Response to Jessica: technology and constructivism

I think that technology has a prominent place in a classroom, especially a constructivist classroom. As I've been discussing in my blogs, a teacher should be trying to teach the boring bits in an interesting fashion, and actively involving students.

There are a lot of programs that teach while seeming like a game to the studetns. I know a lot of random facts because of this one game I remember from middle school where you were taught by this talking robot and got to play games if you got certain questions right. I also type really well thanks to Mavis Beacon and her computer game in the 2nd grade. I remember being shown movies in high school that helped me retain historical information thanks to this one teacher who was obsessed with the American Experience movies from PBS. For some reason, I really liked those movies and I still watch them when they're on. I've learned a lot from them.

More recently, McRae shows youtube videos of poets reading their own work. I think all of these types of technology help a student retain information and learn a lot more than if they were just being lectured.

Technology is changing students. It is a part of every student's everyday life, so it only makes sense to uniquely involve it in the main portion of their day in school as well to benefit their learning.