When I read: Remote Access: Foreign Aid from the Classroom, I immediatley thought about the Tapped- in session I had about doing real world problems to help motivate the students to actively participate in learning. I think this is one of the things that you could get a group of students to get motivated to do. This is a cause that is greater then their own and can show them just how bad it can be. Sometimes, especially in my area, students don’t go outside of their own county to understand what is happening in the rest of the world. I remember in high school I had a date with this boy that had lived here all his life and had never been out of the county. I had just moved here and knew how to get around better than he did. This is a common occurance for the studetns in my area, so a project like this would help to open their eyes and maybe even spark an interest in a career choice they may not of concidered before. Maybe even decide that there is a world out there and go to college. One can always dream.

Lap Tops in classrooms

I love the idea of lap top computers in the classroom. but we would have to purchase more sorfware, in math, to be able to type formulas or equations in. This would be a little more costly, but well worth it. We currently have 30 laptops that were purchased for the freshman academy, but we don’t have the wiring to use them.

I feel that it is essential that we encorporate everything technologically possible NOW so that we are preparing the students for the jobs of the future. I know that the Internet has things on it that are not appropriate for students, but we should educate them on what is and isn’t apropriate instead of elliminating it all together. We have to start encorporating the computer and Internet into our classrooms because that is what our students know. That is the medium that they have learned on all their lives.

I appologize that I am rambling, but I feel very strongly about pushing technology into the classroom for several reasons:
1. It will elliminate a lot of paper usage, helping our world and environment
2. The jobs of the future (which haven’t evern been created yet) will require it
3. This is the speed that the students are used to learning at. This is the only way to be able to reach ALL your kids.

I know that we would have to monitor the students, but the current computer teacher has to do that already and I don’t see them complaining that it is too hard. I do however hear teachers in other classes complaining about discipline. Maybe a computer would help calm the students and give them somethign to focus on the keep them from misbehaving. (This is just a thought).

I feel that lap tops are a part of a students world, so if they have them to bring to school, bring them. In closing, Davis County has already implemented a school policy where all the students in the high school are issued lap top computers as Freshman with a goal of all the students in high school having them once those freshman become seniors. We’ll see what happens with them. So far so good, I hear.