Teaching With Technology

April 18th, 2012 12:33 am

Why is teaching still a challenge? Children are still children, with all the challenges of yesteryear – discipline, attentiveness, self-esteem, peer and parent pressure, and homework. Another significant challenge is that students today reside in a big global village, with big global problems.

In this new world, information arrives at lightning speed from all corners of the earth. This high-speed digital highway influences most aspects of their society. Financial services, health care, the military, government services, and transportation are a few examples of where high-speed data collection, storage, and processing have forever changed the way we do business.

Preparing students to be citizens in this high-speed world is a significant undertaking. As a first step, educators must start teaching with the technology tools their students will use as future leaders and problem solvers.

To implement technology in classrooms, schools must prepare front-line teachers. 6 Steps to Success in Teaching with Technology helps teachers learn about, adapt to, and embrace technology.

Step 1: Understand Why Before an educator can begin to incorporate technology effectively into her classroom, she must be a believer. Step 1 outlines the benefits of incorporating technology into teaching.

Step 2: Adapt Two adaptations must occur for success in teaching with technology. Teachers must adapt to technology, and technology must be adapted to teachers.

Step 3: Plan Having a good plan is a key to success. Step 3 prepares teachers for the Teaching with Technology world by reviewing important planning questions.

Step 4: Do Your Homework Before spending money, teachers need to understand technology options. Step 4 overviews the most popular hardware and software used in today’s classrooms.

Step 5: Implement Effectively Having the latest tools in your classroom may look impressive, but you must be able to use them to deliver quality lessons. Step 5 explains how to do this.

Step 6: Keep Up to Date Technology changes daily. Managing this moving target is a challenge for busy teachers. Step 6 shows teachers how to stay on top of the latest changes in educational technology.

6 Steps also includes helpful tips from my own classroom experiences, and a glossary of teaching with technology terms to help you begin this new and exciting process. Let’s face it-our world is changing. It’s time to learn, adapt, and embrace teaching with technology!

Understanding SEO For Your Business

April 14th, 2012 3:39 am

Businesses who rely on SEO criteria as the foundation from which to build their advertising and promotion campaigns may find a disconnect between their business presentation and SEO experts who expound profusely on the value of following SEO formats and tools without exception. As with most other business tools, SEO does not necessarily suit all businesses.

SEO is a form of communication. All too often, the disconnect in SEO is directly related to unclear communication as presented, as well as misinterpretation by the reader. SEO, as a tool, should enhance communication relating to presenting business information and refine advertising style.

When SEO constricts business identity, it may become a weak link in the foundation of promoting services and products. Affect a balanced blend of SEO and common sense business practice for best results. Online advertising should be proactively arranged in a manner that creates consumer “need” before “want”. Once consumer need is established, what follows is congruent business name recognition.

Key word usage can be a tool to enhance business image, thereby advancing recognition. Think creatively when choosing key words. But, also think objectively about how SEO efforts are viewed by others. If key words don’t allude to business name and image in promoting products or services, communication is unclear and bound for the vast wilderness of cyberspace.

In addition, keep in mind that key words are a connection to search engine ranking. Determine in advance how important ranking truly is to the overall SEO efforts. If the product or service is unique, it will be found quickly and easily. If it falls into a categorical offering with huge competition, ranking becomes a more significant issue.

Within the boundaries of SEO efforts, common sense planning and effective business promotion will result in compatibility with SEO as a helpful business aid. SEO should never inhibit individual style. Rather, it should promote it to maximum benefit.