No.3 Emerging Technology PDAs

    With a world filled with established and newly forming technologies, introducing kids at a younger age to the various types of technologies we possess is vital to the criteria introduced in school. Personal Digital Assistants, also known as a PDAs, are a sufficient and cheaper way to introduce students to various technologies at a younger age. A PDA is essentially a miniature computer or smart phone in your hand (minus the ability to talk and text).
     However, these PDAs possess the ability to syncronize with one main computer allowing both teacher and parents to view what has been going on within both the child's learning experience and ability to work with various technologies such as web browsers, podcast and even Microsoft. Not only are these tiny computers easy to store away when not in use, they are also less distracting and more controllable than a typical laptop. PDAs are also a cheap replacement to computer labs and personal computers that so many schools require.
     While attending Warren Central High School, I was able to use a PDA provided by the school for four years. Not only was I able to write stories for the newspaper while attending events, I was also able to easily receive messages from teachers on homework assignments as well as create projects via powerpoint and Microsoft that had the ability to upload to a teachers main computer within seconds.  The PDA I was able to use was a Palm Pilot series, which the school received via grant to further education with technological use.
     PDA also give that fun, interesting and up-to-date experience that need to start occurring within our educational classrooms. Below I have selected a picture similar to the PDA I was given and a youtube link to the history of the PDA...ENJOY!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz4GwLpxAhc

Emerging Technology No.2 : Webcast

In my opinion, webcast are the next big thing when it comes to emerging technology within education. In fact, just recently, watching a webcast via YouTube was a required assignment in one of my classes. Webcast are basically a podcast with video. The files can either be delivered live or pre-recorded. In addition too, webcast are becoming a popular trend among media outlets such as the news, radio stations and artistic genres such as literature, music and film production. Not only are they a cheap way to produce a media outlet, they are also convienant to locate, find and use. With hit websites such as YouTube, Metacafe and dailymotion.com, millions of people are able to quickly locate videos on topics they are searching for within seconds.
In my opinion, YouTube is one of the best webcast locations to search for videos. Whether it is looking up the latest videos of music artist, listening to poets recite poetry or advertising cheerleading videos for where I work, the website it extremely helpful and useful for several purposes. Below is a link to one of my favorite motivational speakers Randy Pausch. This video was upload December 20th of 2007, where over 12 million viewers have since watched. It is a rather long video, but I promise it is worth your time!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo