If you are a teacher, would a laptop be of any use to you? Some teachers are already using laptops and may have views on their usefulness.

Others might have been teaching for a while without owning a laptop. "I got along just fine without this gadget," they may say. "How will one help me now?"

A laptop has many uses. Please consider the following:

• A laptop can make you more productive. This means you will be able to do more meaningful work in less time.

• Administrative tasks are so painful that we soften it by using the abbreviated term "admin". A laptop can take the slog out of your admin tasks.

• It can help you to improve your subject knowledge, leading to improved classroom teaching.

• A laptop can be a valuable aid to Life Long Learning. It makes learning easy as it promotes whatever-wherever-whenever learning.

• You can use a laptop as a teaching tool. It will open new ways of teaching to you.

• Laptops can also be used by learners to enhance their learning (this, of course, implies that the learners also have access to technology).

• Assessment becomes a pleasure when you use a laptop.

• A laptop performs a great function as a communication tool . It eases and speeds up communication.

• Laptops empower. They will expose you to twenty-first century tools and thinking.

Are these reasons enough to make a laptop attractive to a teacher? Are there any additional reasons you can think of?
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The new academic year will soon start with all the pandemonium of new learners coming in, new schedules going into operation, textbooks not being delivered and all the other bits and pieces of "first week of the year" chaos that we have become accustomed to.

Ideally the computer facility in the school should start operating on the very day that school re-opens. Will it? Or should one rather ask: "Why can it not be used on the first day of term?"

Even if there are no textbooks, and the schedule has not settled down, a good teacher will take the gap and take a class into the computer room and start doing some meaningful work with them. Or if there is a very smart interactive electronic whiteboard in the classroom, this can be used to start teaching.

We must never allow a dysfunctional system to squeeze us into its mould. Teachers and facilitators should never be infected with the "first week of the year" syndrome.

While some teachers and facilitators are doing very well to get the ICT facilities of the school up and running within the first day, or at least the first week, sadly some others will take much longer. Can we change this situation around this year?

I believe that it was Martin Luther King, Jr, who said:

"If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, like Shakespeare wrote poetry, like Beethoven composed music; sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will have to pause and say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper, who swept his job well'."

The "first weeks of the year" syndrome stands in the way of true greatness.

Can we get rid of it this year?
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A New Zealand teacher, Andrew Churches, asks the following question in a blog posting under the heading Eight habits of highly effective 21st century teachers:

We hear a lot about the 21st century learner – but what about the 21st century teacher?

This is indeed a very good question. He then lists eight good habits teachers must either possess, or cultivate, if they don’t already have them. As I read through the list, I could not help thinking that these habits are all relevant to the use of technology.

Consider these qualities:

1 Adaptable – you must be able and willing to adapt to the use of technology as a teaching and learning tool.

2 Visionary – it calls for vision beyond the current teaching model. The good teacher will envisage how technology enhances teaching and how the classroom can be transformed to incorporate technology tools.

3 Collaborating – technology makes it possible to collaborate and share resources with colleagues around the world. When you acquire the skill of collaborating you do not have to re-invent the wheel each time you need a new lesson plan, worked example or other resource.

4 Willing to take risks – you must overcome the fear of taking the risk of appearing ignorant in front of learners who probably know more about technology than you do. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

5 Learning – all teachers must be life long learners. Technology can help you stay current relative to content knowledge. It can also be a rich source of new, relevant material to use in the class.

6 Communicating – technology provides tools of communication second to none. Email, blogs, social networks – all of these help you stay in touch with colleagues and experts.

7 Modelling behaviour – teachers must set the example. The way you use technology, not only as a means of diversion, but for serious teaching and learning, will establish a good model of behaviour for your learners.

8 Leading – teachers (and particularly principals) must be leaders in the use of technology. You must set the example and you must set the pace.

Do you think it is reasonable to expect teachers to adopt these eight habits?

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The most likely cause of a laptop breakdown is dropping it.

You will be surprised how often laptops are dropped.

Most laptops have a robust design and can withstand some bumps. It is unnecessary to put them to the test by dropping them.

The probability that a laptop will not break when dropped is very small.

If you drop a laptop, the following may happen:

• The casing may crack, leaving sensitive components exposed
• The battery may spring a leak
• The electronic components may be damaged
• The screen could break

Any other damage you can think of?

In most cases these breaks can be repaired but such repairs are very expensive.

Since laptops do not have handles, the best way to carry them is in laptop bags. The chance that a laptop will fall is far greater when carried by hand than when carried in a bag. Just make sure the bag is closed otherwise you may be carrying an empty bag and have your laptop on the floor!

A laptop bag is usually well padded and will absorb some of the shock when dropped. But even inside a bag a bump may still cause damage to your machine. When you carry your laptop bag, remember there is an expensive piece of equipment inside.

Handle you laptop with great care.

Don't drop it!

It will break.
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Cell phones – or mobiles, as some prefer to call them – have uses. The man who stood five places ahead of me in the boarding queue at the airport used his cell phone to make him look important. "It is not acceptable," he shouted several times. "I will not take any more of this from you." And then the clincher: "I am taking my business elsewhere, and as you know, it is considerable." The last statement was accentuated with a snap-shut of the device.

I felt annoyed. Have cell phones shifted the boundaries of public and private to the extent that it is acceptable for people to terminate "considerable" business deals in full hearing of a diverse audience? I certainly would not like to be told off in the hearing of a crowd of people.

But what I was most annoyed at was that my privacy was invaded. I was given no choice – my space was hijacked .

In the days of the wired telephone, conversations of this nature took place in a closed office. If I happened to be in a room and I sensed that a private discussion was brewing, I would discreetly take myself out of the room. Did the disappearance of the wire and the mobility of the cell phone throw ethical behaviour overboard?

The airport caller particularly irked me – maybe it was his brashness and the furtive look around from time to time, seeking affirmation of an audience. His may be an extreme case. But I am daily bombarded by people in public places shouting into their cell phones. What is worse is when they speak in a language I don't understand. Perhaps this proves that I am a meddler – an indication that I am burning with curiosity about their private conversations. But if they do not have a loud and public conversation I would not be tempted to wonder what they are talking about. And sometimes I have no choice: I can’t get away. I am forced to listen.

Did a change in technology bring about a change in ethics as well? Are people perhaps acting in ignorance – new technology was foisted on them without giving them the opportunity to learn how to use it responsibly?

Or should good old-fashioned manners be enough to dictate how to use a new piece of technology?

Am I just getting old and grumpy … ?
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