Module 2 - We need to protect our eyes from computer screens

          Richard Byrne writes on his blog Free Technology for Teachers about how to protect your eyes from computer screens. It's an interesting article from The Atlantic where the online paper describes through a picture and graph the correct position we need to take when protecting our eyes from the computer screen and other screens.

          The effects of spending too much time in front of a screen can be rather painful in long term but with short discomfort in short term. When spending too much time in front of a screen, blurred vision, shoulder and neck pain and dry eyes are just some of the effects encountered. According to a study from the American Academy of Optometry spending as much as 2 hours in front of a laptop caused serious increase in vision and eye pain.

What can you do to reduce the effects:
1. The first thing you should do  is to clean your screen to make sure it's not glaring in your eyes. Also reading on grey surfaces is better than white bright surfaces.
2. You should be able to "high five" your screen, which means that your arms must be at that kind of distance from the monitor, if they are not, it means you are too close. The screen should also be positioned below eye level.
3. You have to remember to blink. Getting to focused might make you forget.
4. Get a 20 second break every 20 minutes to check the surroundings.
5. You should think of buying a special pair of glasses for computer use only.

          Teachnology can tire us rapidly, even destroy us if we do not take good care of ourselves and of our childre. It is always a good reminder to know about this and share it in your class before teaching a device with a screen.

Module 1 - How to creatively use iPads in the classroom

          A very creative tablet the iPad, has great apps when it comes to using the device as a classroom technology tool. It has a great collection of apps and a lot of them can be used creatively and with purpose. I own an iPad and I love all Apple devices for their creative apps. You can do pretty much anything you set your mind to do with an iPad, but for classroom use, I believe that the iPad can be used very easily. Mike Amante's presentation of Creative Uses for iPad in the Classroom opens the eyes to a world of a multitude of apps.

          One of the iPad's very creative apps is called Scalability. This is a program that allows the teacher to work with students K-12 and it's very good for projects because it can import and export data easily. Google Search is one great app that allows the students to do research and web search, it finds anything from text to pictures and audio. Instapaper, another great app that gathers articles from the web. Box.net and Dropbox are two storage and sharing apps. They are great with storing pictures and docs because you can store a pretty large amount for free and Dropbox lets you invite friends for which they award you with 500 MB of extra space. So basically, every time you invite someone you get 500 MB added to your account. I use Dropbox to store and share pictures because they are easy to upload and you can add a lot of them compared to sharing them through email which only allows you to send around 12-16 MB of data at once, depending on email. GoodReader allows you to read, move, store files, edit (underline, add sticky notes, highlight, draw lines, draw/write over and so on). iCelsius, another great app, useful for science classes, that allows you to take live temperature and live graphs among other things. The Elements, great app for students to use for chemistry classes. Star Walk, now that's an awesome app that allows you to see the star system. It not only shows you the position of the stars but it also has the name of each star, constellation and planet, all you have to do is position your iPad with the camera up to the sky. I used this app for so many camping trips but I find it extremely useful for science classes. Colabra Cam, allows the student to make video projects and editing video. APPitic is a website that holds a collection of 1,800+  apps for education. It has a variety of apps tested in classrooms by teachers.

          Overall, the iPad constitutes a multitude of apps and as a teacher if you decide to use it and add a great deal of this educational apps while teaching, students will learn not just how to use technology, but also how technology is a good tool in their learning. Nothing is more rewarding than discovering how your students grow in imagination, creativity and learning through the methods you use. As a future teacher I find the use of the iPad and these amazing apps a fresh breath of air in the way we approach teaching and our students. It's time we take a step towards the future and realize that the iPad is not just a device, it is a creative object for every teacher's tool box.