Resources...to ICT or not to ICT...

Resources, resources, resources...endless, limitless, infinite resources. How nany resources can a teacher have and can a teacher have too many resources?

The thing I admit to struggling with the most are most definitely resources. The first question is Which one? Then How many? Then In what order....the list never ends. But the biggie is for sure...How many ICT resources do I use?

ICT resources can be split into two categries...one being the resources we get from the Internet, the other being the ICT resources we produce or use with the students.

I like to browse the net for ideas on what I can do with the children as an activity but I seem to spend to much time on actually looking and browsing than actually planning. This is a problem with the WWW. It can give us too much to look on and when one idea is better than the next!

Teachers spend a lot of time planning as well as assessing and marking and all the lovely time spent outside of the classroom. It`s not to say that tine is a waste of time, on the contrary we need that time to know what were doing inside the classroom but people often forget what work we drag home and God help the spouse and children of the teacher!

I think we should search for a limited amount of time and spend more time on the content of the lesson. We should also be able to define what we are looking for in the first place. Teachers look for resources to save time then spend hours googling the topic itself! We need to look for specific tags on Google rather than trawl through thousands of pages.

ICT is a necessity in the classroom in this day of age where technology is the source of our lifestyles. So how much needs to be used in the classroom???

We have a wide range of Smartboards, projectors, laptops, media and internet access in schools today yet some teachers never seem to be able to use them or don`t want to use them. The answer to this lies in the teacher. Some go with the old school manner, which is not to use ICT too much probably stemming from the lack of knowledge and ability to handle it themselves.

Other overuse ICT (if thats possible!) and do every songle thing on technology.

Personally I try to take a mix of old school, good old pen and paper, and ICT resources. I would like to use ICT more than I do at present but with all the paperwork needed I cant spend my entire life planning when not in the classroom!

So how do I achieve ICT based lessons in short and simple planning sessions?

Ive yet to find the answer myself so if you know, let me know!