During my Educational Technology and Design Class, I was introduced to some of the new technology being used in some of the classrooms across the country. Things such as podcasting, using handhelds in the classroom, classroom blogs, back channels and and wikis sounded like foreign words when I first heard them. Many of these things are being used in schools in the United States today. An example of a podcast used within Penn Manor School District in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and then within the state, with the participation of Wayne Highlands School District in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, can be found at The Monster Exchange Can you imagine working on an assignment with someone in another part of the state? How about in another part of the country, or even the world. The technology is here. It's just a matter of taking advantage of it.

Another bit of technology was how teachers can use iPods for teaching in the classroom. iPods are like miniature hard drives that can download just about anything allowing a 1:1 computer:student ratio. Even here in little ole Iowa, where many people think the state is populated by farmers and cows, we have schools making use of this technology, like the small town of Mount Ayr-population just under 2,000-who received a grant from the Iowa Learning Technology Commission to purchase the school iBooks for every seventh and eighth grade classroom so each student would have the use of a computer at home and school each year.

Classroom blogs are becoming popular as well. If you don't think you'd find a way to use a blog in your classroom, check out Web 2.0 in the Classroom: 33 Ways to use blogs in your classroom and in the educational setting.

Moran, Susannah. maclaptop.jpg. June, 2006.