Jen Locascio- Personal Technology Use

I think one of the main reasons we do not incorporate technologies such as cell phones, blogger, facebook, video games, utube, etc. is because most students use these types of technology for social interaction purposes with other friends and family. These technologies are often also used as well as for enjoyment during their spare time. Though, some may think we do not learn from these technologies, I think that even though they all do not necessarily serve for educational purposes, you still get the opportunity to learn a little something from each. For example, if a teacher is introducing new material in the classroom and wants to show an example to his or her students, he or she may use utube to find short video clips that are educational and will help the students understand the concepts a little bit better. Blogger for example, is a good way for students within a classroom to communicate with each other and discuss opinions on certain topics. Though most of these technologies is for personal use, I still think that to some extent teachers do incorportate some of them in the classroom. However, the only technology I do not feel should be incorporated in the classroom is the cell phone. Being a student myself, I still use my cell phone in class usually to text my friends, which I do feel is a very bad but extremely addicting habit. Knowing that it is distracting to teachers and may be distracting to other classmates, I feel that cell phones should be kept in the student's bags throughout the day and only used for emergencies.
If I were to use some of these technologies in my classroom, I think I would use social network sights, blogger and utube the most. I think each can help serve a purpose when teaching material in the classroom. If it takes those technologies to get the students to understand the material more easily being that they can make personal connections, then I think incorporating those technologies within the classroom will be beneficial.