Teach English in Dakoutun Zhen - Tianjin

New Technology in the ClassroomA friend's Facebook post (friend/blue, people?s comments/ black, friend?s wife/orange) on February 28, 2012: ? ?my 8 yr. old thinks he NEEDS and iPad!? ? No, buy a kindle?doesn?t he have a computer? wait don?t listen to me? my 6 yr. old has one? ? My 11 year old has my ?old? iPad, my son wants the iPad 2 as he has hopes I will be getting the iPad 3. NOOOT ? iPad eh? laptop/computer too soon? definitely pampering? don?t even start on cellphones ? my nephews are 8 and 10 and they have them; wifi only, no 3g ? No way? What will you get him next year? ? Have the 11 yr. old share. ? She does! ? What about a Kindle Fire? Same capabilities a lot cheaper. Also depends on how responsible the kid is in my opinion. If u think it won?t get dropped, lost/stolen? that would be my worry. ? Lol my nephew is 4 and he's got one ? You?re not helping ? my kids both got the Kindle Fire? Just as good for much less $ ? ? When I was 8? I wanted a double cassette Boom Box with the synthesizer? how times have changed ? He wants what his sister has plain & simple, he had a tablet and that wasn?t good enough for him. ? That?s the bottom line for me? I decide what?s good enough for him? Living outside the u.s.A. really puts a different perspective on the issue. My friend is a principle in a New York public school. I work in a British school in a spanish speaking country. Technology isn?t as accessible here as it seems to be in the US. However in my school we are fortunate, we have a class set of laptops to share among the primary department and every classroom has a projector with an interactive feature for the whiteboard and connection to a computer with internet. I was using a particular resource in class that included a cassette tape. My six year olds grabbed the cassette out of my hands and immediately started swiping their fingers across the tape. These children will never understand the association with a pencil and a cassette tape. They?ve been replaced by MP3/MP4 players, which they all have. My mom never learned how to program the VCR nor does she know how to text on the cell phone. Her grandchildren however, at the age of two, know how to access the iPad, choose applications, and enlarge pictures with just a stroke of their finger. The question that comes to mind is? technology is forever progressing and the new generations with it, isn?t it necessary for this new technology to enter these children?s/students? classrooms? According to an article on social media on college campuses in usa Today, ?a pair of recently published studies support what many professors already have concluded: Students using Facebook or text messaging during a lecture tend to do worse when quizzed later. But wait: Faculty who build Twitter into class work may be helping students learn better, as a 2010 study suggests.? A survey by education publisher Pearson from last spring found that many consider YouTube a ?very valuable? classroom aid. The bottom line is that technology used in the classroom is a gain. A survey conducted last fall by Faculty Focus, a website about teaching, found that about 83% of professors allowed laptops in their classrooms. Although 58% said that they found students using social webs when they weren?t suppose too. Students acknowledge the distracting nature and the truth is that the nuance is in the misuse of the devices. However Harrisburg University of Science and Technology in Pennsylvania blocked access to several popular social media sites as a, consciousness-raising exercise and 25% of participating students reported to have better concentration in the classrooms. Personally I say not without my computer (and a hard copy just in case). Always be prepared for the unexpected. But new technology can definitely add to better learning and there are many web sites full of information to help.