Technology Reflections

In addition to my 7th Grade Reading classes, I also teach Computer Skills to 6th, 7th and 8th graders. The 6th and 7th grade classes are wheel classes; they change every 9 weeks. The 8th grade class is all year.

In the 6th and 7th grade classes I teach them to use Office Products more effectively (they think they know how to use them already - I show them lots of things they never knew - hehe) Usually in those classes I end up with about the last 2 weeks to do something different. I used to teach PowerPoint during the last two weeks, but there are so many other other products out there that are better in many ways.

This quarter I decided to have the 6th and 7th graders do digital stories using Windows Movie Maker. I decided that since we had less then 2 weeks from start to finish, that I was not going to scan any pictures for the kids - they had to bring in pictures already in digital form. Well - wow! I can’t believe the issues that is creating.

At the beginning of the quarter I strongly suggested that each student get a flash drive - not all did so they have no way to transport the pictures to school. I suggested a CDR, but not everyone has a CD burner at home. Some kids tried to save to floppy disks not knowing the disk was too small to hold many pictures. And it’s not just the kids - their parents don’t know how to use the technology either. It’s just so frustrating when I try to do what I think will be a quick, fun project and it turns into a nightmare.

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