
Is there a piece of technology that you feel every classroom should have? Do you have a unique piece of technology that you use with students that you feel others should know about? If money were no object, what technology would you have in your classroom? Can you have too much technology? Lots of questions that will hopefully spark some discussion. These are questions that I don't have answers to. I am looking for new ways to engage my students with current technology. I once heard that just because you have a dinosaur bone in your room doesn't mean you have a dinosaur in your room. It needs to be active and alive. The technology that is sitting in our classrooms was great five, six, seven, ten years ago. My students currently have Windows 7 or at least Windows Vista at home. That means our school's operating systems are two versions behind. It becomes difficult for students to write a paper at home and bring it in to edit when our computers at school can not convert the material. How do we fix the problem? Students used to go to school to have access to newer technology than what was available at their home. Schools had tech labs before the average home had a desktop. Now, our schools still have tech labs but the software is not updated, and the processors can't keep up with the internet speeds or project requirements that we have for current projects. I hear on a regular basis, "I am waiting for it to load." When did students start to take steps backwards in the area of technology when they came to school?