Response #1
I for one have always been a stickler for tradition and I personally think that more technology in the classroom leads to more distractions. I can't deny though that technology does have its place in the classroom. Of course, as an English Teacher in training, I don't see myself needing digital cameras or graphic tablets in my classroom, but I wouldn't mind electronic readers (Nook First Generation or the basic Kindle, no ipads, kindle fires, or anything with excessive apps) and ebooks in the classroom as long as I can put an internet block on them so students are paying attention and make sure that they don't have games on them. Ebooks are cheeper and getting the new edition of a textbook on an e-reader is much easier. I still would prefer to teach in a classroom where there was less technology because as an english teacher I wouldn't have much use for it and kids have problems as it is paying attention in their English classes; they don't need anymore distractions from excessive technology.
Response #2
There are several audiovisual technologies that can be used in the classroom. Two such audio technologies are the talking books (traditional) and the internet audio (emerging). The talking book would be best used in classrooms where the students are either still learning how to read or need to improve their reading skills. It helps the students to follow along in the book and helps them pronounce and learn the words on the pages. The internet audio helps the teacher out by saving them money while still enhancing the lesson. It allows the teacher to retrieve specific audio clips, whether it be from a radio broadcast, song, or tv show. Two visual technologies are the overhead projector (traditional) and the document camera (emerging). The overhead, though old, is a very useful tool for a classroom because it enhances the size of a document and presents it to the class. It's great for doing math problems in math classes and it can be used in classes to group edit a paper and good for giving notes. A document camera can do all of that as well but unlike an overhead projector, the teacher doesn't need to make a document into a transparency, which saves money. It also allows the teacher to do present 3-D objects. A science teacher could do a dissection of a frog on one!
