Webinars or podcasts are a no brainer for doing something old in a new way. Almost any lesson can be converted into a webinar or podcast and allow your students to view or listen to it as many times as they need in order to process the information. This would be particularly useful for a class like mine where students have processing and comprehension issues. I am constantly repeating the same information to students even though I have written it down, it's in their book and I've gone through an 8 step lesson plan. A webinar or podcast would allow a particular student to go exactly to the information that they need and put the learning process in their hands.
Another way that I would like to integrate technology into my classes would be using the internet for virtual field trips. The costs and logistics of getting an entire class of students to a location in the same city is a challenge, nevermind looking at something in another state or on another continent. The internet opens the entire world to our students and is the next best thing to actually visiting a place in person. Having the best museums and galleries of the world available to our students would be game changing. Seeing actual artifacts from civilizations that students are studying about in history makes it tangible and real.
The only problem with implementing these really cool ideas into most classrooms is the lack of electronics. Mr. Prensky's vision of a laptop for every student is both realistic and needed. Naturally there needs to be security for these devices so they aren't disappearing left and right. I think this is probably one of the biggest worries of schools who want to acquire new technology, but a solution needs to be thought of. Will the districts do this and spring for the $100 personal computers? I'm not gonna hold my breath, but I would like to see that happen. I would make them an essential part of my classroom.
