Week 4 : 3 April

1. Week 4: 3 April How is Technology used in the Classroom? Well for starters there is a smart board in all the classrooms that I have been in. Today the students had an ICT lesson which went on for an hour, they learnt all about databases, and data basing. It was interesting for me as well because I had never learnt about databases, their main functions, how they worked, and how to create my own. The ICT lesson was held in an ordinary classroom, except it was full of brand new laptops. There wasn’t enough for one laptop per student, so they had to double up, but most of them did get their own. They learnt about the touch pad, and some children had evoked that they had never used one before, as they didn’t have laptops at home and only used a regular mouse to navigate/use their computer at home. It was a little bit difficult for those at the beginning but by the end of the lesson most of the students were confident in their ability. The students were also taught how to use the built in webcam on the laptop; they learnt how to take photos, record videos and audio. They then learnt how to use windows movie maker and all the cool effects they could use to distort the photos/videos/audio. They were also taught the negatives about new technology and that there are predators on the internet. They were taught: - Not to talk to people they didn’t know on the internet; - Not to go into random chat rooms; - Not to reveal anything about their identities, for example their age and where they lived; and - Not to open emails from people they didn’t know because there could be viruses. Overall I think that technology is definitely important in the classroom, people forget that even the whiteboard is an improvement from the chalk boards that my parents learnt off when they were at school 25-35 years ago.