I started using a computer at work in 1996. Our district was very small, but we had a great computer teacher. I learned about the internet and how to use email at the time. Our teacher even set up a great website for our district. Eventually our district purchased a grade program which made me really happy, because adding up grades with a calculator got very old.

My husband and I bought a computer for our home in 1998. It was a Gateway and to be honest, I don't know a whole lot about memory, speed, etc. I tend to shy away from the "whys and hows" of a computer and its "brains." I am happy when the thing works! And if I have trouble, I am not afraid to ask my friend and co-worker, who is a total computer genius! :-) Anyway, we now have a Dell laptop at home which has been a lot of fun. Thanks to my friend, I have learned how to store my digital photos on my computer and organize them into albums. I am an avid scrapbooker, so this has been a fun step for me. I hav also learned how to save my pictures on a CD in case my computer crashes! We also have a printer at home that is an HP Photosmart 8150. I can take my digital camera memory card, place it in my printer and print pictures at home. I don't do it a lot, as the cost of ink can be spendy. Costco will develop pictures much cheaper!

As for a scanner.....I haven't used this yet. We have one at school, but I have not learned how to use it. This is something I need to do. As I mentioned before, I love to scrapbook and I have a lot of old family pictures that I need to make copies of. Using a scanner would be great for this project.

Other things I want to learn about my home computer: how to use the Movie Maker program, and how to load video from my video camera to my computer/burn video to a DVD. My computer genius friend has promised to show me how to do this.....now it is just a matter of finding the time. TIME seems to always be my major obstacle!

In the past year I have also learned how to save my work projects to a jump drive and then use it at home. That has been really nice for my husband, who is taking Administrative classes. He can work on projects at home, save his work on this little jump drive and then take it to work or class as he needs it.

I started using a computer when in college mostly as a word processor. After college, I used the computer to create rules sheets, handouts, quizzes, and lesson plans. My home computer is a SONY VAIO Intel Pentium 4CPU 1.70 GHz processor with 256 MB of RAM and high speed internet connection. Today I use the computer to communicate with parents and colleagues, take courses, create handouts, power points, lessons, display homework/assignments for my health classes, record students grades, surf the net for information, and access the High School network from home. I would like to be able to create a webpage for my classes. The only thing preventing me from doing this is my lack of knowledge on how to set it up.

I would also like to setup a web page for my classes. Unfortunately, I need to get clearance from our district technology department, principal and administration for the go ahead. it is not difficult to do a web page -lots of tutorials available.

I first started using computers when I was in college. In about 1987, I used a word processor to complete my assignments. My first year of teaching PE in 1990, I used computers to run Fitnessgram fitness reports for the students. That same year, I used computers for basic record keeping and making forms.

Currently, I use a Mac iBook at school that runs OS10. It is equipment with an airport card, so I use it wireless both at school and at home. I don't know the exact specs, but it has adequate speed at memory for my applications. At home, I use a Windows machine that runs XP. Between home and school, I have access to a scanner, laser printer, color laser printer, external hard drive, flash drive, and digital camera.

For school, I use my computer for communicating, web searches, record keeping, fitnesss reports, and grading. At home, I use my computer for web browsing, finances, communicating, family photos and running an ebay business.

I am very pleased with what I am able to do at home and work with computers. One downside is that my laptop doesn't always pick-up a wirless signal when I am in the gym, which would make it easier for me to directly input grades. One way to solve this problem would be to check with the maintenance and technology departments to see if anything could be done such as adding a drop or moving the base station closer to my room.

I got our first computer about 10 years ago (apple IIe). We got it for school use (wife and I are both teachers) and saw the value and ptetial for home use as well. At home I have an HP 3800 (roughly a 2.3 ghz), 1 gig of ram and 250 gig of hard drive space. I have an HP photosmart printer (inkjet), a HP scanner, an HP iPAQ (use for coaching and Dept. head duties), and an iPOD. Home use is for entertainment as far as with downloading music for my iPOD, editting pictures taken from our digital camera (still and video) and the kids play some games on it. I also use the computer for work purposes when at home for creating handouts, research for lessons and grading. My computer at school is a iBOOK. I use that for lessons, scheduling, email and grading.

I would like to be able to download more media for school from my home computer. I am in a very rural setting and can only get dial up internet access. The cost for a dish would not be cost effective. I use my iPOD for piping music into the field houose for class time. I need faster download speed (it takes 20 min. to download 1 song at this time. School computing would be better served if I could do more media edittting with my computer.

To get better speed at home I am looking at wireless and sharing the cost with my nieghbor who would piggyback off of my connection and share the connection cost.

At school short of purposely dropping my laptop from the top feild house bleacher, I will have to take a number of inservice classes to qualify for a new computer and then I am still at the mercy of the district as far what is loaded and installed on the computer.

Ahhh...the good old Apple IIe. That brings back memories! You've certainly upgraded your home computer.

I'm a die-hard Apple fan and our house has five different iPod's. (Including the original, 5GB model.) I don't know what I'd do without my iPod!

While I have a fast Internet connection now, I certainly feel your pain about having a slow connection. It is well worth the money, however much it takes, for you to get a faster connection.

Good luck!

Once again I am a firm believer of utilizing Mac computers! At work we use Hewlett Packard which I really do not like because I love my MAC! I currently have most of the lastest gadgets and have designed one of my bedrooms in my house into a a MAC Lab! My first lab top was a Mac G4 but a month ago I purchased the Mac Book Pro! It has 2.16 GHz INtel Core Duo, 2 GB of memory which I upgraded from 1 GB, a 120 GB Serial Drive @ 5400 RPM, 17 inch display window, and a built in Airport Extreme Card and Bluetooth! As far as my printer, it has set up in a wireless mode, and it has everything that I need! It's a fax machine, scanner, copier, and can print out photos from my computer or digital camera. What I would like to do next with my computer is learn to transfer videos from a video camera and enter them into my imovie program so I can enhance my slideshows!
Professionally I would like to create a slideshow with pictures and videos of the things we execute in our physical education classes and have it posted on our local tv station.

That sounds like a great idea to take pics and then create a slideshow. I would use that during Parent conferences to show parents what we do during PE.

I only started using a cmoputer a few years ago. I am not the most familiar with computers, so it has been a constant learning environment for me. Right now we have a HP Pavilion that has 512 MG, a printer and scanner.

I use the computer to do research if necessary and want to try to use it for my grades down the line. I also use it as a word processor for anything I need to get to the students. At school the PE teacher doesnt have a computer and only can use the computer lab, which is taken up most of the day.

As I had stated in an earlier post I am thinking of trying to obtain a wireless lap top computer.

My first computer was the apple 2E. I used it for all of my homework assignments and to play games once in a while. I am definetely not a computer expert. I just know the basics. I have an eMac in my office that I use daily. I use to work off of an iMac. Actually, I am having a hard time transferring my data from my iMac to my new eMac. Any suggestions? Anyways, we share a community printer in the work room. My computer has 1.25 Ghz and 256 MB. My computer is enough for what I need to accomplish as a PE teacher. I would like to learn how to use certain programs better. For example, excel, work, office, etc..... I use these programs every year and my will to excel is increasing. Practice makes perfect!

Keith,
I too am a member of the "non computer expert club" but am learning as you are. For this course I learned a lot about varies Microsoft program from websites on the internet. Also, I bought a copy of that well-known classic: Office 2003 for Dummies! This was my first purchase of a "Dummies" book; it was worth it... give it a try.
Fred

My first computer was a dell and I too had a difficult time learning to use a computer. Computers didn't exist in my teaching career till I was 20 years into teaching. Teaching an old dog new tricks is sometimes difficult. I am also learning how to use excel, work and office-some of it through this course. Good luck in your learning.

My first computer purchased for home use was an Apple II GS and printer - "your basic stoneage computer!" The main purpose included word processing (graduate school work) and compiling basketball statistics. Frankly, I have no idea as to its speed, memory, etc.; it was slow but still useful. I have since graduated to a Dell with 512 MB of RAM and a processor with 1.80 GHz. The Lexmark printer/scanner X3350 has proven durable and effective as I use my desktop "24/7." At home I use the word processor a great deal, download information from the internet for use at school and with my basketball program, and e-mail players, parents, and fellow professionals.

Our school system has had computers for many years. The first usage involved downloading grades for report cards and permanent records. Since these early years, we have become more sophisticated in using technology. We have websites, parental e-mailing, school-wide and system-wide e-mailing, and any other service possible.

Having a mobile computer cart (with 20 laptops) available at school has proven to be the most valuable addition to our technology base. Our students have access to the internet in our Physical Education classrooms as opposed to moving to a computer classroom or the media center.

Having a Palm with supporting Physical Education software for each of my physical educators is my biggest dream and project. This is a costly venture but worthwhile. I had thought about purchasing one for myself, but the expense is too great. I am currently looking at grants within and outside the school as well as sponsor/sponsors in the community.

I started using computers about five years ago. You were kind of forced into it. Everyone was going to computers, so you had to learn to use them. I started with a dell desktop with an Intel Pentium Processor with 256MB of RAM. I am on a high speed internet connection.
My home computer is used mainly for e-mails and using the internet. Our school computer is used for inter-office e-mails and communicating with other schools softball coaches for games and time changes. I also do all grades on the computer at school.
I would like to use a hand held for softball games (scorebook), then come home and download the information into my desktop and print out all the statistics. At this time I have to put the information in by hand from the scorebook. The school cannot afford the handheld and software to do this...money is tight!

I started using computers at home about 7 years ago. At work, about the same time.I have the Dell system at both home and work. The home PC has been rebuilt for more capability of storage adding on to the memory. The Ram is only 256MB. I have a scanner and a printer. My new lap top has the max of everything. 2G Ram, 120GB Hard Drive with DualCore from Intel. Both computers run off Microsoft XP. The laptop has the new Windows Vista Capabilites. It also has blue tooth capabilites and has a direct media component. My work computers are used mostly for attendance and school/coaching related programs.(word, spreadsheet, emailing. The home computers are used mostly for my kids research for school. Internet pleasure, shopping,itunes,research... I also love the video editing along with photo editing and cd burning of data and music. Have the updated version on my lap top has allowed me to do almost anything I am interested in doing with a computer.

I began to use computers at my home around 1993.I purchased an Apple computer for my children to use for education and game purposes.After upgrading twice and buying 4 computers for my children, I currently have a Dell with printer and internet capability. The computer is used for courses, online work -email, purchasing, banking,games and photos. I have extremely knowledgable children at home and in college who have dragged me along intothe computer age.
I started using computers in school in 1997 when the school district placed all grading on the computer and all communications. There is a computer tech in each of our schools and they are available to help with any problems.My school computer is for grading , communications,photo, email, information(united streaming) and storing curriculum. I am hoping to get a handheld computer to make my life easier in assessing and grading.

Anita:
Where do you teach? Isn't it amazing how our kids know more about technology than we do. It is such a foreign language to us, but one our children have picked up and use fluently. We really need to adapt the way we teach and communicate in the future. If we don't, we are going to lose the next generation. I am not so sure it is imperative in the PE classroom, but in the academic areas I already see how the students are less engaged in the traditional setting. It is not paced quick enough or as vsiually stimulating. As I have said in the past, we need to teach with more bells and whistles to reach today's youth.
Mary

Mary- I agree with your response. The students of today are use to technology stimulation. In order to engage them in learning we need to make our lessons exciting for them. My issue though is where do we find the time and resources to support our efforts. Schools systems must step up the funding for technology based resources, equipment and teacher training. Our students are worth it!

In our district, a computer is given to each teacher for school use. We have Apple Powerbooks. We can take them home to do school work like lesson plans, unit plans, or grades. Parents are able to email us reguarding homework, behaviors etc. We have online grades and each teacher must input their own grades each trimester. Each department also has a laser printer. The school has a scanner in the library for staff use, too.

Okay, this question required me to search my computer to find out the details I should know about my computer, especially if I buy a program or game where I need to know how much RAM my computer has.
We currently have a Dell Pentium (R) 4 CPU, 2.00GHz, 1.99GHz, 512 MB of RAM. We use Microsoft Win XP Prof Version 2002 Service Pack 2. It meets my needs for word processing and e-mailing, surfing the net, etc. However, it only has Word Pad and I would like to have Microsoft Word capability so that it is more compatable with what I use at school. Right now if I do work at home, it has to be reformatted at work, and vice versa. We also have a Lexmark X63 printer with fax capabilities. It comes in handy occassionaly.
I first used computers in 1986-87 for a statistics class in college. It was a foreign language to me.
I started using computers on a regular basis in 1989-90 when I got my first teaching position. I sat in on a word processing class during my prep time at the high school I was teaching at so that I could learn how to use one for my graduate studies.
When I moved to WI in 1992, computers were starting to be used more and more. Over the years, computers have become more prevalent in all classrooms and teachers offices. Every classroom in our school has at least one computer for teacher use and hook up for two student stations. However, two computers do not exist in every classroom because we can not afford them. We have several computer labs that classes and individual/groups of students can have access to. However, it is tough getting time in the labs with so many classes competing for their use.
I currently would like to learn how to upload digital pictures onto our computer to send pictures of my kids to the rest of our family. Everyone else lives on the east coast and it would be nice for them to get glimpses of the boys growing up. I have all of the necessary equipment to do it, but I am not a technical reader and would love to find someone to show me how to do it. I am obviously a visual and kinesthetic learner.

I remember using a word processor in college. Now I'm giving my age away:)
I believe I started using computers around 1994, when my husband and I purchased a 486Dx off brand computer. I think it had large and small floppy disk drives with about 256 megabytes of ram. We used it for computer games and typing in word mostly. This computer got me through graduate school.
In 2000, we purchased a computer with the new pentium 1 processor. This computer was 66MHz and had 256 megabytes of ram. We later added a zip drive and increased the rams to 512 megabytes. We used this computer for games, microsoft word, investment club records, and internet access with AOL dialup.
My school at this time was using mac apple desktop computers. I used these computers for emails and lesson plans mostly. The good thing, I was forced to learn both operating systems. The more I worked with apples the more I began to like them. I started having compatability issues.
In 2002, I purchased my imac 800 powerPC G4 with 17'' screen. It has 80 GB of hard drive and 512 ram. A super drive with cd/dvd capabilities. I now have DSL internet and a backup external hard drive. I use the Tiger OSX operating system. The possibilities on this machine are endless! I love to use it for photos, music, email, internet, ichat with family, word,ppt, organizing lessons, and finances. I would love to learn more about the imovies and make family dvds. I could also use this in my teaching. I bought an imovie manual from the book store and hope it will help me get started. Purchasing a new camcorder may also help this project.
I have an HP 750 all in one printer,scanner, copier that works pretty well with the mac. I use an Olympus camedia digital 5mp camera and purchased an ipod mini in 2005.
Unfortunately, my school system decided in 2003 to go back to desk top PC's. We now do all are grading on the computer, along with outlook email,internet access and will be using fitnessgram 8.2. I use a 1GB USB drive to transport files from here to there. The computers at my school are no match for imacG4. I have compatability problems with the grading software used at school. I am researching the new power book laptop from Mac that boost both mac and PC operating systems. If only I had the money!!! This may be the answer to my compatability problems.

I am interested in knowing more about Fitnessgram 8.2. Is it a program that can be used on the computer? If it is software—how do you input your students’ names? Do you have to enter in their names or can you cut and paste them in?

Fitnessgram 8.2 is on the computer and is extremely handy in keeping track of all your students scores. You do have to enter all the names in the database by hand, but when you are done doing that you can save the names for the next year. You will have to put them in your own classes but there is a way you don't have to retype all their names, just the new students at the school. Good Luck!

I started using my computer at work this year. The entire staff received brand new computers and printers this year. The computer at work is a PC it’s a HP Compaq dc5100. It has a Pentium 4 processor. I think it has 256 MB, but I am not sure if the school added more memory or not. The hard disk speed is 7200 rpm. Each teacher has their own printer. We do not have administrative rights to our computer so we are not allowed to add any software to our computer. This is very frustrating because each teacher has their own grading program, but because we do not have admin. rights we can not install our own grading programs. At work I use my computer for work. I send emails out, I type up lesson plans, and I use the internet. I would like to be able to download software (ex. Grading programs). I don’t think there are any creative ways to overcome this obstacle—if anyone knows how I can over ride the administrative rights to a computer, please send me an email.

How do you guys swing each teacher having their own printer? We have three in our entire buidling of 82 teachers and 19 additional staff members. It is such a pain to walk half way across the building every time I print something. Is yours a wealthy school district or did you do something special to swing that sweet deal?

My school and home computers are similar, each providing what I need for work and personal needs. The computers are Dell, Pentium 4 with the Microsoft Windows XP opperating system. We have laser printers, speakers and as of this year data projectors, which greatly enable me to use technology in the classroom.
The biggest obstacle is time. It is often difficult to find the time to incorporate technology with all of the other educational requirements from the state and our local district. My goal is to combine some of these requiremnts outside of technology use, into use with technology.

Mark,
I agree with you that the biggest obstacle is time. I am constantly trying to improve my teacher effectiveness. I have seen from this course that there are numerous software available to help with organizational and managerial duties. Like you, I am going to try to add technology into my lessons to improve my teaching effectiveness and increase student performance.

I started using computers when I was in 7th grade. I was in the computer club where we were learning the Basic computer language. (I was a geek...I know.) I got my first computer at home when I was in college.

At home I have an iMac desktop computer that has a 80GB hard drive, 1.25 GHz PowerPC chip, and 512 MB Ram. I love it, but am ready to upgrade to the new model. In addition to that, I have a Powerbook laptop with a 60 GB hard drive, 1.5 GHz PowerPC chip, and 512 MB Ram.

At work I have a Dell computer that has an 80 GB hard drive, 1 GHz chip, and 512 MB Ram. It does pretty well, but is very old.

I have most of the peripherals that you could need at home. For anything else, I can check them out (temporarily) from the school library.

I use both my home and work computers for mostly the same things. E-mail, creating documents and spreadsheets, addresses, and using the Internet. I also use my home computer to create movies and DVD's.

I would like to have the capability to create movies as easily as I can at home while I'm at school. I would need an Apple computer in order to do this, and that's just not going to happen in my school.

The only thing that I can think of is convincing my tech people to let me take my laptop to school and hook it up to the network. They're not too keen on this because of their concern for viruses. I can understand and respect that.

I was a stay at home mom for about 10 years. I started using a computer at home and actually took a course through the place we bought our computer from. Through the years I have asked A LOT of questions to my younger colleagues who are more computer savvy than myself. I am lucky that I have a computer at home and at work. At both places, I have use of a color printer, scanner and the use of PowerPoint. We also have the use of the web but at school it is quite restricted. I am a health teacher so there are times when I have to work at home since I am blocked from opening a particular website. At work, we have a shared drive so we can access our files from any computer which is really nice.
In a idealistic world, I would love to see my students with laptops. It is difficult at times for us to get into the computer lab since the whole school is sharing two labs. (950 students)
Once again money would be a factor in making this a reality. We have some students that definitely could not afford to buy their own laptop. I am big on writing grants, so I guess if it is ever to be a reality, this is the way I would go.

I remember having an Apple 2e and an Atari 2600 growing up. I used the computer for typing papers for school and we had that incredibly annoying paper that you had to tear the sides off of. The internet became a part of everyday life when I went to college,set up an email account, and had to use it for everything at school. My current computer is a Gateway GT5405. I had extra memory put in it so it is very fast. I have one of those HP all in one photosmart pictures. Yet, since I have bought a digital camera, I rarely print out the pictures. I do use the scanner and copier often. I would like to set up a website for my sports teams that I coach but time is really and issue and the woman in charge of our school website has to transfer everything on the site and again it takes time. I could pay for my own website or get a students manager to handle it for me. That could work.

Gosh! I remember the printers back then that had the holes on the sides that you had to tear off! What a pain. I too would liek to develop a web page! hopefully this class will help me with that!

I first started using computers as a senior in high school, this is when the overtaking of computers had started. So I guess I was fortunate because I had an introduction to the computer, however, in college is when I really learned how to use the computer as I finally had purchased my own home computer. My present computer is a dell laptop with a celeron processor, where I believe the approximate memory is about 30 GB's and the system is Microsoft XP. My school computer is a desktop which were just recently upgraded to Microsoft XP and the speed was increased but I am not sure to what. At home, I have a printer and scanner, and at work I just have access to a printer. At work, I wish that I could install certain programs, however, this is not possible due to administrative restrictions and the only way to lift these is to have the technology dept. install them upon approval from my administrators, which quite frankly is a pain. So it is not worth it, so I just use my home computer for any advanced functions.

I got started using computers at home when I was in college. My first teaching job I had a computer and used it for writing test.

I have a computer at home that has 250 gb of memory. We have a scanner/printer/fax machine hooked up to it. At work we have a computer that has a PDA and printer hooked up to it.

I use my home computer to check email, surf the web, play games, and do work. My work computer I use to write test and study guides, grades, and surf the web for new teaching ideas. I also use my work computer for a fitness program that is attached to my PDA.

I would love to be able to network from my home computer to my work computer so I would be able to do my report cards at home. My district is preventing me from doing this because of security measures. I am able to use a flash disk for my report cards but not as fast.

I hope your district is on the move to Skyward. It is a program you can access from home to work on grades, attendance, assignments and report cards. It is wonderful!! Our students/parents can also access current grades on-line at anytime. Our school also prints off progress reports for students who are D and below half way through each quarter. We use to have to do this, and now it is all done via computer out of one office. It is an easy program to use.

I began using computers at work before I purchased my own. Our district supplied all of the classrooms one computer to begin with in the early 1990's. They were Apple computers. Then they expanded with supplying labs in each building and more in every classroom. Teachers were also given one to share/use in their offices.

I purchased my first one for home (IMac) in 1997. I have upgraded to a newer version of the IMac now. The specs are memory=256 MB SDRAM, Processor= 800 MHz PowerPC G4. As for my work computer, they completely eliminated the Apple computers and switched over to all PC (Dell) two years ago. Since they have done this, we have had more problems throughout the district.

At home, I have access to a printer, CD burner and digital camera. But at work I have access to almost any type of peripheral.

I primarily use my home computer for graduate work, papers and checking emails. At work I use it for email, lessons, correspondence, grading and some graduate work. I would like to be able to use my computer at home to imput grades. Our district doesn't allow us to connect to the server from home yet.

I believe we will have access in the near future.

I started using computers probably 12-13 years ago. I was first introduced to them at work, where I have been for 15 years. I was a bit cautious at first, but found it to be a great tool. During my first year of using the computer, I bought one for home use also. It made things a lot easier for me and our school district. We use Making the Grade which is great for doing grades instead of pulling out the old calculator. We have our fitness testing program on our computer as well. We use Fitness Gram.
My home computer is a dell dimension 4700. It has 2.8 GHz of memory plus 512 MB of RAM. I have an HP Photosmart printer that has a scanner, copier, and fax included. My work computer, which I just received a new one from the district is an HP 6710 laptop. Our school has a wireless connection so we don't need a hard connection for access to the internet or our email. It has 2 GB of memory plus memeory slots, 4 usb slots. I have access to our laser printer in our office plus access to the color laser printer in the art lab or library.
The primary purpose of my school computer is to keep student files, tests, and athletic information for our school. My home computer allows me to do my school work from home, plus I like working with my Adobe photoshop program.
What I would love to be able to do is convert my tapes from my video camera into DVDs. The only problem holding me back is my background knowledge. If I could figure this out, that would be great. I am hoping that our district will offer some classes for this problem in the near future. I have spoken with our tech person at school stating my wish, just hope that it comes true.

I remember getting started using computers in 6th grade. However, I have had computer access at work and home since 1998. I can't tell you much about my work computer other than it runs on a novell system and I cannot use the fitnessgram software that I finally convinced my principal to purchase because the software is not compatible with Novell, yeah However, my home computer 512 MB SDRAM, 3.2 GHZ Intel Pentium 4 processor, and 160 GB DMA hard drive. Of course, there is much I don't understand, like why neither my CD or DVD drives won't work. I have access to printers and scanners at both home and work.

I mostly use my computers for work purposes. I search online for information, pay bills, and play games, download music and print pictures. I also use the computer for communication. I can't sit on a phone all day, but I can check my e-mail during the 4 minute class change.

Truthfully, I don't know for what else I would use the computers.

I first started to use a computer when I was in high school,(1996). We used them mostly to type on but we did a little internet surfing for research. My computer at home is a Dell Dimension 5150. It is 2ghz speed, and has 512mb of memory. I have a hp photoprinter, a 5 in 1 printer including copier, fax, scanner, and pc fax. I also have a JVC Everio DVD burner attached to it so I can burn whats on my video camara to a dvd. I use my home computer to surf on the net and pay bills mostly, I would like to learn how to copy my video tapes to my dvd burner. Lack of knowledge is stopping me from doing that. I am trying to find someone to show me how at school. I tried to find out how by calling Dell, but they didn't help me to much.

My computer at school is a Dell Inspiron 510, it is a 1.8GhZ, and has 512 ram of memory. I use it mostly for grades and paperwork.

I took a typing class using computers in high school and took "intro to computers" my freshman year of college (1997). Now I could not live without it at both home and work. I use the computer at work mostly for e-mail, lesson plans (writing and searching), searching for new equipment purchases. At home I use e-mail, shopping :), banking, house searching!

My home pc is a Dell Inspiron 9300 notebook, Intel Pentium processor 1.86GHz, 1.00 GB of RAM. I only have a printer and wireless mouse. I only use my printer at home if I need to print something in color, otherwise I use our printer at school for graduate coursework that I might be handing in, as well as my own documents/handouts that I use in class.

I would like to use my pc to use moviemaker and learn how to use frontpage. The only thing that is keeping me from learning how to use these is TIME! Maybe once I complete all my course for salary advancement I can focus on these two goals.

I started working with computer about 10 years ago. As I am an older student, I still prefer to write. I use my computer only for checking my work email and doing my grades. I have a computer at my home but I do not use it.

I have recently (within the last 4 years) started using a Palm Pilot for attendance and grades. This is much easier than carrying out a notebook or a gradebook.

I would like to feel more comfortable on the computers. I am still somewhat afraid that I will push a button and erase everything or ruin the computer. My co-workers assure me this will not happen but I am still sceptical.

The only way to become more comfortable is to get more involved. The more involved you get, you realize how much easier life could be and your teachings become more interesting. It is like lighting a fire or a spark underneath you which is great feeling in your career to have.

I started using computers in college. At first I only had a word processor, but in a few years, we were all on computers and using the internet for projects, powerpoints, word, excel, etc. for classes. Once I graduated, the first district I worked for was just getting into using the computers for attendance, grades and assignments.

My work computer is an HP Compaq, it has windows XP, memory is 2.39 GHZ, 896 MB RAM. We are hooked to a network for everything.

My home computer is a Dell, 2006 with Intel pentium processor. It has 2.41 GHZ, and 918 MB RAM. We use high speed internet through cable.

At home I have access to the computer and programs on it. We do not have a printer or scanner set up with it. At school I do use a printer daily and have occasionally scanned.

I use my home computer mainly for personal use, surfing the internet and e-mail. I occasionally will work on school assingments or grades from home.

At school I use my computer for grading, attendance, assignments, internet, e-mail, budgeting, lesson plans and organizing/inventory.

I am looking forward to using my computer for cutting music and putting together end of the year video's for my sports teams. I just got a program that can do this. I am not afraid to try new things on the computer. I love to play around and find new functions in different programs.

I started using computers as far back as elementary school but only in a computer lab. Independently I started learning how to use a computer in college. I used a home built PC at the time with an Hp printer.

Currently at home I use a Dell 8250 Intel Pentium 4CPU 2.40 GHz, 2.39GHz, 256 MB of RAM computer with an Hp 940c DeskJet. I own and use a cannon digital camera which I use for both work and family. At work I use a Dell Latitude D600 with an Intel Pentium processor 1.60 GHz and 591 MHz, 512 MB of RAM laptop computer with a Cannon i90 portable printer. I also use a palm TX handheld for scheduling, contacts, etc. In addition, to those items I also use an Hp 3800 laser printer, and an Hp Scanner.
I would like to learn how to use a website to store my family pictures. I have tried it once before I got DSL and it took too much time. I am going to try it again very soon. Spending too much money on pictures for the grandparents. Now they can buy them online.

Benjamin,

Have you tried Shutterfly.com? My wife has thought about using it to post pictures that you can then invite people to get a membership and they can order whatever pictures they would like.

Do you use your handheld for grading & attendance? I have a Zire 73 with documents to go on it so I can enter data in Excel (where I have my grades) and don't have to spend hours at the computer entering data. I am wanting to upgrade possibly to a smartphone.

Ben,
Cable is the way to go, so much faster. That was my biggest complaint when I first started using computers at our school. Now they have T1 lines and are perfectly fast for sending or receiving data.
Your computers sound great and I know you just love that laptop and its portability. Did you mention what type of camera you had, I need to by one for the family.

I have been using computers to support my educational needs since getting my Masters in Informational Technology. But that was 8 years ago and seems like what I had learned is almost useless compared to what is offered now. I have access to a computer and a printer at home and at school. At home I also have a digital camera, video camera and a scanner. I use the computer mostly for curriculum goals-like task cards, lesson plans and handouts. My district also has e-boards available for every teacher to facilitate communication with parents. One of the main obstacles I have is that my computer is a PC and the school's is a Mac. Each with their pros, but mostly a con because the PC is not compatible with the Mac. I am currently taking a professional development course on iMovies. I hope to become more involved with iTunes, and I hope to get an iPod because the radio I have in the gym will support an iPod. I currently have Appleworks for Windows downloaded on my computer so some of my work is easy, but iMovie and iPhoto are not compatible to my PC and it makes it hard to remember where all of what you need is. So, in the future, I will be purchasing a Mac as my new computer. But for now, I use my thumb drive religously to transfer my work.

I began using computers at home and school when I was going through undergrad school at Ohio State. I took classes that required computer use as well during the class periods. I began with a decent Acer computer with a floppy and CD drive. It probably had about 1.1 MB hard drive with a Pentium processor. I had a Cannon 485 color printer. Before getting the computer I utilized a Brother Word processor/ typewriter. My current computer is quiet a step up from the first one I owned and I use the computer daily at work to maintain grades, communicate through email, update my PE weblog and find lesson ideas. I would like to be able to develope a grading template/ database to use for tracking students as they move through their years at my school. It would make getting their information (i.e. fitness testing results) quick and easy. I have some computer knowledge and background, but I would need to spend some intense time learning the ins and outs of current programs to see which might be a possible tool to use to create this. I hope to find some software that might be available through this course.

I began using computers in college when I took a computer programing class. Those were the days when we used punch cards and had to wait 24 hours for our programs to be run by the computer, then you would get a printout back, hopefully with the program having done its thing.
I began working on the internet in the early 90's. We were using Apple computers at work (school). I fell in love right away. Then my wife bought a PC for our home, she used PC's at her work. Now I am bysystemed, using PC at home and Apple at school.
My Ibook laptop uses Mac osx version10.4.10 and has a 1.33ghz processer and has 512 Mb of memory. I love my laptop. I always take it on vacation with us because I can use it wirelessly.
Our home computer is a Dell demension 4700, its awesome, the engineers at my wife's job helped select, purchase and build it for her. It has an Intel 2992 MHz pentium 4 processor with 512 Mb memory, 17 inch flat screen monitor, we use an HP psc 750 Printer/Scanner that can act like a fax machine. We're hooked up to cable internet service at 100 Mbps. My old Air Force buddy from Texas sends me some crazy big videos, this computer handles 'em with ease.
I have a Logitech joystick because I fly a lot with Microsoft's Flight Simulator.
I am fairly satisfied with the capabilities of our home computer, I use it manly for the internet and e-mail.
At school, we all communicate by e-mail. I run a fitnessgram program for student assessment and Word for all my documents. The only other function that I think might be cool is some sort of additional assessment/record keeping program.

I saw that you use a Fitnessgram software. What grade do you use the prgram for and do you like the software? What do you do for students with disabilities?

I got an old HP in the early 90s for home and it was primarily for wordprocessing and data processing.
I have no idea or recollection what the specs were as I was not very computer savvy and probably ended up buying something that was beyond my capabilities at the time.
At school I have a DELL Dimension 4300 with Intel Pentium 4, 1.6GHz, 256 MB - alittle bit on the slow side at times as it cannot keep up with the speed of the school server.
Current uses are for entering attendance, grades and email communications along with some departmnet information postings on a school linked website.
We also use it for animation websites that discuss anatomy and physiology concepts.
Home use of my DELL 5300 is similar - email,websurfing, doing graduate work!, and communicating with the school.
We are fortunate that the school and community is generally supportive of initiatives and we usually find money to obtain software and upgrades from community grant education foundations.
We would like to expand access in the fitness center to computer technology so that students might have access for ides on strength training programs, and anantomy concepts along with possibly going paperless when recording workout programs and fitness data.

I became addicted to computers at a very young age. My grandparents actually purchased my first computer for me back in the 80's...oh my! My mom would require me to practice my typing skills every day before playing any computer games. Even though it was a chore at the time...I appreciate it now!!!
I've had a computer at home since then (I believe I have upgraded 4-5 times since the 80's!), and it wasn't until my first job (year 1999) that I began using a computer at work/school.
My home computer is a year old...Hewlett Packard, Media Center, Pentium 2.8 GHz, 2GB RAM. The peripherals I have at home include a 19" lcd monitor, an older HP deskjet printer, a 4-in-1 HP Photosmart printer/copier/scanner/fax machine, Lifecam Web Camera, and Logitech surround sound system.
My work computer is a Dell, Intel Pentium, 1.6 GHz. We are restricted from saving anything to the hard drive, so we save to our personal district server. It comes with a 17" lcd monitor and laser jet printer. I have access to a scanner (library), if needed.
I use my home computer for everything (games, email, internet, word processing, music, video, TV). My work computer is used for email, internet, word processing, and DVD capabilities. We are VERY restricted on what we can use our work computers for. The technology department has really limited our access to just about EVERYTHING "fun" on our work computers! :(
I am pretty satisfied with what I can do on my home and work computers (even though I complained about my work restrictions above!). At this point, I have no "obstacles" preventing me from doing what I want. Just managing my time between work, wife, email, internet, games, TV, eating, and sleeping....I really have no time to do anything else! I'm actually trying to pull myself away from the computer (email/internet) more and more every day. You really can't fathom how much time you "waste" surfing the net or scanning your emails throughout the day.