I definitely agree that classroom activities must include intense interaction, including integrating activities outside of the classroom as well, to ensure that students are able to make authentic connections to the material.  Simply giving students the chance to play around with word processing applications or a game will probably not prove to be beneficial.  I also think that, in order to successfully use technology into our classroom, we have to move outside our comfort zones.  The only way I remember using technology in a classroom was to compile a slideshow, or something to that effect, which is not enough to cognitively engage students with their work.  And while it is easier said than done, we certainly need to learn to be flexible and open to new ideas that might work in the classroom, especially when we are working in low SES schools, where computer use may not extend into the home.

Warschauer’s conversation regarding advanced activities reminded me of something my 16 year old brother showed me this weekend.  He is taking Chinese as his foreign language component at a school in Oklahoma and was excited about a Notepad program he was required to have on his computer.  With the program, he was able to take notes on an English keyboard and it was then magically transcribed into Chinese.  I could not help but wonder how much this was really helping him learn the language since he was not able to translate the sentences, and actually had to convert them back to English to be able to read more than a few words.  How can we expect students to use higher level cognitive learning when we ask them to use only basic programs, either because we do not know others exist or because these are the programs with which we are most familiar?  I am not sure the prevalence of programs like this in schools, but I believe that he could have been shown some amazing resources for the class but instead was given what amounts to a big waste of time.