Star Schools already has monitoring software on the school network, so monitoring the
computers is not a significant issue. There are many fun and interesting ways for the teachers to
involve their students with computers, and I truly do believe that both teacher and student would
benefit. I sincerely hope that my input is taken into consideration and is helpful in improving and
updating the computerized learning environment at my school and for the teachers and students in my
district.
Respectfully yours,
Nick Powell
Works Cited
"Academic Cheating Fact Sheet." Glass-Castle. Educational Testing Service, n.d. Web. 01 Feb. 2013.
<http://www.glass-castle.com/clients/www-nocheatingorg/adcouncil/research/cheatingfactsheet.html>.
"How Computers Affect Student Performance, the Good and the Bad." Medical News Today.
MediLexicon International, 29 Jan. 2005. Web. 30 Jan. 2013.
<http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/19387.php>.
"50 Education Technology Tools Every Teacher Should Know About." Edudemic. N.p., 21 Aug. 2012.
Web. 01 Feb. 2013. <http://edudemic.com/2012/08/50-education-technology-tools-every-teachershould-know-about/>.
Fuchs, Thomas, and Ludger Woessman. "Computers and Student Learning." Cesifo-Group. N.p., Nov.
2004. Web. 31 Jan. 2013. <http://www.cesifo-group.de/portal/pls/portal/docs/1/1188938.PDF>.