New kids in the computer room

It has been great having the Grade 1s come to the computer room for their first lessons. As always they can't wait to get into the room, which I suspect represents a place of mysterious delights to them - a kind of technological Ali Baba's cave. No matter how boring the first lessons are, they enjoy being there and are enthusiastic about everything. Going over the rules in the computer room about clean hands, not touching screens, and not taking things in the room out with them had them enraptured and clamouring to tell me stories of what happened when Uncle Max used his computer after eating a peanut butter sandwich! Half an hour of learning how to logon and logoff - they turned into into a competition and asked for house points as a rewards for remembering this step. When we played their first game "Find the Dot" which helps them to learn how to hand the mouse and click more precisely, you would have thought they had found their pots of gold - they chattered excitedly, whooped rapturously and laughed when they met their goals. It leaves me feeling certain that there is absolutely no career as wonderful as one in education. The children have no idea how much they bless me; and I am grateful to God for giving me this gift of teaching.

Beware the Techno-god!

It has taken almost two years from those first blogs in a course on blogging, to get me to the point of deciding to actually blog on a more regular basis!

I'm intrigued at the pace with which technology is advancing and wondering where it will all end. I have a Twitter page now: http://twitter.com/lindsayhart purely at this stage to keep up-to-date with this fascinating communication too. I've chosen some people to follow (predominantly teachers involved in one way or another with technology), but can't really see how I will benefit from this. My biggest drawback is South Africa's lack of technology. So my MTN mobile phone number can not be linked to Twitter.

Now I find myself wondering - should I spend more money in order to buy a fancier phone and get a contract upgrade - and the answer is clearly, for me, NO. But what will most people decide? Do we really need to spend so much money on technology? Do we really need all this technology? The problem is that, if you're anything like me, the technology itself becomes fascinating and the desire to have the new gadgets in order to "play" with the technology is strong, sometimes overwhelming.

Therefore the conclusion I reach is to put God first in my life, for it would be so easy for me to find myself bowing to the Techno-god if I didn't recognise this flaw in me.