Future Technology- not so far away

The technologies for the future classroom- or not so far future, will have an enormous impact on students, teachers and schools. Not so far future- because many schools have these technologies already! The first thing that comes in mind when looking at these technologies that could be common place is that it will discourage students from traveling or exploring the world. When you can use a hologram to bring anything from the world into your space or use virtual reality to explore- why take the risk or spend the money to physically go? Although from experience, I know why- but to these younger kids who can have everything in their bedrooms- why ever leave? Another negative I see is that holograms can easily make teachers no longer needed, just like self-check outs: if you have one grade 2 teacher in one place teaching about addition, why would you hire multiple, when you could project their image into many classrooms?
However, just like all technologies, there are the positives. For example, no more lost assignments, damaged text books and easier communication about assignments between student and teacher. This video shows the "tracking" features a sort of negative big brother, when really it is a great technique for assessment for learning for the teacher (and the text book creators) to assess how well they are managing curriculum and relaying it to students.  

Social Media as Technology

It doesn't matter your generation or age, as a teacher it is important to stay relevant with your students in order to engage them. The majority of students in North America have a social media account of some sort OR know what Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Snap Chat, etc. are. What better way to engage your students, then by giving them assignments and tasks related to something THEY know how to do and do well (and probably better than us teachers!).

Here are some ideas I have:

1. Create a classroom Twitter account on Instagram page. The problem here is that YOU the teacher have to update these accounts (so you better learn how!). Have you students comment and post on what you post, and that can be parts of their assignment. Could this possibly engage students in discussion that otherwise would not in the classroom? Alternatively, there is an education friendly version of this called Edmodo.

2. When you start a new topic, if you are allowing students to inquire or lead-the-way, you can create a Pinterest board and they can all add different "pins" (ideas) to the board. Pinterest allows many users to upload to one board. This will also aid you as the teacher to see what your students are interested in with regards to the topic. This works great if you are at a IB school for example, as the topics can be broad and allow room for student's to come at the curriculum with their own perspective.

3. When doing book studies or anything that involves getting to know characters, setting, and plot, you can get the students to create a Facebook account for a character and keep it updated with what is going on in the character's life.

Including social media as technology in the classroom also allows really important teachable moments as you can guide youth how to properly interact online. For example, you can discuss cyber bullying, informal/formal language and trolling. When teaching, all types of communication are relevant, therefore online communication is important as well.

Here  is a great article about using social media in the classroom.