Thing #7a

This Infinite Thinking Machine posting by Lucy Gray had an interesting point about Twitter that I think can be expanded to use with any technology - especially in the classroom. She points out that many people with Twitter post everyday mundane things about their lives that they are doing that very moment. No one really cares if you're eating lunch or walking your dog right this second (well, a few people might care but not all of cyberspace). Technology is a pretty useless thing if its purpose is useless. I think the same can be said of using technology in the classroom just for technology's sake. I will be the first to tell you that Promethean boards are awesome! I LOVE them and think they have such great potential for students. But if they are used to scan in worksheets for students to circle and highlight and for nothing else, let's just buy more overheads - way cheaper! And doing a technology assignment with no real tie to curriculum is, of course, a waste of time which we don't have enough of in the classroom. Let's make technology meaningful and make the curriculum more meaningful by combining the two (used to be what we called integration and seem to have gotten away from - but that's for another soapbox). Let's not just Twitter away the mundane aspects of our curriculum - let's make it mean something to the kids! I'll bet we'll see more of it stick! What do you think?