This week theme: Are you connected? Technology. We love it, and sometimes we hate when we get I D 1 0 T problems. Usually we are the I D 1 0 T problem. As a teacher you sometimes get in a rudd. You get so use to doing the same things over and over, that you forget about new innovations or progress in your area. Sometimes it is good to get updated; to get new software downloaded, and change the hardware. For the first time in many years the computer room got a face lift. The old computers really were no longer up to scratch. In educating myself again about some of the new technology, software and possibilities, I was pushed to find out more about items and processes I had a passing acquaintance with, but since I didn’t work with it, I didn’t really pay too much attention to it. It is really exciting! I got to Google details, play around with hardware and software settings. The end result was that by Sunday afternoon I had the laptop connected wireless to the printer. I also had the laptop connected wireless to the Internet through my router. So now the desktop computer can download for example through the router, while I can work on the laptop and do research wireless from the same router - all at the same time. Usually I sit in my ‘office’ at home, while the family sits in the lounge or somewhere else. Now I can sit where they are, but still complete my work at the same time. Searching for resources, surfing the Net for PBL ideas or pinning ideas, I can do while they watch television. All of us in the same room. What also works brilliantly, is printing wireless to a printer in a different room. I can sit anywhere and when I am done with a document, I can just send it to the printer and collect it from the printer later. The printer will even let me know that it is out of paper, or when ink is running low where I’m working in a different part of the house. The advantages of the new technology do not end there. It also means now the learners in class can use computers that are up to date, and equal to what they do have/might have at home. They can really have real world experiences. The programs are no longer outdated, but the latest available. What they learn in class, can be used directly in a real world situation in a business or company. And then there is the software where I can monitor in real time what each learner is doing on each computer without having to see their screens. Where I can communicate with them from my computer either individually or with more than one at the same time. The network in the computer room is now truly ‘connected’! It is these ideas of ‘being connected’ technologically that made me think. Are we still truly connected to the Source of Life? Do we use our wireless connection to communication with the Source of Life? How connected are we really? Or is our connection broken due to an internal software setting? Do we need to check our settings again and re-establish connection? The answers to these questions will differ for each person. It is something we each need to determine for ourselves. This week, ask yourself: How connected am I? Ina de Necker Academic Principal - KCA
Posted on: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 16:10:31 +0000