Show and Tell

     This chapter discusses several ways in which teachers and share technology that they are using or products students have created with parents, students, and the community. There are many different websites that Fryer suggests are good to use for this purpose.
     One website that is suggested is Tumblr. I am an avid Tumblr user recreationally, so the use of Tumblr in the classroom is interesting to me. I think that there are many reasons not to use Tumblr that people who just use Tumblr as a blogging website are not aware of, such as the highly charged political culture that exists on Tumblr and the potential to see very inappropriate content on the website. However, since Tumblr is probably something many students are already comfortable using and enjoy using, attempting to use it to show and tell could be successful.
     Another website that Fryer suggests using is Facebook. Since Facebook is a social media site that virtually everyone uses, it is an easy way to reach a large audience. I think that Facebook can be used beneficially in the classroom in many ways, such as creating groups for classes where students can post questions about assignments or the teacher can post reminders. I can also see a teacher using Facebook to create a page or group that parents could like or join to communicate with them about technology being used in the classroom.
     Fryer also suggests that students make online digital portfolios using either Google Sites or Wikispaces. This is something that I have had to do in many classes, but the portfolios were never shared with anyone beyond the teacher and other students. I think that there is a lot of potential in this to share student work with parents in a way that they can check in on what their student is doing at any time, as compared to a physical portfolio which parents usually only see at conferences.