Technology

Using technology as part of teaching is becoming more and more encouraged in our school. We have internet access, powerpoint, keynotes, iPhoto, garageband, iWeb, iMovie... but the problem is that majority of us are not tech-savvy-or that we are lagging behind what's been updated or modified. Junior High and High School have their own laptops-as part of the CDL project. The intention of the project is our kids to use technology to help them with "passing" classes, to motivate them to stay in school, blah, blah, blah. Unfortunately, majority of them use the laptop as a toy (vs. using it as a tool) and some teachers use it as a "reward" to allow them to use the internet. My point? As teachers, we have our own ideas as to how our kids use their laptops, and not necessarily for the better of their "education". The readings provide the usual "advantages" but there is no mention of how to guard students' safety when they use the internet. If there are professionals that inform our kids to tell an adult that someone is hurting them, what do they do when someone they don't and can't see is hurting them? As much as there are numerous how-to's in using technology, there should be as many ways to keep our kids protected. In addition, I'm finding myself wanting to use technology to maintain, preserve, save, reinvigorate my Yup'ik language rather than focusing on the "target language"(which is English, of course!). But my question is how?