Week Two: Difference between Macs and PCs

This week we learned about some of the major differences between Macs and PCs. The major difference is that Macs are supposed to be more user friendly, which is why many schools across the United States have come to use Macs in the classroom. The design of Macs are different too. The screen and the computer are combined in Macs which saves space. They differ in even the littles details such as the on and off button which can be on the front or the back. Macs have something called a dock which is like the Windows start menu. This is where all the shortcuts and aliases are located. Even closing, minimizing or maximizing something is different because the buttons are color coded, red being to close a window, green to maximize and yellow to minimize. In Windows, you have to click on the safely remove hardware button at the bottom right of the screen when you are taking out a disc or pen drive, but on Macs you drag the item to the "trash" icon where you can then remove the item from the computer. The keyboard and mouse are different as well. Macs have more compressed keys and extra keys on them, and the mice have only one click and the scroller is smaller.

We also watched a video clip about kids growing up online. It talked about how growing up with some many technological tools hasn't always been a good thing. Kids get addicted to computers and spend hours at a time chatting with friends or playing games instead of socializing in person. The article that went along with the video also mentioned cyber bullying which has become a major problem. It has led to some kids being scared of going to school or even comitting suicide.

It is important for me to learn about the differences between a Mac and a PC because Macs are becoming more popular in the classroom and I will need to know how to use if I want to take advantage of the resources that I have to help me teach. It's also important to understand that since our generation has grown up online, we are used to accessing information quickly and many kids no longer have the patience to sit in a classroom and listen to a teacher talk with a blackboard in front of them. Cyber bullying is another issue that is important to know about, because it has an impact on many kids and could be an issue with one of my future students.

I chose this article because it discusses the disadvantages to our generation growing up online. While improvemnets in technology have increased the speed with which we can access information, it is not always a good thing. We are never cut off from our friends whether we are on the computer at our own house or texting them while on vacation and kids are being exposed to too much information too fast.

Growing up too fast

I chose this video because I thought it was really helpful in explaining how to use the dock and certain other features on the Mac that are different than the ones on PCs.

How to navigate the Mac desktop