She says her education was based on textbooks and rote memorization. Smith says those teaching methods worked for some students but excluded others from the learning process. In her classroom today, Smith uses computers to engage the students who do not connect with textbooks. They are very focused on realizing that other people are going to view their presentation. They're talking about laptop computers.
Students use computers for research, assignments and communicating.
The vision is to have every student K through 12 come to school with a laptop. Included in that number are all 600 seventh-graders at Reyburn Intermediate School. In Clovis, schools such as Buchanan High have wireless networks giving students full-time Internet access. Similar networks are being developed at schools in neighboring Fresno Unified. Doris jokes that one day he's going to see students driving to school and working on their laptops in the parking lot because the wireless connection is speedier than what most students have at home.