A Web 2.0 Approach to Internet Safety

Willard, Nancy. (2007). A Web 2.0 Approach to Internet Safety. Education World. Retrieved April 7,2010 from http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/columnists/willard/willard008.shtml

This article was about Internet safety. It discussed what some of the problems with current safety approaches and also solutions to those problems. She also stated six key components to ensure Internet safety for schools. They were: educational use, supervision and monitoring, meaningful consequences, accidental access to porn, inappropriate blocking, and Internet safety and responsible use education.

Educational Use

Teachers have to make sure that when they have students on the Internet doing certain assignments for class that they make sure it is educational and fun. If an activity is boring students are more likely to get off task and start surfing the web and could get into some bad sites.

Supervision and Monitoring

Teachers and administrators should not solely rely on blockers to ensure that students are going to safe sites. They need to be supervised and monitored regularly. When I went to Washington High School last January for paraprofessional the classroom laptop sets had a laptop only for teacher use and she could see every students monitor all the time. This was good because then she could see when a student was getting off task. I think all schools should have that program.

Meaningful Consequences

There should be consequences that are meaningful and that should help students not to repeat the same actions that got them in trouble in the first place. Willard suggests that taking away a students right of the Internet all together just causes more trouble. She suggests that the student can use the Internet they just have to be closely monitored. I think that would be a good solution. A teacher couldn't watch the student 100 % of the time that they are on the Internet but they could make the student stay close to them or have their monitor facing the teacher at all times.

Accidental Access to Porn

Not all blocking systems are 100% full proof. Sometimes a teacher or student can accidentally access a porn site. If it happens to student should immediately turn off the monitor then report it to a teacher or an administrator. This happened to me once by accident when I was in school. I was doing a report on pirates and I typed in "pirate" to google image and a picture of a lady wearing only a pirate hat showed up. I immediately closed out of google but didn't tell the teacher because I was afraid I would get in trouble. If students know that they will not get in trouble if they report it right away, that would be a good idea.

Inappropriate Blocking

There are many websites that are blocked but should not be. There are many teen sexual health websites that are blocked that could be useful to students. Willard suggests that the blocking should be up to the library media staff because they are trained in that kind of thing. They know about good websites that would be helpful for students and that should not be blocked.

Internet Safety and Responsible Use Education

There should be better programs that keep up with the changing environment of the world wide web. Most programs now are for web 1.0 but that is getting old. Also there needs to be more education for staff and students. They need to know how to protect themselves on the Internet. Teachers need to know how to help students stay safe on the Internet.

The Internet can be a very dangerous place but it also can be a very useful, helpful, wonderful place. There just needs to be boundaries to be set to make sure that students can get the full, wonderful, value of the Internet.

Interactive Whiteboards

Bell, Mary Ann. (2002). Teachers.Net Gazzette. Why Use an Interactive Whiteboard? A Baker's Dozen Reasons. Retrieved March 25, 2010 from

http://teachers.net/gazette/JAN02/mabell.html

This article explained what interactive white boards are and why they are a great tool to use for educators both in younger students and older students.

Dr. Mary Ann Bell gave 12 reasons why she thinks interactive white boards are a great tool. I am going to give my top reasons from her 12 to tell you why I think an interactive white board should be used in school.

1. It is great for showing how to do stuff step-by-step. In my high school Pre-Calculus class our teacher had a smart board and it had a graphing calculator in it. She would pull it up and it would be really big on the screen. She would then show us how to do something step-by-step on our calculators. This was extremely easy to follow along with because she was doing it where everyone could see exactly what button she was pushing.

2. It is a great tool for facilitating in how children learn. Some learn visually, some audioally, and some learn by doing. With a smart board a teacher can target all three learning styles. Visually because images can be put on the board. Audioally it could be good for like a literature class or something because you can find audio files of stories or plays being read by somebody. A child who learns by doing can actually come up to the smart board and click on things, write things, etc.

3. It is cost effective. It is a lot of money at first to buy the board, and projector and all that but in the end, it saves the school money. They can have one computer for a class instead of having

30 or so individual computers for each student. All of the students can interact and participate in using the interactive white board.

4. Interactive White Boards are clean. There is no need for custodians to go to every single classroom every single night to clean the boards. They have so much other things to worry about. Also with chalk boards, there is so much dust that comes with those. Also not to mention if people have allergies to chalk it would be hard to use. Even with white boards with the markers, those smell and can give people headaches. A smart board doesn't have any smell or doesn't leave any residue.

5. Kids love it! Children of all ages love to use the interactive white board. If students like to use something in education think of all we could teach them because they will actually be listening and paying attention to what is going on in class.

Interactive white boards are a great thing in general and if funding is available each school should buy them for their classrooms. The article only listed 12 reasons why interactive white boards are a good idea, but there are so many more possibilities that haven't even been thought of yet!

Studies Suggest Cyber Bullying is on the Rise

eSchool News. (2007). Studies Suggest Cyber Bullying is on the Rise. eschoolnews. Retrieved March 18, 2010 from http://www.eschoolnews.com/2007/12/04/studies-suggest-cyber-bullying-is-on-the-rise/

This article was all about cyber bullying. One study found out that 2/3 adolescents have been cyber bullied at least once. That is a really high number. Another study found out that only 1/10 adolescents have ever been cyber bullied. It all depends on how you define what cyber bullying is. It also depends on what the adolescent thinks. Some students that are bullied online are not really affected by it. It doesn't really bother them. To some students though, it can bring some serious damages.

In 2006 a 13 year old girl committed suicide from cyber bullying. She was communicating with this guy online who would always flirt with her. One day he decided that he was not going to speak with her anymore because he found out she was mean. This really devastated the girl and she ended up committing suicide. As it turns out, there was no boy. It was a mom of some other girl from school who was only pretending to be a boy flirting with her. No charges were pressed against the mom because there was no law at the time that she broke. After this girl's death though, they have made cyber bullying a misdemeanor in the state of Missouri.

I find this article really shocking. I personally have never experienced cyber bullying at all. This is so sad that this has to happen to people so young. Middle school age kids are going through all different kinds of emotions and to be bullied online only makes life tough for them. Also the mom that pretended to be that boy is horrible. Why would a mother ever want to do that? That is so childish and mean. This is a big problem and we need to figure out ways to try to stop this bullying.

Make Way for Wikis

Oatman, E. (2005). Make Way for Wikis. School Library Journal. Retrieved March 10, 2010 from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6277799.html

This article was all about wikis. They mentioned the ways that some teachers are using them now. In an elementary school in New York, Sarah Chauncey, the school's media specialist made wikis for 6 classes of 3rd graders. They will use the wikis to write drafts and to collaborate on what they want to include in the school's newspaper. In a school in California, a world history class published their own history on the Holocaust on a wiki. The state of Virginia is receiving a grant from Microsoft to create a virtual wiki community. These are just some of the way that teachers are using wikis to help facilitate learning.

The article also talked about how wikis work. Wikis were created in 1995 by Ward Cunningham. He invented it so other programmers could efficiently share information. One does not need to be a programmer to use it. It is very user-friendly. Some of the wikis are free to use, which is a good thing in education. The one's that are not free are not that expensive. They are usually around $5 a month.

The other half of the article was about wikipedia and the argument of being a good resource and tool for students or not being a good source for reliable information. Many scholarly people do not believe that wikipedia belongs in the schools as a place for students to get information for research. Some say it is, "poorly written, incomplete, and inaccurate." Others are for it. They say that the errors are caught soon and are quickly fixed, and that most users do not even see these inaccuracies because they are fixed so soon.

As a future teacher I think that wikipedia can be used for general research like if a student wants to find something out real quick. For a research paper though I would want them to use scholarly information like journals. Schools pay thousands of dollars a year for access to these journals and students should take advantage of this. All the journals are scholarly and were edited for correct information.

On the other hand I think the wiki pages are good to use in the classroom. It can be used in many different ways that would be beneficial to the learning environment. One way that I can think of is having students type up their papers in the wikis then the other students can peer edit their papers. The students can receive feedback on how to improve their papers, or they can get their grammatical errors fixed. I think wikis are a good thing and we will be seeing them used more and more throughout the schools of the United States.

Mobile Technology Goes to School

Bafile, C. (2009). Education World. Mobile Technology Goes to School. Retrieved March 5, 2010 from http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech248.shtml

Matt Cook is a 5th grade teacher at Trinity Meadows Intermediate School in Keller Texas. He noticed that a lot of kids were using their phones in school. Instead of figuring out ways to keep the phones out of school he figured out a way to use them in school. He had to write to many different companies to try to support this program. Verizon Wireless supports the service, HTC donates the phones, and Microsoft Mobile helps with the software issues.

How does using cell phones in school help the students? They complete many different assignments from home and e-mail them to Mr. Cook. Also the kids can e-mail him questions from home if they have questions about the homework. In school he encourages the students to take pictures of their scientific discoveries in the lab. They can also make PowerPoint's from school, sketch pictures with a new application.

How does he make sure that his students are doing the work and not texting or goofing off? The phones are not voice or text enabled. This way they are only to be used educationally.

I think this is a great thing. Students are able to communicate so much more with their teacher. In high school, you could e-mail a question to the teacher and hope they reply to you before the next class period. This way there is a guarantee that the teacher will reply to you because phones are so small and you can carry them with you whever you go. I think phones in the classroom are a good thing because it makes teacher/student relationships stronger but in a safe and healthy way.

Web 2.0 in the Classroom

Trista Beshara
Febrary 23,2010

Black, J. (2008). Retrieved February 23, 2010 from http://web20intheclassroom.blogspot.com/2008/10/ways-to-use-blogs-in-your-classroom-and.html.

This article listed 33 ways that teachers can use blogs in the classroom. The three I found most interesting and maybe most helpful are: creating a blog with the daily lesson plans and assignments, creating a blog with audio clips of students reading their favorite stories and drawing pictures to go with it, and creating a blog where students can post news of "good" things that happen in their community.

First of all I think that creating a blog with daily lesson plans and daily homework assignment would be very helpful and useful. It would be the most help to students that are absent. They can see what the class did that day and try to get the assignment done before they come to class. Another way this is good is because then the teacher does not have to explain to 20 kids what the class did the day they were absent. The student can go on the blog and find out for themselves.

Second, creating a blog with audio clips of students reading their favorite stories and having drawings of them would be so cool. Let's face it. Some kids do not like to read and will hardly ever pick up a book. This way it can get the student motivated to read the book because they can draw pictures of their interpretation of the book or they can be motivated to read the book out loud so they can have their "15 minutes of fame" on the Internet.

Thirdly I think creating a blog with only "good" news of the community would be a great way to encourage kids to stay out of trouble and do the right thing. Everything on the news is just bad. People are dying, are getting robbed, etc. There is hardly ever stories of people going out of their way to help others. This way if students post blogs about the good they see in their community it may encourage others to do good also.

Web Wonders

Trista Beshara
February 18, 2010

Troutner, J. (2004). Web Wonders. Teacher Librarian. Retrieved February 18, 2010 from http://www.teacherlibrarian.com/tltoolkit/web_wonders/wonders_23_1.html.

This article was about where teachers can find the best sites to learn how to use computer technology at its fullest. There are all kinds of web sites that are free and give tutorials on how to use new programs and software. Some of these sites are also kid friendly.

There is a website called webmonkeyforkids that helps kids set up their own web page. How awesome is that? Students can now find new and creative ways to express themselves and their knowledge. Some students are not comfortable writing with a pencil and paper. For some students writing with a pencil and paper is not even possible, they may have learning disabilities which inhibit them from doing this. I think allowing students to be creative in other ways, like creating movies, taking pictures, etc. and sharing them with others on a web site is so wonderful. Students with learning disabilities are now able to partake in learning and sharing creativity.

The article also talked about programs like Home Planet which shows cities from space. It is a lot like google earth but more easily accessible for kids. I think this would be fun for kids because they can learn and have fun at the same time. They can get excited because they can see their school or their house but then the teacher can explain to them how a satellite works or show them how far away they are from a different country or something.

This article gives teachers a place to start to learn how to interactive with students through technology. There are only a few sites in this article but they all lead to more sites and the learning environment in the classroom will be more enjoyable for everyone.

Technology Trends

Trista Beshara
February 11, 2010

McCrea, B. (2009). 5 K-12 Technology Trends for 2010. Transforming Education Through Technology. Retrieved February 11, 2010, from http://thejournal.com/Articles/2009/12/10/5-k12-Technology-Trends-for-2010.aspx?Page=1

This article was about what kinds of technology trends people should expect in the school systems this year. Through help with the government stimulus package a lot of schools were able to buy more computers for their school.
At number one on the list was e-books. Although they will not infiltrate our schools anytime soon, they are a possibility in the future when there is more advancements made for them. They are only in black and white so far. E-books would be good for the schools because then students wouldn't have to Carry so many books in their backpacks.
Number two on the list was net books. Since schools can buy mini net books for as low as $200 or $300. One advantage of these net books is that it would eliminate the need for schools to issue more than one device per student. Net books are capable of being multi-taskers.
Coming in on number three was interactive whiteboards. These are very helpful because they get students up out of their seats and lets them interact with their learning.
Number four was portable devices. A lot of these devices have large screens and are capable of getting internet. Since a lot of children have these devices already, the next step would to be to bring them into the schools.
At five on the list was that technology will have a tailored curricula. Since computers can track many things, teachers could track students progress and could have custom based lesson plans based on an indivisual child's needs.

I think all these technology trends are a great addition to the school system. We live in an age where six year olds know how to chat on facebook, so why not bring this same technology in the classroom. I think with all this technology there is a lot of room for personal discovery for students. They will be able to answer questions for themselves and they can share these answers and discoveries with other students. Students will retain more information if they find it out for themselves and with all this technology available for students this only makes the discovery process more exciting and fun for them.