An invitation to all teachers in Monterey County

how are you using technology in your classrooms? Do you make your students leave their cellphones in their locker rooms? Or do you have them tweet in class about what they've learned? Do you use laptops, ipads or wii?

It's a question that popped into my mind as I sat listening to Jennifer Pust, an English teacher at Santa Monica High School, a self-described technophile who, nonetheless, at times struggles with incorporating more technology into the classroom.

Pust spoke at a seminar on technology and education organized by The Hechinger Institute, where I'm getting some new ideas and confirming others: yes, kids these days are very, very wired (you'd have to be playing Pong for the last two decades to ignore that one). But how these new media is affecting their learning is not quite that clear. Young students are distracted by Facebook whenever they're doing homework, but if they post a question and ten of the BFF answer, is that such a bad thing?

I've heard there's a teacher out there in the Monterey Peninsula who's using You Tube to enhance his math lessons. Do you have similar stories do you want to share? An opinion on how technology is enhancing/disrupting your classroom experience? District officials, do you have guidelines on how teacher can/cannot use technology in the classroom? Post your answer, email me or send me a tweet!