Pros and Cons of Technology

I have been reluctant to embrace cell phones as a learning tool. I see so many teenage kids glued to them that they are not responsive to other forms of communication. After reading the some of the articles I have to reconsider some of my positions. If students are attached to their technology we should consider using it as teachers to our advantage in the classroom. Recently read in an article about a foreign language teacher who uses text messaging in her classroom to teach the students. During the second half of class she sends out texts in the foreign language. These texts contain the assignments, messages to answer to other students in the class, and quizzes. These are all sent in the foreign language. What a great tool. Recently I had the high school attendance office tell me to “text my student” to let him know he was being excused for an appointment. I thought the policy was no cells on during class. However it was very effective as well as convenient