The Top 10 Technology Things That I Think Every Teacher Should Know

1. It is alright not to know more than your students. Sometimes they are going to be a little more tech savvy than you.

2. Play around with the technology before you try to teach it. You can not teach something that you do not know how to use.

3. Always have more than one back up plan. Technology sometimes does not work the way we would like it to, so be prepared.

4. Ask for help. Find someone that knows how to use the technology you are trying to use and get their advice.

5. Become friends with your tech person, they are an invaluable resource.

6. I liked this one so I decided to just copy the quote "Use technology only when it makes rich, real and relevant curriculum richer, more real and more relevant." It came from Nancy Bosch.

7. It is alright to feel overwhelmed. Technology is always changing and it is very hard to keep update on all topics.

8. Learn by playing. Have fun with technology; do not be afraid of it.

9. Remember to practice, if it does not work well the first time, change what went wrong and try again.

10. Use networking. There are millions of people out their willing to give advice and help.

OPAC Decisions

In comparing my current system, Follett InfoCentre, to one that I have heard a lot about, Koha, I decided that we should stick with Follett. I am still learning new features that InfoCentre offers so this weeks assignment was very beneficial to me. I talked with our high school Librarian, Valerie, and she was very informative. I realized that I probably should have been asking her some of these questions in September! For example, I did not realize that Infocentre lets you align the catalog with the curriculum allowing teachers to find resources much faster. They can also create lists based on the curriculum and then just pull those books. This feature will save me a lot of time finding resources. I also did not know that you can just scan the ISBN Label on the book and it will pull up the Marc records from several different places that I get to chose. You can also print the barcodes for the books you entered by creating lists. I am so excited about all of this new information! When I explored Koha I found it very confusing and not very user friendly. I think that InfoCentre is easier for students to navigate, especially having the visual search options. For younger students that do not yet know how to read, this feature is great. In the future if our school was looking to switch systems, I would recommend staying with Follett and just upgrading to their newest system, Destiny. I am going to do some more research regarding this system because based on some of the class discussions this week, that system sounds interesting.