IN THE CLASSROOM: Saying ‘thank you’ clicks with students

These days, making a thank-you note collage doesn’t mean breaking out the colored markers, construction paper and glue sticks. At Lincoln Elementary School in Corona del Mar, it’s a matter of importing, clicking, dragging and printing.

“It’s kind of fun to experiment with everything,” said sixth-grader Tyler Duncan as he sat in front of a computer with two classmates reshaping photos of themselves on the school’s revamped playground. “We’re trying to make it look better at the moment.”

Duncan and his 24 classmates were one of nine classes of fourth to sixth graders thanking Lincoln’s PTA for purchasing new playground equipment, including a rock wall.

The PTA also funded murals painted across the school representing themes from UCLA’s legendary basketball coach John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success.

Over two half-hour sessions, computer instructor and academic supporter Larry Berg led kids through the involved process of producing a collage on a computer.

From uploading photos onto the computers and importing them into the proper graphics application, the kids acted as small production teams.

The end product was an eye-catching thank-you card with their unique words of appreciation for PTA ?members.

“When I was in school, our job was to use factoids,” said sixth-grade teacher Judy Taylor. “But [today’s students] are going to have to engage critical ?thinking.”

“They are so computer literate. They’ve grown up on computers, this is their world,” Taylor said. “They’re almost blasé about it.”

Indeed, while the kids worked in groups of three to five, obviously enjoying putting together their piece of multimedia, it seemed an ?afterthought.

“I think we’ll need to learn this for [Corona del Mar High School]” said sixth-grader Damon Kane.

“If you get older and you’re in a business you’ll need to know how to work on a computer,” said Robby Bracho, ?11.

“Technology is definitely driving the bus,” Taylor said. “This is just skills they need to live in the 21st century. It’s basic for us now.”

Cropping each other from photos, reshaping them into stars, triangles and layering and balancing it with the text on the page was “OK” by most of their standards.

Instead, like 11-year-olds before computers, all the kids at Lincoln Elementary wanted to do was go outside and enjoy their upgraded ?playground.

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.