Technology and The Young & Restless

  I chose this video as an example of technology being used in the classroom because while it's short and sweet,  it instantly impressed me. Tell & Show Skype! The majority of the five year olds I know enjoy show and tell time and I feel it's important for teaching public speaking skills and allowing the children to ask one another questions. Imagine using Skype to accomplish this! It just took the show and tell excitement level up astronomically! I think I underestimated the usefulness of digital cameras in the classroom. I guess I was thinking that in this day and age digital cameras are not really exciting technology compared to all of the fancy equipment available to classrooms today. Thinking outside of the box (with the help of this video) reminds me that it is not necessarily the USE of the cameras in the classroom that will be the rewarding, exciting part but the FINAL PRODUCT on display. It really is magical for anyone, let alone a five year old, to see their finished product on display for all to see. For a unit plan on body parts it would be fun to allow the children to take pictures of activities they associate with certain body parts or they could scavenge and take pictures of items or activities involving each of the five senses. One important obstacle I can foresee for using YouTube in  a kindergarten classroom, specifically, is that many parents are going to associate YouTube with television viewing and not understand or appreciate the educational component. I think allowing parents to preview some examples of the types of videos I will be using would be helpful. Of course, it might not always be possible to preview the videos too far in advance because videos on YouTube come and go. At the very least, though, providing examples would help parents and administrators to invest their trust in my judgement.