More and more I find myself browsing the net using Safari. I used to loathe Safari, and on Windows I still do, but it’s starting to grow on me a bit on the MacBook. On several Windows systems I found it to be much slower than Firefox, despite Apple’s claims. In fact, Opera and Firefox were faster at launching and loading websites. The only major browser it did beat in my experiences was the horror that is known as IE7. It does run faster than Firefox on the MacBook. The things I hated about Safari before still exist; the lack of an address drop-down until you type, the lack of extension support, etc. I still use Firefox for 99% of my web browsing, but I am slowly moving to Safari for more and more casual browsing (I’m writing this in Safari now). If I am doing web work or more heavy-duty browsing, Firefox is still my number one choice, and probably will be until Apple decides to add extension support. There are a few I can’t live without.
Tag Archive for: Technology
I’m really fed up with Charter Communications. I’ve heard the horror stories of Comcast and even my experiences with Mediacom haven’t been that great, but Charter really gets under my skin. The past few days my 5mbit internet connection has been going really really slow. Painfully slow. I’ve run several speed tests on several different computers (a Windows Vista box, an Ubuntu box and my MacBook) and each time the speed registers at less than 1mbit. So, I’m paying over $40 per month for service that is only delivering less than 20% of what I’m supposed to be receiving? (Not to mention the fact that I’ve never gotten my whole 5mbit connection and most times it’s as if i pay for 5mbit but they only deliver 3). That doesn’t sound to fair to me. I’ve checked all the cable connections in the house to see if there might be a loose cable somewhere and haven’t found anything. So what do I do? If it doesn’t clear up on it’s own over the next couple days I will have to call and deal with an hour of a recorded voice telling me to power-cycle my modem, restart my computer, disconnect my router, stuff I’ve already done, then I’ll have to deal with the technician who will have me do the exact same things the recorded voice told me to do before they finally accept that it’s their problem and schedule an appointment to come look at it. Of course, I won’t be expecting to see an actual technician for at least 3 weeks after I set up the appointment, because that’s how Charter operates. It’s no surprise they’ve gotten a failing grade and thousands of complaints from the Better Business Bureau. So, you may be asking, why don’t I switch? The answer is simple; the Sherman Anti-Trust Act apparently doesn’t protect my city from giving a monopoly to Charter. There are no other cable companies or internet service providers (unless I want dial-up). The only high-speed net access is through Charter. I can’t wait for the day that AT&T comes into St. Peters and starts offering video and internet services. That will be a great day in the lives of many Charter Communications customers.
I don’t plan on starting any time soon. I won’t start until I can afford to start, which means once I get a full-time teaching position with a school. I’ve been thinking of what I want to get my degree in. Some of the possibilities would include Education, Reading, Administration, and History. I would really love to teach at the university level some day, so I’d have to get my Masters in History in order to even be a lecturer at most universities, then PhD to be a professor. PhD will cost a lot of money and take a long time, especially if I’m teaching while going to school. I don’t think that is a realistic possibility right now. If I ever want to be a principal, I would get it in Administration, but I’m not too sure if I’d ever want to do that. What I would really like to do is find a program for Educational Technology, or something along those lines. I would like to help develop curriculum that incorporates technology use in the classroom. It would be awesome to show other teachers how you can incorporate Google Earth, Smart Boards, Wikis, and all the other wonderful new things in technology into their current lesson plans. I really think with all the technology that the kids use these days, teachers are falling behind. Kids see and do things in totally different ways than they did 5 or 10 years ago. They learn differently, research differently, become engaged differently. It’s important that we adapt our methodology to support the students. If anyone knows a university that offers something like this, I’d be very interested in knowing about it.
I was browsing this HNN.us page and saw my history blog listed (though, my last name is spelled wrong) and found quite a few really interesting blogs that I have since subscribed to. One of my favorites to read is A History Teacher. Two recent posts I thought were excellent. I hope one day I will be able to incorporate the technology that this history teacher uses in my classroom. I think much can be done using the web to further students’ understanding of not just technology, but also social studies. Who says the computer lab is just for English class?
This reminds me of a professor I had in college who would not let us use the internet for resources in writing our term papers. He concluded that the internet was full of false information, which to some extent, it can be, but this teacher shows how it is truly a valuable tool to be embraced, not shunned. I can’t wait to see what kind of activities I can come up with when I get into a classroom. There is so much out there that will help students learn in unique and creative ways.