other technologies

I used cell phones for an observation I had one year. The observation did not go as planned. As expected the students had to share phones and create and send messages. The students had sent messages (in Spanish) and enjoyed seeing their messages read out loud on the lcd monitor. The only problem was cell phones are not permitted in class. So the students went around the whole day saying that they were going to my class, which is why they needed to have their phones. ,

I'm more interested in the use of low-tech items: white boards, chalk, markers, paper, blackboards. These small items can be costly but I'm amazed at how many students love to create with these items. These are like "comfort food". They are available and if I am not floating from classroom to classroom, they can be used for productive activities. While I prefer using power point presentations (because it reinforces research, speaking and writing skills), sometimes with time constraints I cannot get all of the projects presented in a day. And as someone said already, I cannot have all the students working on computer projects for all the chapters because of the limited access that some students have to computers (with traveling between homes and practics, traveling to the library may not be a student's first priority). So using the computer (for homework purposes anyway) means at least a couple days doing the assignment so that they can get to a public library if the student does not have access at home.

Green Group-Integrating Technology

When I think of integrating various technologies into a classroom I think of the various technologies that as a class we have been focusing on in our blogs. I think this is because they are the most common when thinking of technology in terms of classrooms. I also think that these technologies are the safest rout. This happens for a number of reasons. First of all, these technologies are the safest to use in terms of viruses. There are many viruses associated with random Internet sites including YouTube. Also, when you use a program like YouTube, there are a lot of inappropriate ads and videos. Cell phones, ipods etc. are hard to use in a classroom setting because they are usually banned in schools.
I think that if you want to use a technology like YouTube you should view the contents of the clip before class to make sure it's appropriate. You should also be aware of the ads surrounding the video. I think technologies like YouTube can be an easy and affordable use of technology in the classroom. I have had a lot of teachers who use YouTube clips in class. I have a psychology teacher this semester who uses PBS clips all the time to give us a feel of how the elderly are viewed and what it is like getting old. I think these clips are extremely useful. It is much more powerful watching a scene of elderly people in a nursing home/hospital and how they suffer rather then just hearing it during a lecture. On the other hand, I think that my teacher overuses this technology and i almost think she uses it as an easy out instead of having to teach that day.
I think that all technologies are useful and can enhance class material. I think that in order for the technology to be successful it needs to be previewed for any inappropriate material and for relevance. I am open to all different technologies in order to keep life interesting.

Yellow Group- Tech Integration

I think naturally as a student that I tend to separate my personal life from my educational life. So, that would make sense that I do not include many of the personal technologies I use in the sort of educational technology scenarios we have in class. I think the only reason I probably tend to do this is because when we grow up in school we are always told to kind of put our personal technologies aside. For example, we are told that our cell phones need to be turned off and put into our lockers and if they are found not in our lockers they will be confiscated. And, in regards to blogs and things of that nature, the media center specialist has spyware that allows her to spy on everything we do. Therefore, if we are on a website she does not feel right for the given assignment our computer gets frozen and we're done. So, I think growing up in a high school that was so insane about personal technologies has led me to just think without reacting that personal and educational technologies are seperate

But, I do agree that many personal technologies can be used for good. I think youtube and certain video games can definitely be used positively in the classroom. But, I think it will be a long time before teachers find a way to really effectively integrate these personal technologies into educational technologies and have students know the difference.

Yellow Group Integrating Personal Technology in the Classroom

Personal Technology in the Classroom
The main reason I don't consider the use of personal technology in the classroom is because of availability. Not all students have a cell phone, or a game system. I think of technology the school would provide when considering how technology can be integrated into the classroom. That is not to say that personal technology can't be used or be useful. Perhaps as an incentive, to students who complete their work early. Perhaps as a tool, maybe the Wii has some games that would help a kinetic learner. A new version of the telephone game (for social studies, to show how a rumor changes as it is passed from person to person) would use texting. Truthfully, I am not savvy to any of these technologies. I have never used this "texting technology." My cell phone is just a phone to me. I'm starting to learn how to use the calendar, but still keep a written calendar because I need to see all the squares and their details. However I've learned that the cell phone has little alarms and noises that go off when it's time to leave, so I use it for that. There is no video gaming system in my house. Maybe I'm just too old to have thought of integrating personal technology into the curriculum. However, I think that as it is applied, more ideas will branch off from that, maybe even an old fogey like myself will add an idea or two to the mix!

Green Group

I use YouTube and social networking sites all of the time. I don't necessarily think of them though when I think of technologies because they seem as more of a fun thing. I don't really see them as educational. That's probably because I myself don't use them for anything educational. For social networking, that's exactly what I'm doing. I'm talking to friends, I'm putting up pictures of my friends and I at different functions and I'm just not using it for anything school related. For YouTube, I'm watching videos of my favorite musicians and television shows. I'm not thinking about how I could possibly integrate it into a classroom setting. There is defintely a disconnect there because I'm not thinking about how I could use it in my classroom. Things that I'm using for fun and things that are usually deemed as "educational" aren't always seen as the same thing. For that reason, I think that is why I don't necessarily think that they would be useful in classrooms. They can easily be manipulated by students for their own devices (such as watching videos they like or using Facebook for their own personal use) so I don't always think they could be useful. Used in the right way and with the proper supervision, I think that these devices could be integrated into the classroom though.

Technology Integration-Green Group

As teachers we are always looking for new technology to implement into the classwork but yet, we forget about the technology that students use on an everyday bases. Technology like cell phones, video games, CD players, You tube, IPod's, MP3 players, and instant message are the necessities items that students incorporate in everyday life outside of the classroom that we forget about using them into the classroom setting. Some of these technologies that students use are prohibited for use in school therefore that's why we as teachers sometimes forget to bring the new and old technologies together. Some of the websites that students use to access their everyday technology is blocked from the sever for Baltimore County so it's hard for us at times to think about enhancing the use of those items. We can try to give students assignments outside of the classroom that they can use their cell phones, instant message, or writing blogs but we also have to think about those students who don't have access to some of those tools at home. This is a win or loose type of situation.

Why I don't allow texting in class...

I consider myself relativly tech savy, but not nearly as much as my students. te I use texting and my cell phone frequently, but myspace or facebook never get checked. As for in the classroom, well most of those technologies are not allowed my county policies. Cell phones, and thus texting, are banned and any social websites (blogs, etc) aare blocked from use in the school. Even most public email servers (yahoo, hotmail,;gmail]can't be accessed while in school. These restriction are meant to prevent students from accessing prohibited or inappropiate material, but are very combersome and antiquated. The county's policy is generally to block everything, and then allow you to beg for access, which is generally denied. There isn't even different settings to give teachers more access then students. So the main reason to not use technologies in the classroom that we use everyday is because they aren't allowed.

Mundane Technology - Blue Group

It is kind of ironic that in a lot of our class discussions about technology no one really brings up things like blogs, video games, youtube, cell phones, social network sites, and instant messenger. these technologies are so mundane to us now, that they're no longer a technology...they're a necessity. We've become locked in this idea that these items don't belong in the classroom, and some of them to be honest never will be. It's to hard for schools to monitor cell phone and youtube use so those things are usually just banned from the classroom. The other thing, is that because these technologies are so mundane to us, we can't think of new ways to use them. I would never have thought of using instant messenger in class as an educational tool let alone a cell phone.
I think we do, as teachers, need to stop for a moment and think about how we can incorporate these everyday technologies in a classroom. I know as an English teacher I will whole-heartedly use blogging. I think it's a great way for discussions to arise. I know many students aren't so keen on raising their hand in class cause their afraid of being publicly embarrassed in some way. Blogging creates a private way for students to actively discuss. Also I should take a hint from one of my old professors who used/uses youtube in the classroom. She also has a facebook group for her students to join and get information on upcoming events that they may need for the class.

Blue Group--tech integration

I don’t think that we’ve mentioned these technologies, because we are in the elementary education group. Many of these technologies are not available to elementary students due to parental guidelines (cell phones, social networking sites, blogs, etc.). Also, we haven’t mentioned some of these technologies, because many of them are blocked by the public schools. Cells phones are banned for students on school campuses in Harford County Public Schools. You Tube, social network sites, Twitter, some blogs, chat rooms, etc. are blocked on school computers. Even if these technologies were available to the school, many parents would not want their children on social network sites, blogs, or chat rooms. As for video games, some teachers do use video games (especially special education teachers who have a small group of students).

In the case of most of these technologies, I believe that the “goof off” factor is too high to make any educational value worthwhile. Some teachers use sites such as gamequarium as an educational tool. I think those kinds are sites can be good, and I will use them (depending on the grade I teach and the level at which my students are functioning). However, overall, I don’t like technologies that I have little control over or have the capacity to become a distraction for my students. If the educational value is overshadowed by the aesthetics and “trendy-ness” of the product, I don’t believe that it belongs in my classroom. Meeting testing standards and teaching quality lessons is difficult enough without the pressures are the latest technology. Students have functioned and learned for decades without a plethora of technology; therefore, I don’t believe that the classroom needs to be filled with every gadget out there—we can’t chase every rabbit trail in technology.

On the other hand, I would love to have access to technologies that make my life easier and enhances my lesson. I really love SmartBoards, wireless tablets, document cameras, LCD projectors, and large televisions. These are the kinds of technologies I would like to have access to in my classroom. Overhead projectors never project a quality color image, and they cannot be changed or manipulated. Computer-linked projections can be in full color and have moving (video) features. This is the kind of technology that I believe can help students learn better, because the Web can be integrated into everyday lessons. Though these technologies sound like they are only useful to the teacher, I would have students create simple presentations (even for the first grade level). I would teach students how to integrate more than text and still pictures into their presentations. I believe these kinds of technology can be valuable to students. They do still have their weaknesses, in that they can break or malfunction, and they can be time consuming to use and to teach to use. However, if timing and easy were the only factors we looked at for education, we’d still be using slates and textbooks alone.

I don't want to sound like I want nothing to do with new technology in education; I think it's just that our lesson quality has to come before multimedia presentation. Testing and teaching with technology can be time consuming, and I feel that I need to be more concerned with the quality of my lessons rather than the amount of technology I use.

Blue Group 11-09-08

I think that this question made me realize that I might take the technology that I have for granted because I don't think of it as "technology". I mostly think of my cell phone, You Tube, web sites that I go to, and my video games as just everyday things. I guess I just haven't thought about the fact that they are technology, even though it is quite clear that they all are. These types of things are items that if I didn't have, I might be bored. And that's how I know that they are important to me. But, this types of technologies can be used in the classroom too.

I think that the most affective way to use a cell phone in your lesson is to simply have the students contact each other or you when they need help at home. Even though they students aren't in school at the time, it is still being used within your lesson and this technique can be used everyday. I believe that video games are a great way to get children to learn also. Even if the video game is informational, students will want to play it just because it is a video game. Children seem to be easy to please in regards to technology and when using any type of technology in your classroom, children will respond positively.

Blue Group incorporating everyday

I like this question, it made me think a lot. I don't think of cell phones and ipods and Youtube when thinking about educational technologies because they are more used for recreation in my life. Although one purpose of these technologies is to make the lesson more fun, as the purpose of these technologies listed before, it is hard to think of useful situations to put them in. As in the question, my personal use of these technologies gets in the way of thinking of them as educational technologies. It's the same thing as finding it hard to do my homework in the living room, since I usually watch tv and do other things that have nothing to do with homework. The distractions of everything in the living room make it hard to concentrate. Would the distractions on cell phones and Youtube get in the way of the lesson?
I am sure that there are ways to make these technologies useful. Students could make videos and upload them on Youtube, or the class could watch a video interview of an expert in the field they are studying instead of trying to get a class speaker. As we have talked about in class, there are podcasts for the students to watch at home. Video games could let the students have fun learning information that they might not even realize is in there; they might have found the information boring otherwise.
Maybe it is the same as an older generation not accepting the computer technology that we have today. It will take me a while to think of these technologies as useful in the classroom, but that doesn't mean that they aren't.

Red group blog post (Janssen)

What an interesting question. I think the reason why I have not included them in our technology integration scenarios is because cell phones, video games, You Tube, social network sites are in many ways uncharted territory with regards to education (at least in my mind). When I was in school we were reprimanded for having let alone using cell phones, video games, You Tube, and the like. So when I think of using technology in the classroom these types of technologies don’t come to mind as being appropriate for school use.
Despite my natural exclusion of these technologies (as a result of experiences in the past) I truly believe that these types of technologies should be included in the classroom as much as possible. They are not only useful teaching tools but they are technologies that the children of today need to be exposed to and taught how to properly use. We are moving into a new frontier and the educators of today and tomorrow need to look past fear and the technology prejudices we have experienced so that our students never have to say “technology scared my teachers so I was never exposed to the types of technologies I need to survive in the world”. There should never be a disconnect between the technology we use every day and the technology we educate people to use. If children are not being taught how to use popular technologies in school where will they be learning how to use this incredibly powerful technologies properly? Also If we are not teaching them how to utilize the technology they will need to survive in the social world and work world of today and tomorrow then can we say that our educational system is effective, if we are producing a population of students unprepared for the technology explosion going on outside of the classroom?
I for one will make a more concerted effort to include these types of technologies in our classroom assignments and in my future classroom.

useful technology

The reason i have not used everyday technologies in my assignments is because most of these technologies are not accepted in schools. For example, cell phones are not supposed to be visible in most public schools so there is no way that i could possibly incoperate them into my classroom. Doing this would cause much discrepency and could potentially start some serious problems.

I think the real problem is that the board members of schooling systems need to give students and teachers more freedom. These technologies could definately help teachers get students involved and interested in the material. Many students don't even want to be in school and if they are told that they can't have their cell phones and other desirable technology they will only want to be in school less.

I'm not sure that many of these technologies have educational uses except for getting students motivated. Kids today love technology and by allowing students to use it they may be more interested in the material. However, i really can't think of a way to use a cell phone as a worthwhile learning device. I think the students will write off the assignment and text one another instead. This is exactly why students are not allowed to have them in school, because they would not pay attention.

Red Group 10/27

I have had very little experience with most of these forms or technology. I have not really ever seen cell phones used in a classroom, like Amanda, I did not think that they were allowed to be used in school. Also because I will be teaching in elementary school I would assume that most of my students will not have cell phones. I am not really into video games, so I am not really aware of what is out there that could be used for education purposes and I have not idea what twitter is. I think that people tend to think of using forms of technology that they have seen used in a classroom before and I have not seen many of these.
I have seen teachers use Youtube in classes recently and I do think that this could be useful for some things, but I do not know that much of the technology necessary for teachers to show Youtube clips is available in most elementary schools. Blogs are also something that I have little experience with but have seen them used a little in the classroom and I do think that they could be useful, but again I think for older students and probably not so much in elementary school. I do not think that there is necessarly a lack of connection between personal technology and useful classroom technology, I just think that many people do not think of these things because they have not seen them used much in classrooms.

Red group oct 27 blog

Well, for me, shocking as it may be, I am just familiarizing myself with You Tube (think I have seen something on it once), just now becoming aware of blogs (don’t generally write them), do not play any video games (never have been into to them and probably never will be), and I have no clue what Twitter is. And as far as the cell phone is concerned, I guess it has been drilled into my head, being a long tem substitute on a few occasions, that using them in school is completely unacceptable and they should never been seen in the classroom.

I may be inclined to use these other technologies in the classroom if I was more familiar with them. I guess there is a definite disconnect for me because of my ignorance. I wish I had more of a desire to play around them…heck…I barely know how to use my ipod or get a chance to use it. I guess it all boils down to time and allowance for it. It is hard to find the time as a stay home mother when your 18 mth old child vies for your attention and everything else in the house needs tending to. Perhaps if I was unmarried, no house, no 3+ acres of land, not a part time student and no little person (who, might I add, is hanging off my side as I am typing this) demanding so much of my time and energy, I would put more effort into popular technologies.

Anyway, not to get entirely off topic, but I do see how blogging can be incorporated into the classroom and I think it is a great tool. I would like to use them in my classroom one day. I think students tend to divulge more of their thoughts and feelings, perhaps more so anonymously. Therefore, it is a great way for teachers to get inside their heads.