Technology in the Real World!

I have spent most of this week in the courtroom...on jury duty for an armed robbery case. Talk about stressful! I'd rather be in my classroom with my 110 middleschoolers any day.

However, the experience gave me one more reason to appreciate technology. The district attorney used the LCD projector to show us some pictures of evidence. Very good for those of us who needed to visually see these items. Then, in his closing arguments, he used the projector with power point slides outlining the various elements we were to consider during deliberation. Very effective! We were hearing what he said, reading it, and viewing the outlined elements...really helped me understand what I was to consider.

Of course, I was amazed to see the judge with his laptop open the entire time (we jurors wondered if he was playing Solitaire!)...the clerk of court used her computer to document throughout the proceedings, and the DA used his laptop the entire time.

Now, I will go back to my middleschoolers and discuss with them another way in which I have experienced tech in the real world, whether it is using a computer to fill out an application at Target, to using tech to check out someone at a local restaurant, to documenting a doctor's order at the hospital....tech is really out there in the real world!