Pornography is available everywhere. It comes in the form of books, magazines, TV, DVDs and it is also available on the internet. A laptop is only one of the many ways through which you can access pornography.
Pornography is not a technology problem – it is a moral problem. The best way to protect your children is to teach them about its dangers.
Some parents have a house rule which states that children may only use the laptop in the presence of their parents or in a supervised situation. This would be a deterrent against viewing undesirable material.
Internet filters are available and are useful if you want to protect younger children against inadvertently coming across pornographic sites. These filters are easy to install but they can be easily circumvented. They are therefore not effective for teens who may be seeking out these sites wilfully.
Parental supervision and involvement are essential if you want to create a positive and safe environment where your children could use an extremely important learning tool.
"Don't throw out the baby with the bath water" might have become a cliché, but the truth of it can not be denied in this instance. Refusing to acquire a laptop out of fear of exposing your children to pornography could be a case of throwing out the baby but retaining the dirty water.
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If you look at anything continuously for a long time, such as reading a book or watching TV, you may experience eye strain. The same could happen if you look at a laptop's screen for a long time.
Just looking at the screen is not harmful to your eyes. Eye strain is caused by looking at the screen without a rest for long periods of time. The good news is that the LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screen of a laptop is easier on the eyes than the CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) screens of older desktop computers.
Teachers would not customarily look at a laptop screen for many hours on end and it is therefore unlikely that they would develop eye strain. If your eyes are more sensitive than that of the average person, you may have to take precautions to protect them. In some severe cases special spectacles could be prescribed by your optician.
Consider a few common sense measures that could alleviate the little bit of eye strain that you may have to endure.
• Since eye strain is caused by long, uninterrupted periods of staring at the screen, take frequent breaks. Get up and walk around – not only will it rest your eyes, but it will also be good for the rest of your body.
• Blink more frequently – it rewets the eyes and prevents dryness and irritation. If blinking is not sufficient, try eye drops to relieve itchy or scratchy eyes.
• Adjust the lighting in the room until you feel comfortable. This may require that you draw the curtains if there is a glare, or install an additional light if the environment is too dark. Experiment with different light sources and settings until you are satisfied.
• The brightness and contrast of your computer screen can be adjusted and it is suggested that you play around with these settings until you find a combination that is just right for you.
• Change the position of the laptop so that the screen is a comfortable distance from your eyes. You will be surprised at the difference that it could make if you move the laptop a few centimetres further or closer to you.
• Anti-glare screen filters are useful when you have to work in an area where you can not change the environment.
These suggestions are easy to follow and do not cost you anything.
Look after your eyes – you and your laptop will need them for many years.
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As a teacher, what gets you down? What will it take to perk you up?
Smaller class sizes?
Better classroom facilities?
A more understanding principal?
Better textbooks and teaching resources?
A bigger salary?
These things, attractive as they are, may never happen. Rather than moping about what you can't get, how about looking at some things that are already available to you but which you have not fully exploited?
Like the computer facilities available to you in your school.
One high school librarian, who goes by the name of rudimeyers on her blog, is getting a kick out of using technology. (Yes, some librarians love technology!) Read about her experiences and then consider your own situation.
Is it possible that you could get some good vibes from the technology in your school?
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Have you ever said: “One day I am going to sit down and write this story”? Wonderful stories exist in the heads of people. You may want to record a personal experience, or one based on somebody else’s life, or you may have an idea for a fictional novel.
What prevents you from doing it? Often the writing process itself is the main stumbling block.
A laptop will remove one obstacle that prevents you from writing your story – it will help you to get the words down on paper. The task to write a novel with pen and paper may be daunting. In the past people used typewriters but nobody is using them any more. But with a laptop you will be able to record your thoughts with little effort. A word processor is used for this and the result can be printed so that you can scrutinize a paper copy.
After the initial writing a process of editing follows. Your laptop will make this an easy task. Text can be added, changed, deleted and even moved around at the press of a few buttons.
A spell checker and a grammar checker do what their names imply: they check your spelling and grammar. A thesaurus is useful to find just the right word to express your thoughts. These tools are available in English, but some are also offered in other languages
Since a laptop is portable, you can work on your story at any time, wherever you may be. You can take it with you to school, to the coffee shop and you could even work on it in bed.
Many stories of Africa have been transmitted orally. These stories contain much wisdom. Your laptop is a valuable tool in recording these stories, making them available to the entire world.
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Do you have any idea what this is?
It is a briefcase for a laptop. But not just an ordinary briefcase – it is a solar powered briefcase, powerful enough to give a laptop's battery a full charge.
The inventor of this briefcase surely used imagination! It reminds one of the words of Albert Einstein:
"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."
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