I'm actually on my way to becoming a teacher right now and just started my practicum, which is essentially just observing a teacher and his / her students. The teacher I'm observing is one of the heads of the I-Pad technology initiative in this school, so you'd think that I would see some really interesting uses for the I-Pad in the classroom, right? (10th Grade English, Honors) So far I've seen the I-Pads used for taking quizzes, writing responses, drawing, and playing games and/or listening to music in the classroom. As you can imagine, I see the latter options much more frequently than the former. I just don't see any point in using technology like this. Frankly it's just another distraction that the teacher and I have to deal with constantly. I won't argue that technology CAN and SHOULD be integrated into the classroom. However, implementing technology just for the sake of saying that you are doing so is idiotic, AND EXPENSIVE! There are some limited and legitimate uses for technology in the classroom, but we still need to concentrate on the basics. I-Pads can be somewhat useful, but I cringe every-time I see these students start composing a written response on them, and even my mentor teacher admits that these devices are more of a distraction than anything else.

Earth first!! We can stripmine the other planets later...

Douglas Adams says it best.... We talked about how easy it was to make the mistake of anthropomorphising animals, and projecting our own feelings and perceptions on to them, where they were inappropriate and didn't fit. We simply had no idea what it was like being an extremely large lizard, and neither for that matter did the lizard, because it was not self-conscious about being an extremely large lizard, it just got on with the business of being one. To react with revulsion to its behaviour was to make the mistake of applying criteria that are only appropriate to the business of being human. Chimps aren't humans, nor do they want to be; they dont think the way us meatbags do and implying they do is a mistake.