Reflection

I'm impressed with how useful YouTube and photosharing can be for educational purpose. It seems these days with all of the technology out there available that our possibities for making education more meaningful and more global are endless. I found a blog where a fifth grade math teacher uses Flickr to show students pictures of a math concept, then he phrases a question below for his students to answer in a "Writing Prompt". A high school teacher in New York used Flickr to have her students search for pictures of propaganda for a specific historical time period. There is even a web site generated from Britian where people can post and share lesson plans that require using YouTube.

I was also impressed with how people still acknowledge that we are still in a trial period when it comes to using things like YouTube in a classroom. With a the social video and little regulation going on, we still need to be careful. However, there are databasesbeing created where you can search and store "useful" videos to show to your students. Many researchers went to great lengths to acknowledge that the hazards of pulling up "unsuitable" material are great and I believe nothing can go in front of a class unpreviewed. It is uplifting to realize that these things can be used for "good" and give these kinds of technology a creditable use.