Edutopia - February/March 2008 - (Page 33) The entire student population of Volksschule Spiss. go gl bal Christopher, 8 Daniel, 8 Florian, 7 Gina, 6 altitude of 5,380 feet and with a total population of 140, it is officially the Austrian municipality with the highest elevation. No More Trapped Families It would be easy to imagine daily school life in Spiss in clichés: kids in lederhosen running down the hills, à la The Sound of Music, completely oblivious about the world beyond the mountains. But the reality today is quite the opposite. Now, the power of newly installed broadband Internet gives these young students access to the most up-to-date educational resources. In many respects, out of necessity, the curriculum and teaching methods seem to be more high tech than in larger schools. “I had to fight for the Internet with the school bureaucracy,” Klingenschmid says while proudly showing off her four workstations. DSL technology won’t be available until later this year, so, for the moment, Klingenschmid has to hitch a ride on the high-speed line used by the municipal government, which shares a building with the school. The fact that the mayor’s son attends the school might have helped her request, she says. The diminutive size of the town and its school pays off in another way. There is one computer for every two children, a much higher PC accessibility rate than the European Union’s mandate of five to fifteen pupils per PC. This improved access means each student has plenty of opportunity to reach out to the wider world. “The Internet changed everything up here,” says Klingenschmid. Now, even the first graders get a chance to fetch information for some projects from the Favorites folder, within which are sites the teacher has collected and vetted. The third and fourth graders gather what they need for their projects by searching independently. Even the youngest kids are learning English, probably even more intensely than elsewhere in Austria. At least one foreign language from Isabella, 7 Marco, 10 Nico, 8 Patricia, 7 RICARDO HERRGOTT EDUTOPIA.ORG EDUTOPIA 33 http://EDUTOPIA.ORG
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