Play in Their World, Learn in Ours

“Play in Their World, Learn in Ours” was the theme for our Site Technology Specialist training last week. We started off the 2 days event by rotating through stations equipped with Wiis, Xboxes, PS3s, various web sites and games popular with students. We had about 15 minutes per station. I was introduced to several new games including Guitar Hero, Rockband, and World of Warcraft. I experimented with Wii Tennis, Wii Bowling, Webkins World, and iPods. I had heard of all of these, but had spent little time learning what they were, let alond playing them. It was eye opening, and now my list of games to rent/buy has increased. It really did help me to know what kids are up to.

A lot of discussion on how to incorporate some of these game systems into our classrooms occurred during the training. Of course the debate on how much should we encourage the game systems, iPods, cell phones, etc occurred as well.   I tried googling to find classrooms using the Wii, and found a few references, mostly to the same teacher.  I also ran across the following video which I had to pass along.

I am so impressed by the ingenuity of this video, and hope that others out there will find and share simple, cheap ways to have technology in the classroom.  So much money goes into technology in schools, and then it becomes outdated so quickly.  There are obviously ways to do things in a cheaper way- open source software and google docs seems to be the most common.  If you have heard of other ideas, please share them!

Blackberry or iPhone

In the past few months, I have begun to see why it might be nice to have a blackberry or iPhone.  I have been a little behind the times in acquiring technology gadgets for myself.  I have an Mp3 player, but not an iPod.  I have an old school cell phone without texting or internet.  I have a list of gadgets I would like to have including: iPod, Kindle, and an iPhone or blackberry.

I am now in the phase of deciding which I want to get now and which to wait on.  Should I get an iPod knowing that I want to get a new phone fairly soon and instead just get the iPhone which has all the capabilities of an iPod (I think??) Should I try for a Blackberry and an iPod?  SHould I go for the Kindle now and put off the phone issue until my contract is up?

I have looked at several websites and blog posts comparing the iPhone and the Blackberry, yet I am still unsure of which I want.   I would love to get as many features/devices in a single device as possible.  I am not one who likes to carry a bunch of gadgets around all the time.  Any one out there have an opinion to offer?