Students demonstrate future tools

Whenever I am curious about what tools our students will be using in the future, I find it helpful to ask seventh graders.  Monday, the nice folks at Lonely Planet released a great marketing idea.  They made most of the European City Apps free to help out all the people stranded by the Icelandic ash cloud.  These apps usually cost around $10 each.  I told the seventh graders who were planning trips to European countries (trip planning is everybody's favorite unit, and a great way to end the year) about the Lonely Planet deal.  Of course the kids who had iPhones or iPod Touches with them wanted to download the Apps immediately.  It was great watching them use these tools so responsibly during class.  They are more excited than ever to plan their trips, Lonely Planet has made these students very happy, and of course, they all went home and told their parents about the cool apps they downloaded at school.  Another very clever piece of marketing on the part of Lonely Planet.  It is great to watch kids working on their laptops, listening to music with headphones (or watching YouTube videos of the countries to which they are planning trips), with their iPhones/Touches next to them running travel apps.  The future of education tools looks very bright indeed.  Photos to be posted tomorrow.