Hey all this is Jeff Ho, I'm in my late 20's and I love video games and as a result have created my own Youtube channel where I review and talk about my opinions on various games I’m playing.  My channel combines two of my greatest loves in my life namely writing and technology.  This will lead me into my first topic for my first post which is to answer the question “what role do I believe media technology should play in teaching at any level”.  And to answer that I believe it should play a significant role if not the largest possible role.  As a child I grew up in the LAUSD public school system.  As destitute this school system was back in the early 1990’s they did have computers as early as my first grade year in school.  I remember it well they had the old Macintosh computers with the screen only had 2 colors black and green.  Despite this I played educational games like Where is Carmen San Diego and Oregon Trail and little did I know how much of an impact this kind of rudimentary technology at the time would have on the rest of my life.  Now our world is run from our smartphones, technology is moving faster than ever and I was one of the first generations that grew up from a young age alongside computer technology having that incorporated into my school education.  It has greatly influenced my life and I believe I would not have my own Youtube channel today had I not experienced technology in the way I had when I was a young boy in school.  

The follow up question to this is “Have you witnessed any particularly effective or ineffective uses of media technology as a student?”.  And to this I say yes, those games I played back in the day on that old Macintosh computer in first grade.  Well a few years later when my family got our own home computer I remembered those games and asked my dad to buy them for me and he did.  I played them constantly when I was little and before I knew it i was able to type proficiently and had a decent understanding of how programs and operating systems worked just from playing some simple educational games on this old computer back in the early 1990’s.  Media and technology rules so many facets of people’s lives but also of children’s lives.  If people and especially educators can combine fun and learning using apps or games the potential benefits for kids is huge as they gain valuable skills and knowledge without feeling like it’s boring or hard work.