Technology is a Must!

Using technology is clearly a skill that is demanded by many employers. I feel that most students can find access through public libraries, friends, or special arrangements can be made. I don’t think that it is fair to students to use the lack of outside access to limit their technological advancement. So I would say no, outside access is not a problem.
I would be doing a great disservice to all of my students including those with limited or no outside access if I did not use technology. Students will find a way to gain access or find time during school to use computers. If they need to work during lunch or during study hall they can. It is not unreasonable to make special circumstances for those who need it. We do it all the time why not do it with technology.
Besides offering school time and a list of outside locations such as the library or internet cafés, I would try to arrange a lab top checkout program through the school. This would not be a large program because most would have access but allow for those that are less fortunate gain experience for their future.
Technology is the way of the future. If families can’t afford to have it at home and we do not teach it, we are simple creating a technological rut. If jobs pay more with these skills we need to give all of our kids the chance to get those jobs. It is simple we want the best for our kids.

Power Point

I enjoyed the videos that were chosen by my classmates. They were all relevant to their topics but the videos that I liked best where Keri’s love animals video and David’s scary office video. Everyone did a great job making power point a visual and using comedy to keep people awake during the lectures. Some of the things were so out there that they were perfect like James’s animal pictures or Zach’s sound effects.
There were a few examples of text being blended into the background making them difficult to read. The other concern I had was the content level being too varied from really easy to reasonably difficult. Sometimes people would go to fast to get a look at some of the slides because they didn’t have any text on them so they skipped them.
The next time that I do a power point I am going to bring more comedy and some text to the power point rather than relying on just pictures. I am also going to make an attempt to record myself so that I can learn how to improve my presentation or post it for my class.
I think that power point is a great tool for the classroom and takes the focus off of the teacher which can be nice from time to time. It allows for easy visuals that can be planned out for a certain time. You can add commentary that can be posted for students to see and hear anytime they want. Power point does make going on tangents more difficult while usually you don’t want to they can be the best part of lessons on occasion. Power point can also make the lecture more difficult to make the lesson interactive with the students because the teacher is focused on the board rather than the class.