Educational In The Information Age

The ways in which technology is used for educational purposes can vary and be used in many different ways, including: registration, smart board and smart cards.

To submit homework

The ways in which I use technology most when concerning education is to upload and submit my work in which I either use email or Blogger. I have 2 Blogger accounts which I use on a regular basis so that my teachers can track my work and check if I am up to date. I find this to be a very good way of completing my work as I don’t have to worry about printing my work as my teachers will check my work online.

Computer use

I also use computers practically every day for doing day today tasks which would mostly consume of doing my work. The software I used is Microsoft which would mostly be: Word and Excel for various reasons. I also use a computer to store all my files instead of relying on a memory stick. I can access the work I do at school using Frog so I again do not have to rely on a memory stick as they can run out of memory or can be lost.

Registration/ sims

The ways in which teachers take a register is now all done with using technology rather that on paper like it would have been done only 5 years ago. This is a good way of registering in my opinion as it can easily be changed or updating without looking messy and unreadable. With the use of sims teachers can do reports which are sent out to the students on a regular basis. As well as this sims can be used by the teachers to monitor us and that enables them to find out all of the comments that other teachers have made which would be helpful to a teacher that has not had previous contact with the student

Advantages:

• it saves paper
• it is easy to use
• you can change information on it easily

Disadvantages:

• it is very costly
• information would have to be extremely secure

Smart boards

The usage of smart boards has spiraled and has become an essential part of every lesson including sports. There is atleast one computer in every room and St Gregory’s and a lot more in the computer rooms which have up to 60. The smart boards are in my opinion a vital piece of technology within a class room as it makes interactive learning. You can also save what you have written on the board whereas if we still had blackboards or whiteboards as soon as we wipe the board its gone. I also find it very good as the teacher is able to show the whole class a document which would be easy to read.

Advantages:

• it is interactive
• easier to teach bigger classes

Disadvantages:

• they can prove difficult to use
• it is very costly
• it is hard to resolve problems

Smart Cards

Smart cards have only been introduced and used within the last couple of years and they have now become an only way of entering the sixth form block, they have enabled this so that the only people that are able to enter the building are ones that have the smart card and are allowed into the building, whereas if you didn’t need to have a smart card to enter the building anyone could enter. Another smart card that is used is a canteen one, in which you put money on, via parent pay. This enables that the person using the card is responsible for the card as an image appears on the screen of the person that should be using it.