Sunday, 3 June 2007

Computer Management Issues

I have been so involved in reading and listening to inspiring teachers who are using Web2 tools in their classroom that I had not stopped to think about the management issues involved. As a casual teacher I have limited opportunities for using computers with classes, however on a block last year I found that students tended to switch to the latest flash game or other online distraction the second I attended to another student. I would be interested to know of others' experiences in this regard, especially those who are able to frequently utilise technology in their classroom.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Karen

As a computer teacher I often found this to be a problem until I decided to utilise the strict IT policies in my school. In brief they have increasing level of consequences for each report to IT of inapprpriate computer use. First offence is their account locked and a letter home to parents. When the parent signs the account is unlocked.

Once the students realised I had switched to a no tolerance approach their whole attitude changed. Now I have been using blogs and wikis and even teaching gamemaker and scratch with great success and wonder why I didn't do it sooner. You would have to find out the policy of the schools you teach in and maybe suggest a tougher approach if they don't use one.

Kazzm said...

Thanks for your insights, Michael. I'll keep them in mind when I finally have an opportunity to work with my own class.