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You're ready to enter the classroom as a teacher and you're armed with wonderful lesson plans and exciting ideas. It's important to understand the various tools you will have at your disposal, and that you know enough about them to make them your allies. |
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So you need to know the Basics. You'll have televisions, VCR's, DVD's, CD's cassette recorders, listening centers, and a variety of projectors. If you are in high tech school, you may have a video projector mounted on the ceiling in your room. Most of you will be able to check out a set of laptop computers housed in a portable cart, a set of AlphaSmart keyboards...these are used for text entry and the files can be uploaded to a computer for editing and formatting... digital cameras, scanners, SMARTboards, PDA's, student response systems, and classroom computers. Most schools also have a permanent computer lab that you may be able to reserve, or may find yourself scheduled into on a regular basis. With all of this technology, you need to know the basics, and a bit about what you can do with all of these tools. |
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You are already aware of the major components of a computer system. It includes a monitor, a keyboard, a mouse or some sort of "pointing" device, and a CPU, or central processing unit, where the work actually takes place. You can see the first three items, but the CPU is located inside the computer case. |
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Input Devices To get information and data into the computer you must use an input device. The most common inputs devices used in classrooms include: |
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Output Devices The results of information and data being processed takes many different forms, resulting in audio and video, print and non-print materials. Some of the output devices you may find in a school include |
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External Storage Devices External storage devices serve two major purposes. 1. They become a back up file in the event something happens to your computer; and 2. They provide you with a means of transporting your files form one computer to another. For example, this is helpful when you are designing an activity at home and wish to print it on the color printer at school. Or you might be recording grades in a spreadsheet at school and wish to take the files home so that you can work on your progress reports. Many teachers now send email to themselves with copies of their critical files attached so they have a backup at home and at school. Although floppy disks are being used less and less, they are still an affordable options for students. ZIP disks, popular about 4 years ago require special hardware and are expensive, so they are rarely found in classrooms. CD's are great, but not all school computers have CD burners. Flash or USB drives are rapidly becoming the storage device of choice. |
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