6/8/08 Handhelds and Web2.0 in the Classroom

As I spend more time exploring with the palmOne handheld device we were able to take home, and read more about how to use these in a classroom in the "Personal Literacy Assistants" article, then idea of having students use these becomes more and more interesting. Handheld devices are relatively inexpensive, easy to use, and mobile. I like the fact that they can have many of the programs and software I already would want to use in my classroom, and give students more ownership over "their technology" since each student would have one. I agree with the article that most students would be able to pick up how to use the technology in a short amount of time, and feel quite comfortable while learning how to use it. For me, I think the biggest problem would be deciding what applications to use and how to effectively integrate it into lesson plans rather than teaching students how to use the hand helds.

As I mentioned before, having the technology be mobile means students can take it out of the classroom, such as to a field trip to the zoo to help keep track of what animals they have seen. By setting up a organizational tool in Inspiration before the trip, then having a few minutes every half hour or so to record information on the organizational chart, it will give students meaningful experiences in organizing new information, managing natural hierarchies such as animals of the jungle, and reflecting on their own through processes. As a teacher, if I really want to be able to have these devices in my own classroom, I will need to be an advocate for the technology. At least for the next few years, as I do not see many schools embracing the idea of buying every student a hand held when they are getting more and more pressure to eliminate unnecessary expenses. I would probably need to campaign for principals and parents to embrace this technology, too, and agree to pay for it or try to find grant money to help purchase these.

Personally, I really enjoyed the Bull and Ferster reading about Web 2.0. As I understand it, Web 2.0 is an environment that is user-friendly, interactive, and "applications and data reside on the web itself" (Bull and Ferster 05/06). This would mean we are physically handling and installing software or programs ourselves, but downloading them instead. I would say that this is true for most of the programs that are on my personal computer. As a teacher, using applications from the web such as iTunes and other podcasting sites helps keep me and my students more organized, while providing seemingly endless possibilities when it comes to integrating technology and information from different websites into students' work.

The Web 2.0 idea reminds me of other information I have heard on the future on the internet. Although this idea is still in the planning stages, I have heard that Google is looking to buy massive amounts of land for huge server farms. At these locations, personal computers would be housed, attended to, and watched over. People's homes would no longer house their computers, but merely a monitor, which is connected to their computer at the server farm. People would more or less be renting their personal computers, which are kept at the farm, able to download any programs they would like off the internet. This would mean that professionals working at the farms are helping to care for and update the computers, which is more user friendly to most individuals that do not consider themselves technology literate. I am very interested to see if they actually happens in the future as it seems like something that would be reasonable, realistic, and appreciated. Google recently purchased and is building a large building in my hometown, Council Bluffs, and has been looking at buying additional land just outside of Council Bluffs with the possibility to build these new server farms.