Having High, but Reasonable, Expectations

There were several components of this week's class that I am interested in adding to my curriculum plans. Using online word processing tools are one of the biggest interests that I have.  My interest with incorporating this started when I was introduced to GoogleDocs during our first course, and after this past week, I am even more interested in trying to make it work.  My main concern with this is how to facilitate this, since a log-in is required for these tools and programs to work.  And as much as I am excited to get my kids started with this experience, I have to play "devil's advocate" and say that I have some concerns.  My biggest concern has to be with the fact that it isn't realistic or fair for me to expect all of my students and families to have a home computer with internet access.  Each year there are a few families in our grade that don't have these things available to them for instant or quick access.  I also don't think that it is fair to expect them to go to the library or other access site to do a home practice activity or other assigned task.  I hope that I will be able to sort out some of these conflicts as I develop ways to use them more clearly and define the objectives, as well as what options there are for students who may have access difficulties. 

Back In The Day...

My memories of using computers in school don't appear until my 5th grade year.  Even then, the only true memory I have of using computers was when we would use KidPix software and create magical works of art on the screen (and of course, follow it up with the "KABOOM!" of the dynamite clearing tool).  Middle school is much of the same.  One research project comes to mind were we got to experience the new and innovative "Encrata" encyclopedia.  And of course, you can't forget the great "Oregon Trail" program.  That was the highlight of the 6th grade social studies curriculum.

When I was in 9th grade, my family got our very first computer.  It was quite the treat.  Again, I am very fuzzy on any of the specifics of the machine, other than it being a PC and that dial-up Internet brought the World Wide Web into our house.  Even through high school, there it doesn't seem that computers were used for much other than word processing and simplistic research.  Before I went to college in 2001, I got my own Dell desktop computer.  It was a great computer and I had very few problems with it until the 5th year I owned it.  By that time I was nearing the end of my college career and decided to move on to smaller and better.  My next computer was an HP laptop.  This machine was very dependable and served me well for many years and was my sidekick during two online courses (2000 and 2008).  Now knowing more about maintaining technology, it has become apparent that the lack of updating and other maintenance could have been much better and would have resulted in my computer(s) working better and longer.  My school district is a Mac school, so in the classroom and labs we have iMacs and several of the staff members (including myself) were given MacBooks to use.  With all the changes technology goes through, one can only guess at what comes next.