Throughout this week there has been amazing moments -got observed, attended Cranberry Fest, played with my two adorable nephews, took amazing pictures with my new camera, along with many others. It was a fun week, but a moment today stands out in my mind. As we are enhancing our education regarding technology and integration of technology for the 21st century learner, I have found that my students cannot open an attachment, use a url to find information, nor are they independent learners to search for the answers. In the past 10 years, I have seen a huge disparity between the high achievers and the low ones. The low ones seem neglected and are unable to do the basic functions of a computer. They did not know how to send an attachment and thought the url addresses were sometype of advertisement. Today, I am shocked and quite concerned about the lack of technology that these students have been given. It is inevitable that their lack of knowledge was sincere and they were unsure as to how to save properly in the appropriate drive and how to "create a folder" in their email. Giving an assignment online with the appropriate web urls should have been a breeze, but rather caused much confusion throughout the entire class period. It is now my time to prepare them over the next 1.25 marking periods in order to get them ready for the entire class to go online in science. I mentioned something to them regarding going online and I saw some faces filled with fear and terror.
While watching them maneuver the website, I have realized a few things: no one reads the website (glances for the bold words), the pace of which people type are still by pecking, and having more than one screen poses great difficulties for students. In conclusion, the title of this blog represents my new thought processes for this week - Back-To-The-Basics. We are going to address proper etiquette for a Word document, attachments, and emails. Teaching with a colleague of mine, he was also astonished at the lack of knowing how to use a computer and how they are computer illiterate.As I return to the basics this week, we are coming to the midway point in class in which there will be a freeze. Fifty points must be obtained by Wednesday in order to have an A. This semester is flying by and we are almost 50% completed!
In case you are interested in improving your typing skills, here is a free online program that gives you practice on typing: Good Typing Practice
In case you are interested in improving your typing skills, here is a free online program that gives you practice on typing: Good Typing Practice
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