Ok, I admit it. I’m becoming a tech gadget junkie. Earlier in the school year, I successfully wrote a grant and was able to obtain 2 Tungsten E2 Palms with keyboards, various science probes from Imagiprobe, a Sony Digital Video Camera, and a Kodak EasyShare digital camera. My class and afterschool group have been having a great time learning and integrating these cool gadgets into their daily learning. Not only do they use the E2’s with the science probes, but they use them to write their Roving Reporter article and then beam them to my laptop to be published on our class web page. They’ve made short commercials/news reports with the video camera and they take countless photos to record the happenings that occur during their Fifth Grade year. I have also personally purchased 2 USB Microphones from Logitech, (one headset and one desktop) for recording our podcasts. Just recently, I made a more personal and somewhat selfish purchase for myself – a 30G Video iPod! This has been one of the coolest gadgets I’ve played with. I feel like a kid on Christmas morning everytime I discover something new with this iPod. Now I own a 512 iRiver and my younger daughter has an iPod Nano, so it’s not like this is ‘new’ to me. The best part of this iPod, (other than the simplistic ease of loading music, photos, and podcasts on it) is the fact that my favorite podcasts that I listen to I can now take with me wherever I go! You have got to love technology! I have to admit that not only do I listen to podcasts for educators, but I like to hear what the students of podcasting are doing out there. One of the best, (I think) podcasts that is “By Kids, For Kids” is Radio WillowWeb. This particular podcast is produced by some extraordinary students from Willowdale Elementary and Tony Vincent. Tony definitely has a handle on this form of technology! Kudos to him and his students! Well,I’ve procrastinated enough. I had better get back to writing my paper for my final project this semester. Until next time.