Too Much Technology?

Is it possible for kids to have too much exposure to the internet? Is teaching them all about technology and how to search on the web, etc, too much for young elementary students? We have to remember that kids are still kids. Not everything should be at their fingertips. It's important to closely monitor internet usage by such young kids because we wouldn't want them to come in contact with any inappropriate sites.

Keeping up with Technology

Technology is changing each and everyday and our students will be the people of the future who will need to adapt to it all. How much should we teach within schools? How much of it should they be responsible for learning on their own? It's hard to say exactly, but hopefully kids have the priviledge to attend schools that have the money to keep up with the changing technologies. Hopefully the government can provide funding to those schools that cannot afford these new or even some older technologies on their own.

Apple or PC?

Recently I've been working on a multimedia project for another class and it got me thinking about whether PCs or Apples are more practical and easy to use in the classroom and in general. I think Apples have a lot of great programs and seem to be extremely user friendly, but then again PCs have always been more popular as home computers. Which computer system is better to use with kids? My experience is that many schools actually do have Apples.

Microsoft Excel

I have always thought of Excel as a complicated program that's only useful to people in the accounting field. However, learning how to use the program and seeing what is possible with the software is helpful and informative. It's interesting to see how the program allows you to make charts and calculate data which is practical and could be useful in the classroom. I think that we should also try to familiarize the students with this program as early on as possible. If they see how useful it can be and know how to do certain tasks, they will benefit greatly.

Importance of Word

Microsoft Word is always a useful program to be familiar with. Almost every job may require the use of such a program at some point, and it's necessary for students and future teachers to know how to utilize the program. Hopefully students in our classrooms will be exposed to Microsoft Word or an equivalent program during their younger years so that they can learn how to use it by the time they reach middle school and high school where they will need to type papers and other things.

Powerpoints

Powerpoint presentations are a very effective method of teaching lessons in classrooms. From personal experience, teachers who use powerpoints to give notes and show visuals are more effective and the information is more easily understood. Knowing how to make a good powerpoint is important for both our time in school and our future careers. Students will benefit from our efforts to create powerpoints for lessons in the classroom.

Websites for Classrooms

Having a class website would be very exciting for the students and very convienient for the teacher. Teachers can post homework assignments, reminders for quizzes and tests, messages for students and parents, grades (which should be visible to individual students only), pictures from class trips or events, and many other things. It's very practical for students and teachers to have constant two-way communication while they are at home because it will be easier for the teacher to give help. Also, the site would be a good way for parents to monitor student progress.