Yellow Group - Pam's Blog

I think the reason that I don’t typically think of technologies such as cell phones, video games, social network sites, and blogs as ways to incorporate technology into the classroom, just because when I use these technologies, it’s for personal uses, not for schoolwork. For example, I use my cell phone to keep in contact with friends and family, I play video games to relax and relieve stress, I use social network sites like Myspace and Facebook to keep in contact with friends that I can’t see every day, and I use blogs like a diary/journal, which no one is supposed to read anyway. I feel like video games have the potential to become useful just because we already use computer software games, such as Oregon Trail, for incorporating technology. I definitely don’t think all video games could be used, just like all computer software games can’t be used. I can now see how blogs could be useful to use in my teaching, because exhibit A, that’s what I’m doing right now! I definitely feel like a class blog could be useful in my classroom either for class/home work, or maybe to use as a way to get help from peers. As of now, I definitely don’t feel like a cell phone could prove to be useful in the classroom, just because I don’t see a way of using it that you couldn’t use a monitored Instant Messaging service for, which by the way, might be a neat idea to use in the classroom to talk to students from another country! How cool would that be? I’ve written quite a few lesson plans where I’ve used the viewing of a YouTube video as an engage for a science or math lesson, so I feel like YouTube or TeacherTube could definitely be great ways to incorporate technology into the classroom. I almost feel like there are ways to use all sorts of technologies in the classroom, but I just need to find appropriate ways of using those technologies. One of our last articles stated how students learn and think differently than we do, just because they’ve been born into this century that is filled with all sorts of technologies easily accessible at their fingertips; therefore, it’s important that us teachers meet their needs as students by using technologies that they’e used to using on a daily basis, because their learning will probably benefit the best in that way than by reading a textbook or doing pencil and paper worksheets. So as of now, I don’t see any uses for using a cell phone or social network sites, but I know it’s probably possible to find some use for them in the classroom.