AOL putting homework assignments on the web

Published 12:00 am Saturday, August 5, 2000

ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / August 5, 2000

LAPLACE – It’s Monday morning and you’re sitting in history class and the teacher asks everybody to hand in their homework assignments on the Trojan War.

The whole thing just slipped your mind over the weekend, so you tell the teacher either: a) I didn’t know we had any homework, b) I was sick last week and didn’t get the assignment, or c) I lost the assignment sheet the teacher gave out.

If you are a student at Ascension of Our Lord School during the 2000-2001 school year and beyond, none of those lame excuses will work for you at all.

That’s because computer teacher and technology coordinator Andy Dimaggio has found some nifty software that will keep all the students aware of what is going on in their classes at all times.

“Our philosophy at Ascension of Our Lord is to stay on the cutting-edge of technology,” said Dimaggio.

With the help of a software designer in New Orleans, Dimaggio has designed a website called The Homework Site. All the teachers at AOL can put inhomework assignments, quizzes, projects, tests, handouts and other important information.

Then students can log on to the site and find out what they need to do for the upcoming class. Not only the students can find out, but parents can alsocheck to see if their kids are doing what is expected of them. Even if thestudent is sick, he will know what homework has been assigned.

No more will parents hear the standard excuse: “My teacher didn’t give us any homework.”With a click of a mouse parents can find out if that is the truth.

Dimaggio said this is the first time this software is being used in the River Parishes, and he is very excited about it.

“We’re not using this as a replacement for actually handing out assignments but as another avenue to get the assignments,” said Dimaggio.

At first Dimaggio and other faculty thought the software would promote lazy behavior in the students. They wondered if a student would just downloadinformation for an assignment and not do the real work.

“But then we realized that this would make the student more responsible,” said Dimaggio. “After we previewed the software, we knew it would work forAOL.”The Homework Site is totally customizable, according to Dimaggio. Teacherscan add links to other web sites and even put in handouts that students can print up at home.

Dimaggio is very proud of his computer lab and all the high-tech innovations he has implemented at AOL.

“We try to stay on top of technology because we have found that it actually helps the student,” said Dimaggio.

Besides The Homework Site, Dimaggio has just finished networking the entire school. Every classroom has at least one computer, and Dimaggio has thegoal of at least three computers in each classroom. All the computers in theschool are hooked up to the internet.

Another project that Dimaggio has just completed is the automation of the school library. With computers, there will be automated checkout of booksand inventory control to know who has what book and who is late with returning books.

Also, the entire catalog of the library has been put on the computer so that a student can log-in from anywhere in the school and find out what is available. A student can also reserve a book to be checked out later.With a state-of-the-art computer lab and two new data-projectors to make computer teaching easier and mobile, Dimaggio thinks AOL is ready to teach the student of the 21st century.

The 500 students at Ascension of Our Lord will definitely be on the cutting- edge for this year and many years to come.

The only excuse they will have now for not doing their homework is a power outage.

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