As the saying goes, "If you can't beat 'em, join'em!"
I'm talking about electronic gadgets. Especially gadgets among our kids today... Oh, you just can't escape them can you? Name it - iPhones, Blackberrys, the laptops, MP3 players, those portable game things like the PSPs... Everywhere we turn, we see not one, not two, but almost all of our kids engrossed in one or the other!
So what do we do then? I don't think banning them would be the answer... Worse things could come out of that and after all, mobility and the internet is the way of the world now.
But what about in schools? How do we control our children from using too much gadgets for casual fun instead of focusing on their studies?
Well, I read that students at Somerset Elementary School in Mendota Heights are being given the Apple's iPod Touch which are integrated into their curriculum. So instead of using paper, kids are using applications on the iPod Touch to learn. What a great idea!
Teachers at Somerset are saying that the kids are thrilled with this new way of learning. One of the teachers said that the kids are now more engaged than ever before, probably because learning is now like playing a fun game to them... fun but educational.
And gadgets are also taking over with the slightly older crowd - students at Abilene Christian University get the option of a free iPhone or an iPod Touch when they enroll - which the students are using to turn in homework, look up campus maps, watch lecture podcasts and check class schedules and grades. For classroom participation, there’s even polling software for Abilene students to digitally raise their hand.
In this separate article, it also says that, "The traditional classroom, where an instructor assigns a textbook, is heading toward obsolescence. Why listen to a single source talk about a printed textbook that will inevitably be outdated in a few years? That setting seems stale and hopelessly limited when pitted against the internet, which opens a portal to a live stream of information provided by billions of minds."
I'm truly fascinated with this article - how different things are today as compared to a few years ago! Read the rest of the article below, and see for yourself how your kids are consuming knowledge today 
How the iPhone Could Reboot Education
How do you educate a generation of students eternally distracted by the internet, cellphones and video games? Easy. You enable them by handing out free iPhones — and then integrating the gadget into your curriculum.
That’s the idea Abilene Christian University has to refresh classroom learning. Located in Texas, the private university just finished its first year of a pilot program, in which 1,000 freshman students had the choice between a free iPhone or an iPod Touch.
The initiative’s goal was to explore how the always-connected iPhone might revolutionize the classroom experience with a dash of digital interactivity. Think web apps to turn in homework, look up campus maps, watch lecture podcasts and check class schedules and grades. For classroom participation, there’s even polling software for Abilene students to digitally raise their hand.
