By Jessica Honigford
Community Post
MARIA STEIN – Ashley Minnich’s Spanish classroom at Marion Local High School looks different than most foreign language classrooms in the area.

When the sixth period Spanish I class walked through the door last Friday, instead of pulling textbooks out of their backpacks, the students walked to a computer cart and each pulled a netbook off its charger.
Minnich instructed the students to log onto the Moodle program and begin an online vocabulary assessment.
After figuring out a few technology-related kinks with Marion Local’s technology coordinator Dot Garman, Minnich showed the students how their quiz results could be displayed on the smart board anonymously.
Minnich went through each question and showed the class how many students answered the questions correctly and how many chose wrong answers.
“This is not for a grade,” she told the class.’ “Remember, this is for my data assessment.”
When Minnich received the grant for the netbooks in her classroom, she agreed to take assessments of how her students were using the technology and how they were progressing through the second semester.
The freshman Spanish students responded well to the use of technology in the classroom.
“I like using the netbooks,” Josie Prueter said.  “It’s a lot easier than writing it all out on paper.  It makes me pay attention more because I like to doodle.”
LeAnna Kodak agreed.
“It makes it more interesting,” she said.  “It’s our generation. We all like computers and it makes it less boring. It makes me want to pay attention more.”
Garman says having the netbooks is a great asset.
“This is just a dream,” she said.  “It’s all about the ability to do the things with curriculum that you couldn’t do without them.”
Minnich says the use of the netbooks will stretch beyond online quizzes and evaluation.
Her more advanced classes will be using the netbooks to contact Spanish-speaking pen-pals around the world.
The netbooks, along with the smart board, will also allow for students to continue learning, even if there is a substitute in the classroom.
High school principal Mike Pohlman said he feels the netbooks are a step in the right direction.
“Education as we know it will be no longer,” he said.  “We’re taking steps to prepare ourselves and I think it’s a step in the right direction.”