Wednesday, February 2, 2011

My First Blog Post!

I have not done this whole blogging thing for a very long time. The last time I did it was for a two week trip I had in London. I knew that I would never remember all the little details from the trip and my family wanted daily e-mail updates with pictures of what we were doing. Blogging seemed like a perfect solution. To be honest, I had totally forgot about that blog until this idea for this blog came along. I went back to my old website and checked everything out, I cannot explain how happy I am that I made that choice. There were so many things I had forgotten. So, as my first post for this blog, I am very excited to start this process again!

For my first post on technology in education I wanted to share a few things I have found over the past week. Here is a link to a HUGE list of other blogs that are education related. As I started looking at a bunch of other blogs I realized so many ways that technology can be used in our classrooms.

One thing that was very intriguing to me was this video on You Tube that was featured in Betty-Online - Time Out's Blog (you can see her blog *here*) from August 2010:




In this video she talks about having student's use their POD (Personally Owned Devices) as a tool in the classroom. After watching her video, what are your thoughts? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using POD's in a classroom?

3 comments:

  1. Yes - great concept - let's teach the students how to use what they've already got instead of banning them from the classroom!

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  2. Stacie, that's what I was thinking...I thought her idea was really great. I feel like students would be more excited to learn the material because they are using devices they know how to use, love to use, and already have!!

    The only hesitation I had was for the students that cannot afford them and do not have them. Or that it might lead to students going home and begging their parents for the newest device. But, on the other hand I feel like that will happen anyway and there will always be something for someone to complain about. It seems like the benefits would really outweigh any negatives!

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  3. I really like her perspective--including the quote: "I just don't give them any barriers".

    Thanks for sharing this video, Lindsey. I hadn't seen it before. I also posted about it on my own blog (with a link back to yours)

    I imagine one disadvantage is that many teachers would feel they have to support all those different devices (operating systems, cables, instructions, etc.). However, it sounds like she empowers her students to take charge of these technical logistics. She remains focussed on the subject matter, pedagogy, and student learning. Students meet the challenge of figuring out their devices. Too many educators feel compelled to be the technological experts. They need to just let go and admit that the kids will probably always know more about technology than their teachers--and that's okay.

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