My Access

My Access is a program Dr. Luongo introduced us to in the computer lab last week and I must say, I enjoyed using it. I believe it is a wonderful tool that can be used in the classroom to help students with their writing skills. Teachers can use it to keep track of their classes and students' work, while seeing their overall progress in writing, as well as where they need assistance. I feel this program can do wonders for children who do not particularly enjoy writing. They can use a computer to organize their thoughts and not worry about how neat or presentable their handwriting is. If they are not good spellers, or are having trouble getting started on a prompt, My Access provides them with spell check and suggestions to help them get their ideas rolling. This program also saves paper if the work is not printed out and instead just monitored by the teacher. Overall, I feel it is very useful for schools to have and available for students to use. The question I have is what grade level to start children on this program and how often to have them use it so that they do not become dependant on it whenever they have to write something. I commented on Michelle's blog regarding technology to which I said the following:

"I have to agree with you that technology should be used in the classroom. To what extent is the question I find myself asking. I believe it is something important to have students introduced to and know how to use because of its wide presence in our world today. But, I do not feel it should be the primary source of instruction in the classroom because students should know how to think for themselves and do things on their own, without relying solely on a computer. With that being said, I do hope that we, as teachers, will be able to use technology through some form in our classrooms because it can be a wonderful tool to work with. Since there is so much to offer educationally, I feel students should be introduced to both the new and old ways of instruction to better help them learn, technology being one of them."

So, I feel My Access should be used in the classroom, but strictly as just another source of writing for children. I feel they should primarily know how to write with a pen and paper and organize their thoughts by themselves from a very early age. Once they have the basics of writing mastered, this program can be a tool to help them learn where they need improvement and point out their mistakes, while giving them a chance to correct them.