I think that these sorts of "casual" technologies are often left out of technology integration activities for a number of reasons. The first of which being that they are things that we use so often that we completely overlook them. It's easy to forget that the items we use so often (cell phones, iPods, etc.) could be useful tools to facilitate learning. Another reason is that we do use these items so casually and we don't want to "mix business with pleasure". There are probably a lot of college students who would agree with me in saying that I don't want my professors to look at my facebook. I don't have anything incriminating on there, but the thought of one of my teachers reading what my friends are writing on my wall just really creeps me out.
YouTube is a site that is really under-utilized in the classroom. I have a professor this semester who finds all sorts of cool videos and incorporates them into our lessons. It's a nice way to get class moving and enables us to think outside of the classroom. Finding videos on subject areas something really easy that teachers can do. Posting videos is another great way to take advantage of the site. Two of my roommates were in a sign language class last semeste and they had to post videos on YouTube of them saying stuff. They then had to view their classmate's videos and figure out what they were saying.
There are so many casual technologies that are right underneath of our noses. We only need to realize that they're there, and then figure out how to use them in our classrooms. In a non-creepy and non-invasive way.
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I agree with you Paige about Youtube being under-utlized in the classroom, because it can be of benefit when it comes to learning in the classroom and class communication. Especially in hard subject matters such as, math and science. However, I also think that because of limited resources;especially in urban schools, where technology resources are rare or too expensive.Some schools just don't use it at all expect, for the power points may be. Lastly, I think a lot adminstrators are kind of hesistant on using technology ( youtube, facebook,etc) in the classrooms, because of all of the loopholes and expenses that come with it.
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