Chapter 1

How do new technologies create new opportunities for teaching and learning?


Technology's influence
" Technology plays an enormously influential role in the lives of the children and adolescents who will be your students. Infants, toddlers, and preschoolers are "immersed in media", interacting regularly with a variety of technologies and creating a new category of experience that sociologists call an electronic childhood. "
3 Maloy. Transforming learning with new technologies.

Technology now a days is everywhere, we see it at schools, jobs, libraries, restaurants, airports..etc, you name it. Children growing in this generation need to be taught with what is around them, which is the technology's of today's world.
According to our textbook " 85 percent of 5-17 year old's use computers at school" 3 Maloy meaning that if any teacher in a classroom is having a hard time with technology because they weren't condition for it, the students may have a challenge learning the material efficiently.
Technology for students empowers them by learning new skills or improving their already acquired skills through many different representations on any device, computers,cell phones,etc.
Students benefit through the learning of technology increasing the accuracy and speed in their date collection,as well as enhancing their visualizations.

Tech Tool 1.2
7 Things You Should Know About Group Texting
The seven questions
1.What is it?
Group texting is an easy means of sending one brief missive to many people by means of cell phone text messaging. The ones receiving the group message do not need a smartphone since this group text messaging can be possible with any phone that has text messaging. Many mobile apps facilitate grou messaging such as -Celly, GroupMe,Whatsapp.
2.How does it work?
"To use these tools, instructors create a group or "cell" for each class of learning team."
Meaning that the students in the group can access the channel from e-mail, the web or a mobile device with the ability to make each post public or private. Instructors can set up reminders for the deadlines, as well as being able to use hash tags to route messages posted.
3. Who's doing it?
From my personal life, I have taken online classes, and I can check my online classes and assignment due dates on my cell phone. "A number of colleges and universities are experimenting with group texting products as part of bring-your-own-device." Universities are recommending students to download group texting services so they can use their phones as clickers.
4. Why is it significant?
Text messaging is one technology to have originated on the cell phone and spread to over devices, being able to communicate through group messages provides a flexible platform for learning, offering enormous potential for collaborative work, creating a complete interactive learning environment.
5. What are the downsides? Not every student has a cell phone with an unlimited text messaging. Some instructors can become frustrated when they learn they must check elsewhere for notifications and reminders. Privacy concerns can also be an issue, because there are maps that can show where group members are located.
6. Where is it going? "One feature on the horizon for group texting is probably greater integration with social media services and the campus LMS. Facebook purchased the group-texting service Beluga in 2011, suggesting that Facebook may be looking at ways to include this technology in it service offerings." The ones who have limited texting can be fixed with apps like "Whatsapp" that offers free international texting word wide.
7. What are the implications for teaching and learning?
If current experiments in group texting for k-12 are successful in improving access to digital services, higher education can expect to see an influx of students similar with this technology and with the potential it offers for the creation of virtual communities of learning.
These tools offer a workable group-based communication option for field work or internship that can keep the instructors in contact with the students.

Works Cited:
Educause. Learning initiative. 7 Things you should know about group texting.