Teachers, get those computers working!

A new UK research project looks at and overcomes the reasons behind the poor use of computers in schools.

The report found that many teachers lack the confidence to take the risk of using technology in their subject areas, although they have reasonable facilities at school and they use computers at home.

An OECD survey last year found that day-to-day computer use by students in schools is poor. The OECD found that most schools in member countries have spent hugely on putting computers into classrooms.

However fewer than 20 percent of students attend schools where there are enough workstations for every teacher to have one. Teachers tended to use ICT only for administration and routine tasks.

And in 11 out of 14 countries surveyed, a shortage of computers for students was cited as one of the biggest obstacles to greater IT use.

A University of Bristol study released last week confirms the study's statistical findings.

Digging into the background the UK researchers found that many teachers fear that computers would interfere with 'genuine' or book-based learning, particularly in the humanities and creative subjects.

That is a valid concern. Students have so much to learn, and teachers so much to do that I could see computers being a hindrance rather than a help. Can you imagine how disruptive it would be when a computer crashes or a student decides to gum up the works?

But teachers must surmount this hurdle, and the researchers were successful in showing how it could be done.

The researchers created a project centred on partnerships between researchers, research students and teachers from ten institutions, which explored ways in which ICT could be used in English, history, geography, modern languages, science, music and mathematics.

Seventy percent of the teachers who took part in the study were able to incorporate computers into their classroom, the researchers found.

And after working with researchers, teachers generally had a more positive view of technology and said that it enhanced their role as a teacher and had a beneficial impact on the learning environment.

"We need to set up networks whereby teachers and researchers may work together to design and evaluate projects which use IT as a tool for learning," the project concludes.

Now here's a task for Bermuda's teachers, their IT department and the college.

@EDITRULE:

Need to check whether your buddies or fellow employees are posting nasty thoughts about you on the Internet? Track them down with Google's new blog search. The new search feature lets you scour web journals or weblogs (blogs), look for particular authors or track down specific posts.

About 17.4 million blogs are currently running on the Internet according to Technorati (www.technorati.com). Google, which holds about 50 percent of the market, is competing with Technorati along with Memeorandum in tracking blogs.

Over at the Technorati site you can get an idea of the top chit chat topics raging along the world's largest gossip grapevine.

The top ten blog searches were for "Burger King Commercial", "Impeach Bush", "Times Select" (twice), "Don Omar", Rita, Nokia 7710, "North Korea", "Breaking Benjamin" and Katrina.

@EDITRULE:

Here are some vision bending flash movies to test your perception. I still do not get some of them.

The illusions and demos indicate how our mind processes visual data and can be fooled. The illusions have been put on the Internet by Edward Adelson, a professor at MIT's brain, cognitive sciences and artificial intelligence lab.

Go to "http://web.mit.edu/persci/people/adelson" just for fun and you too can have some tricks to show at your next party. Try the Koffka Ring or the Impossible Steps. Many of the flash demos can be downloaded.

@EDITRULE:

Contact Ahmed at ahmed.elamindecisionnews.com. Go to www.SecureBermuda.com for security updates.