MP3 Players

Some of the pros of MP3 players are: they can be used for mobile technology in the classroom, they can help ELL students improve their English and English speaking students to learn other languages, and the possibilities for using an MP3 player in the classroom are endless.

Some of the cons of MP3 players are: they are distracting, students can use them to cheat, some believe students isolate themselves when listening to them, and there is the temptation to illegally download or upload files.

The Wikimedia Commons website seems to be a great resource for teachers.  They have pretty much every content area in there, so you are bound to find something (whether it's a video, image, sound, etc.) that can be related to a lesson. Best of all everything available on the site is free.  The Radio Willow Web was interesting to see how a school was able to involve so many members of the school in creating podcasts about things going on in the school.  I think this would be fun to do, but it was also be somewhat time consuming with trying to keep posting things regularly.

I think the idea of teachers being able to post information in the podcasts.  If a student is sick and cannot make it school, then they do no have to worry about missing out on what the teacher was teaching that day.  It can also be a study aide for students to go back and listen to material that was taught during a unit.  I also like the idea of students being about to create podcast.  Publishing students work is a great way to boost self-esteem and also to encourage the students to put a lot of effort into each project.  Turning a story they wrote into podcast can make the students really proud of what they did, and they can share it with many people that way.