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=**Welcome to my Technology Portfolio **= == =Cutting Teeth on DOS... = =At the dawn of my experience doing word-processing on IBM - PC’s you had to know all the DOS commands and the hard drive was a few kilobytes, long before the Internet existed (just after we threw away our stone tablets and chisels). Most of my software knowledge is self-taught through trial and error and much gnashing of teeth and kicking of walls. = =I started to use computer technology in my teaching about 8 years ago when I encouraged students to submit Science and Social Studies assignments as PowerPoint presentations. At that time, I was definitely in the //automate// mode, not the //informate// mode; I thought it would be more progressive and motivating for students to show their learning on a computer screen than on paper, even though the content of the presentation was much the same. = =In the last three years, after being inspired by a workshop with David Brear, I have taught my students in Grades 4 and 5 and myself to produce digital stories about our personal lives. (That is difficult when your class only has access to the computer lab for 45 minutes per week, so it takes several months to get a story finished!) The first year my Grade 5's worked most of the year to create digital stories about their hockey career, their pets, their holidays in Disneyland and several other things. One enterprising group of 3 boys scanned a collection of comics they had written and illustrated about SpongeBob Squarepants, added some impressive sound and visual effects and impressed the pants off me and the principal (please excuse the lousy pun). So that was a good introduction for me to teaching with technology. = =I seem to carry around a personal virus that infects MacIntosh computers whenever I come near. They invariably crash or mis-handle my data or cannot open a file received from a friend because of software incompatabilities. I would like to gain more experience with Macs so I can use some of the unique features they offer. I just need to find an anti-virus program that will work on me. = =//I enrolled in the LTT program hoping to gain…// **More experience with ever-expanding technology and educational software which I can use in my teaching. I hope that using technology (other than pencil and paper) will help me organize and enrich my teaching. There is so much more information available in so many more creative media than the textbooks we use in our classrooms. Even though we have a computer lab with 30 desk-top machines and a few computers in our classrooms, we use them mostly for word-processing and a few graphics programs. I want to use them for the communicative purposes that are out there: email, blogging, podcasts, etc. Our students deserve full access to all this technology can offer so they will be prepared for the society they will be leading in 20 years. ** =