I just realized that one of my favorite magazines, Discover, now has an archive section dating back to 1992.  All of this is available on their website for free.  You don’t even need to subscribe and login to access the information.

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This magazine contains many interesting articles on a variety of subjects including Heath & Medicine, Technology, Space, Mind & Brain, Physics, Math, Living World and many others. This site could be in the classroom for student research along with other internet and library resources.

I read an interesting article in ReadWriteWeb today on common objections to the use of Social Media.

Link to Article 

While reading this I was constantly comparing what the author was saying to the world of education. Although the article is set up for the business world I hear many of these same objections when I try to convince teachers to use social media to enhance instruction. Below is a brief overview of the ten common objections to social media. Read through them. Do you feel they apply to education? Do you think social media is a good tool to integrate into the curriculum or is it just a waste of time?

1. I suffer from information overload already.

2. So much of what’s discussed online is meaningless. These forms of communication are shallow and make us dumber. We have real work to do

3. I don’t have the time to contribute and moderate, it looks like it takes a lot of time and energy.

4. Our customers don’t use this stuff, the learning curve limits its usefulness to geeks.

5. Communicators [bloggers, tweeters] are so fickle, better to stay unengaged than risk random brand damage. We don’t want hostile comments left about us on any forum we’ve legitimized.6. Traditional media and audiences are still bigger, we’ll do new stuff when they do.       

7. Upper management won’t support it/dedicate resources for it.

8. These startups can’t offer meaningful security, they may not even be around in a year - I’ll wait until Google or our enterprise software vendor starts offering this kind of functionality

9. There are so many tools that are similar, I can’t tell where to invest my time so I don’t use any of it at all.

10. That stuff’s fine for sexy brands, but we sell [insert boring B2B brand] and are known for stability more than chasing the flavor-of-the-month. We’re doing just fine with the tools we’ve got, thanks.

As the world advances into the 21st Century, educators have to constantly be aware of what changes are taking place.  Many students in this era have cell phones, pda’s, laptops, ipods, psp’s and various other gadgets available to them.  The question for educators is do we fight this gadget war and deny these tools in schools or welcome them  with open arms taking advantage of the technology these toys have to offer.  Many school administrators feel there is more harm in allowing certain electronic devices in the building then there are benefits.  Others, however, advocate the use in school and think of innovative ways these tools could be used to improve upon preexisting classroom strategies. 

I am interested to see what others have to say in regards to these devices. Do you advocate the use of cell phones, ipods, psp’s, pda’s and even laptops in school or are you an opponent?  Let’s hear your thoughts….