Technology in the Class

      Technology something that teachers both fear and love. The world is changing and technology is becoming a very constant thing in it but as teachers we have to walk a fine line with when to include it. There are some people who think Ipads and smartphones should be a regular thing in a classroom and actively a apart of their student's learning. While I agree with this idea I think that you must be careful not to alienate an populate of students who do not have access to these things. Schools do not always have the funds to provide technology to all students and it seems to me that technology is creating a greater gap between the haves and have nots.
     I do love technology and understand its purpose. Lesson plans can quickly become more interactive and there is so much more information to be discovered. I just don't think it's always realistic to assume that every student has technology at their house. If you make an assumption that a student has access to certain things at home then you may be discouraging them from trying because they will feel that they are always behind. I disagree with the use of smartphones in the classroom because there is no way to prevent all the distractions and once again you can't guarantee every student has one. I didn't have a cell phone until 8th grade and a smartphone until just this last August. I have experienced feeling left behind by my peers and sometimes in class a teacher would allow you to use your smartphone for something at which point I'd whip out my pretty cool slide phone and just pretend. A cell phone would just ask for kids to text each other or to instagram the classroom, which is exactly not the purpose of technology in the classroom. I like the idea of teachers having students place their cellphones in a basket in the beginning of class just so they are for sure not a distraction. There is some technology that is truly powerful in the classroom and that I love, which I will mention below but I think there is a time and place for it. If we teach students how to correctly use technology then it will become a powerful tool for their education and if we do not then it will just be a fancy place to take pictures and play games
     Ms. Cyz Approved Technology: 

1.  Diggo: I just recently learned about this one and it looks amazing! It's a place to organize all of your bookmarks. I have a million bookmarks and being able to organize them better will help me stay on top of the game.
2. Blogger: The site I'm using right now! Setting up a class blog is a great way to great a sense of community because it's under my name (or the class name) parents would not have to worry about privacy issue and they can always be a click away from seeing what is going on in the classroom.
3. Twitter: I htave a personal account but I want to think about adding a professional account. I think this is a wonderful way to connect to other teachers and learn from each other. Another great idea for using twitter is to have students make a twitter for a book character from a book they are reading and tweet like them.
4. Google Drive: A sixth grade sold me on the wonderfulness of google drive. This is an incredibly easy way to share documents with students or even create whole class writing work. An easy way to get around having kids make their own accounts is for a teacher to make a dummy account for the class and provide students with the password. 

These are just a few of the things that I think will be easy to incorporate into a classroom and I'm excited to find more technology as I continue my teaching journey. Please share some of your favorite technology in the comments section!