Technology in the Classroom

As for the use of technology in my classroom, I have done several things this year that are new to me. I have already been using Promethean and the activinspire software, which is a learning process in itself, but it has given the students and myself an interesting avenue to present information and process it over and over again if necessary. I have also used moodle and blogs on a couple of occasion which have helped me discuss and collaborate with others about the materials that I teach. The newest venture that I have waded into is the wiki. I have created three wikis at this point for different reasons. The first was a wiki I created to have my students import information relating to the body systems. This was a experiment into how wikis work and if they would help the students with their project. I found that with a little prodding they can work and the students liked to use them. The second reason for the wiki was to get staff to create a list of things that they would like to evaluate for our 3 year curriculum cycle along with the best way to go about this process. I found this wiki was a little tougher to get rolling but once I got the staff on board it seemed to work all right.
I also use video and audio materials from time to time such as brainpop and youtube to get information that I feel is more present day for the students. Students seem to be turned off by the materials if they are not something they can relate to so the 1960 films and videos are only a laughing tool and not something they take seriously from what I can see. The Internet has opened up a lot of information that can show real life situation that the students can relate to. I try whenever possible to use materials that are relevant.
I have also been trying to use the ipod touch to see if there is a practical application for classroom use. I have found several fun and interesting ways to use it but with the electronics policies and Internet usages I haven't utilized any of these with students yet. I will, however, keep looking for ways to make it useful.