are new technologies in education suitable for the classroom?

New cutting edge technologies available on the web such as real-time 3D, Augmented Reality and social networking promise tremendous advancement for students. Do they really work for the average 15 year old in the classroom of a public school?

Augmented Reality, for example, seems much more at home on mobile phones rather than behind a school computer in a classroom full of 30 kids.  Of course, not every kid is going to get an iPhone though! However, if it is done for a specific purpose, such as a group experiment  it may work!

Real-time 3D visualization of concepts and objects is revolutionary in eLearning, but would be limited to basic objects due to expense when having to cover such a wide area of subject areas. I think it would work if it is used sparingly to illustrate difficult concepts.

Social networking has the greatest promise. Collaboration and competition would be the main focus. Gaming and rewards would really engage an otherwise bored student. These are used in 3rd-party remedial and catchup businesses, so why not in the classroom?

Much more experimentation is needed in this area to test whether these technologies help or hinder the learning process.