If you believe that technology is a distraction and not a way to enhance educational practices, you're probably not using it correctly.
When we were kids, did we leave school every day thinking that we had to go home and do research. Homework was something that got in the way of our play. We wanted to go outside and play games or stay inside and play video games. As we grew older we wanted to connect with our friends by playing sports or talking on the phone. Suddenly, we became adults and expect all students to want to go home and do research.
Our job as educators is to build a bridge between what they use it for and what we want them to use it for.
The reality is that it plays an important part in our lives and keeps us connected. We live busy lives so having multiple ways to connect with people is a strength and not a weakness. It's how we communicate that matters. Teaching students about the benefits and the pitfalls is important.
Being the barrier because it doesn't coincide with your views isn't helping anyone
A great read about Technology Integration from the perspective of a K-12 District Technology Integrator.
Effective quote: "Technology is Not pedagogy."
BrainPop offers online subscription for students and teachers. It provides countless short videos on a variety of topics and provides a quiz at the end.
Great teacher resource that is FREE for teachers with a current BrainPOP username and Password! This can be used in conjunction with your current subscription.
The Office of Educational Technology is involved in a variety of projects and initiatives that leverage technology to improve teaching and learning and create opportunities for innovation.
A fantastic resource for supporting the use of productivity software (mainly Microsoft tools) with step-by-step instructions customized for each operating system and in multiple languages. Great for helping students and parents, especially in ESL contexts.
This page contains presidential sites and apps to gather facts, biographies, speeches, photos, audio & video files, election results, color pages, interactive games and much more
The Tennessee Board of Regents sponsors a project in "Mobilization & Emerging Technology" including the "Mobile Apps Resource Bank." Tens of thousands of mobile apps are categorized by educational function. Know a great app that isn't in the resource bank? You can add it for consideration/peer review!