I suffer from CVS!!  For those of you not in the know, that's Computer Vision Syndrome.   I have been spending the vast amount of my hours at work staring at my stupid computer screen, checking in and out books, entering new material into the system, writing lesson plans, doing research for teachers.  I come home with red, tired, watery eyes.  I hate it.  It is one of only many reasons I am technology phobic.  Our school is trying to hail itself as the most technologically advanced school is Europe or Italy or the world, or something.  They are pushing the I-Pad program which means they want all teachers to use on-line sources instead of textbooks, and they want students to record all notes and write all papers on a device.  The aim is to be paper-free in a few years.  As one of the few school printers/copiers is in the library, I can attest to the fact that it hasn't happened yet.  This is what IS happening.  Teachers who cannot issue the piles of textbooks they have on shelves in their classes are photocopying, (paper), these same books, scanning the photocopies and sending the pages via their teacher "portals" to the students.  The students read the info on-line but then print, (more paper), the exercises in order to do the work, scan the finished product and then send it back to the teacher.  Is that not flipping insane?  What's more, the school issued I-Pads to the kids, not laptops, and though they can be used somewhat for note taking, any real writing can't be done on an I-Pad.  Try it.  So students need to use computers at home to do all of their actually writing work.  Mind you all of this means little actually writing with pen and paper which will cause all sorts of problems to the younger students later on in their school careers because the exams in the DP years (Diploma Years or 11 & 12 in the IB program), are all handwritten and they are long.  Students are expected to write for upwards of three hours for some of these exams and if they aren't accustomed to holding a pencil in their hands they will be in deep doodoo.  So while our school is trying to be "technologically advanced", the IB program that they adhere to is lagging way behind and is more concentrated on what the students learn than with the aid of what device.  Today we had a staff meeting where all of this was being discussed and the Headmaster said something about the library going to all e-books in a few years.   I plan retiring way before that happens.  I'm going to rest my weary old red eyes now.  xxoo me