Yellow Group

Certain technologies can be very beneficial in a classroom, or for students to use after class as review. We saw several examples of these during our Software Evaluation Projects. Each software evaluated proved to be- in one way or another- useful to the students and teachers. There are also websites, set up by schools, that allow teachers to post their homework, policies, and contact information for parents. These software were designed for students and teacher usage, and therefore were helpful and appropriate.
I do not know of the appropriateness of using technologies that I use everyday. I cannot imagine that a cell phone would be of use in a classroom. It would not be bad for students to exchange cellphone numbers or email addresses with eachother for projects or if a student misses classes. However, I do not think it would be appropriate for a teacher and student to exchange a phone number for obvious reason.
I certainly do not think twitter or myspace would be very useful for students or teachers. First of all, I do not really like twitter. It is not very helpful, other than allowing one to "follow" people and see status updates. Myspace has become the ultimate spot for spam and other un-scholarly advertisements, making it, in my opinion, not appropriate at all for a classroom of any age. It also does not really have any applications that would be useful.
Another technology I use daily is facebook. Although, facebook may have some silly applications that would not seem useful to a classroom, it would allow for a group to be created, in an environment, not bombarded by advertisements. I feel that facebook has an overall cleaner look to it than myspace would. I also think that it is more private than myspace. As a teacher, I would not feel uncomfortable with my students maybe having a group/page that allows them to post questions to each other about materials they are learning. But I do not think I would allow them to use facebook during class time. I think that would just lead to them wasting the period looking at other people's facebook pages, as opposed to paying attention to the lesson. I also would not have a problem with the usage of blogs, like the one we are using now. Blogs as a simple, straightforward, way for students to post their information on the Internet for other students and teachers to view. I would make sure to use proper privacy settings on the blogs.
Technologies of any kind have their own advantages and disadvantages. Some are more appropriate for a classroom than others. Ultimately, I think it is up to the teacher to decide what they find appropriate and useful in their classrooms.
~Laura Miranda