How do computers make teaching easier for teachers?

Question

Are computers really effective teaching tools

Answer 1

For one thing, grades can be kept in an online gradebook, shared with parents via online grade viewers and report cards generated also from the computer grade book. That alone makes report cards and contact with parents easier.

I have used power point presentations in my class and found them to be very effective. Kids will pay more attention to the screen than a live human being! As an art teacher, I am able to show kids work from anywhere in the world online -- and incorporate that into my lesson, where before I would spend foever pouring through books looking for samples, not find the one I want, etc.

Then, there is lesson plans. There are TONS of huge internet databases with lesson plans of any age, grade, curriculum, etc. If you are in a rut, stuck, need some inspiration, there are THOUSANDS of lessons at your finger tips.

Oh, and lastly, if papers are done on computer, you can actually read them -- as opposed to trying to decipher handwriting!

Answer 2

There are two separate applications for computer use: in the classroom and at home.

The computer has saved me immense amounts of time in preparing lessons, devising assignments, creating quizzes and tests, writing course syllabi, etc. etc. I can update old syllabi for new courses with a few keystrokes. Same with re-tooling final exams. I could go on and on...my whole teaching life is stored on my hard drive! Then there's the Internet. Finding information via Google is only a click away.

My classroom experience is more limited. In my last years of teaching college I was grateful for the word processor; at last, student papers were readable! I moved on to a locked residential facility for troubled teens, with a self-contained school. Here the kids had access to their own computers in the classroom and it revitaized learning. They were much more engaged in research in the classroom than trying to find info in library periodicals. I saw genuine learning take place as kids got deeply involved in topics they were interested in. They created livelier papers and projects because they had the ability to manipulate text, insert images from the Web, etc. I was there during the tsunami, and we used both video and websites to track the event and its aftermath. The computer became a tool within a lesson plan to explore natural disasters and geological events like earthquakes and volcanos - and their consequences.

Yes, I'd have to say that computers are both invaluable teaching and learning tools!

Answer 3

Yes, they can be used a number of different ways.

1. Enhance direct instruction by adding examples and illustrations to difficult or abstract constructs (graphing linear relationship, the growth of bacteria etc.)

2. Libraries and collectinos of information are now availible through the internet. There is no need to schedule time in the library with the internet accessbility.

3. Actual cooperative research can take place over vast distances. Schools can potentially discuss the effects of major world events in their section of the world/country/city.

4. VLE - virtual learning enviornement. New trend in education where direct instruction takes place via the computer using software.

Answer 4

they are great for organizing stuff, and making others think you are being "effective" by ignoring the "affective" part of learning - have you ever tried this? In using the inner circle (also called fishbowl) technique I announce that at the next class meeting we are going to have a class within a class, with 6 to 15 students acting as the discussion group and the others as observers. Classroom has movable chairs? Then arrange the seating in concentric circles. Students who are normally silent will talk when they feel the increased sense of responsibility as members of the inner circle. This "fishbowl" can be used in small, as well as large, classes. Tell students that at the next class meeting the teacher chooses 6 to 15 students to be "in the fishbowl." You then conduct a discussion (based on the work to date) with the students in the fishbowl. The rest of the students are to act as observers and recorders, noting both the process and the content of the discussion. Before the end of the class period, observers write a brief summary of the discussion and/or answer the question, "What would you have said that wasn't said?"

Answer 5

They're good for looking up teaching ideas. Also for power point and for communicating via email with parents and administrators.

Answer 6

yes..they are the best...i m a teacher myself and i get all the information just a click away... i check out fr projects to be given to the students...and the ways to teach...to handle difficult students...and H.W to be given to them...its so wonderful..thankgod i m in this age not in the stone age

Answer 7

and because by using google, you can see if they have copyrighted someone else just by typing in one of their sentences

Answer 8

u get all facts at the tip of ur fingertips.