Technology for Teaching

I'm intrigued by the article, " 'A' Is For App" in the magazine Fast Company (www.fastcompany.com/magazine/144).  It is about a teaching tool called "TeacherMate" where, with guidelines set by a teacher, children can choose games to play that further their academic skills.  Teachers are seeing huge jumps in progress, plus there are terrific implications for children without access to schools.  I know there are a lot of apps out there that help childen write letters, learn phonetic words for reading and so on.  I'm wondering what your experience is?  What do you think of this kind of technology being used in schools?  I know that when I brought my net book into the environment for record-keeping and notes, it was a big experiment.  Primary guides just don't do that!  However, the children never really noticed it, possibly because computers are such a part of our society.  The net book has allowed me to keep fabulous, up-to-date records on Excel,  and the records can be sorted instantly into presented, not presented, working, or mastered.  I also keep notes and materials that I am planning to present in the cells, with a file tab for each child.  I have everything right there, with no transferring of information to yet another paper format.  I'm still using my hands.  I think Maria Montessori would like my record keeping.