Internet Safety Reaction

Internet safety is an absolute must, and from a parents perspective you cannot be too safe.  When it comes to the internet people of all ages need to be aware of the situation and how to handle it.  There are many preventative measures to take but all need to be in place to actually prevent misuse of the internet.

One way is to use the parental controls, they allow you to block programs that you do not want your child to view.  Also, schools often have a program that blocks pages, which helps avoid the misuse of the internet at schools.  All children need to be watched while on the internet, not continuously but enough to know what they are doing.  If you suspect your child is misusing the internet be sure to keep an eye on them and ask questions, also look out for suspicious behaviors.

Chat rooms are a big contributor to online problems, many  sex offenders love to spend all their time in them.  They start to talk to the kids, and lure them in to them.  After that they get them to call them and therefore giving the predator the child's number.  Even though the child thought that they followed all their parents rules the predator still got some private information from the child.

The best way to achieve internet safety is to talk to your kids, and only allow so much time on the internet.  Keep the computer in an area where all can see, none in the bedrooms.  Use the internet with your child, and watch for signs of your child being stalked.  All parents need to be aware of the internet problems that are out there, and help their children to learn to avoid them.

Dowshen, S. (2008) Internet Safety.  KidsHealth.  Retrieved November 15, 2009, from http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/net_safety.html#.

Smart Boards in K-3 Classrooms Reaction

Smalling talks about how to integrate the smartboard into the classroom.  A smartboard is best defined as an interactive white board.  It give students the hands on experience, and lets them interact with all the lessons.  Feedback from the students has been comments saying that it is much better than pencil and paper, and that they enjoy it.

Teachers can conduct nearly every lesson plan on a smartboard with ease.  You can show videos on it, take notes, brainstorm, and present, by using the smartboard.  The smartboard helps engage those students who maybe be shy or non cooperative.  It allows the teacher to store their information on it, and get instant feedback from the students to analyze if they understand the topic or not.  The smartboard is an item that can be used all the way from early childhood to college or older student.

The good thing about the smartboard is that it helps involve all the students.  This is a good way to bring technology into the classroom.  Since the smartboard gives instant results it helps guide the lesson plan.  The smartboard is though too expensive for many schools, and it can be distracting to those students that have never worked with the smartboard may get off subject for awhile.  

The videos that explained the lesson plans and the smartboard interactions were a great example to see how the smart board can be used within the classroom.  Many teachers are using the smartboard to show their students that education is important and they are trying to "meet you where are."  I see the smartboard as being a huge gain in the classroom, it gives the students the boost to keep pushing.  Students are more willing to contribute with the classroom when they are able to work with the smartboard.  These videos prove how engaging a classroom becomes when one brings in hands on materials.

I think that there should be a government grant that supplies all rooms with smartboards since they give a huge advantage in the classroom.  The smartboard is one way to interact with the students of the 21st century.  As a student and a future teacher I back the smartboard all the way, I just love working with it.

Smalling, L.  (2008) Get Smart!  Smartboards in K-3 Classrooms.  Connexions.  Retrieved November 2, 2009 from http://cnx.org/content/m18121/latest/.

Reaction to Cyber Bullying

Lisante, J. (2005) Cyber Bullying: No Muscles Needed. Connection for Kids. Retrieved October 20, 2009, from http://www.connectforkids.org/node/3116.

Cyber bullying, the act of harrasment by the use of technology. Almost half the students have reported that they have been bullied, a little over half the students also reported to have said something hurtful to another student online. A lot of students even make a new name that people do not recognize just to make fun of people. Unfortunately, most people do not get caught, and cyber bullying is becoming a huge problem in schools.
The schools now tells students that school grounds are not just where you come in and where you go out, but because of the internet school grounds are now everywhere. When I was younger whatever happened off school grounds was no longer the schools problem, even if it dealt with another students. Due to the demand that came along with the internet, schools grounds needed to be enlargened to include the internet. Therefore if a student is caught cyber bullying they can get in trouble with the school even if it is not during school hours. When caught they must go infront of a community trial and be decided if they are suspened or kicked out of the school. More harsh restrictions are being put into place to help prevent cyber bullying.
The biggest problem that causes cyber bullying is the idea of instant gratification, it is reported that most students who cyber bully are not always the ones who would have to nerve to do it in person. When you have instant gratification mixed with technology, you can have a disaster. Technology travels at the speed of light, or close to it, and so what you write and click post is instantly available to the public. A scary thought, but when you are writing in the face of anger you do not think of consequences or where it will end up, all that you are thinking about is getting back at that one person.
There is now a new bill that is pending that takes action against cyber bullying. It is even said that harassment by computer is punishable up to one year in prison or a large fine. This is a good thing because it lets the student know that what they are doing is illegal, and that they do suffer serve consequenes from it. Cyber bullying is not only found in adolescences but adults to, and this law will be able to punish both.
To help prevent cyber bullying parents need to sit down with their student and talk about what is acceptable and what is not. You can also ask your child to help teach you to be computer savvy, by doing so it lets you see just how advanced your child is. Some otehr good pieces of teachnology to use is the parental controls, avaliable through a lot of companies, to help prevent your kid getting in to everything. One company even gives you a report of all the action your child has done on the computer for the week.
Now it is time for schools and parents to work as one to help prevent their student from becoming a cyber bully or from being bullied. Rules need to be shared between the two places, and in interest of each other. Each place needs to have consequences for not following the rules, and rewards for following the rules.

Reaction to 5 Strategies to Using Wikis in the Classroom

Wikis are becoming very popular, maybe it is because they are one of the easiest web 2.0 applications to use, or it is because it help engage the students of the 21st century. There are more than 180,000 wikis used in classrooms today. Wikis are a free application, that requires no dowloading software, and has privacy settings to keep your students information confidential. The wiki sites allow students to work together without having to be together.
Students can work on collaborative projects with the wiki. All the students have to have is access to the internet outside of school, and then they can log on at anytime and work on the project. This allows the students to work as a team without having to make schedules perfect, since we are so busy now this is way more ideal. Many times school projects get overwhelming because you can not get a time set to work with your whole group, there is always conflicts, the wiki eliminates this aspect.
Students can also demonstrate their knowledge on the wiki. The can make submit their work to the wiki, and cite sources along with doing this like making time lines for history class. The nice thing about this aspect is the organization factor, instead of having a million papers sitting around that you are trying to collaberate, the wiki will do it instead. A time saving application, yet a vauable one for educational purposes, it lets the students spend more time learning than searching.
Teachers can use the wiki to connect with studnets and to give them a whole list of resources that they can benifit from throught the year. The website allows you to insert new and delete old at any time you want. This gives your students the benifit of easily locating rescources that are acceptable for their work.
The wiki can work as a classrooms news page, or daily event planner. The teacher can put all the class information into the wiki site and keep everything for the class easy to locate. They can add a calender, newletter, homework assignments, notes, classroom rules, and many other things. Then the students are the parents or cargivers of the students can easy locate everything they need and stay informed.
One of my favorite features is the idea of using the wiki as a filling cabinet. The wiki can store files, images, videos, student artifact, and almost anything you can think of. It is a controlled area where only the teacher can access it, meaning it's safe. Also, the teacher can reach this "filing cabinet" anytime they wish, they do not need to be on school grounds to do so. It is great as a backup resource.
As the popularity of the wiki grows so does the demand of finding new way to improve the wiki and its uses. Although, just by having a wiki does not mean that you are engaging the students it needs to be a two way street. The students have to be willing to use the wiki and share information. When the wiki is used appropriately and each person is using the site then it becomes very engaging for all students. The wiki is a great way to help engage our new 21st century learners.

Wetzel, D. (2009). Suite101. 5 strategies for using wikis int he classroom. Retrieved October 15, 2009, from http://teachingtechnology.suite101.com/article.cfm/5_strategies_for_using_wikis_in_the_classroom

Educational Uses for Cell Phones Reaction

Marc Prensky talks about the possiable uses for cell phone in the classroom setting. The nice the about cell phones is that most people have one, even in elementary schools the number of students with a cell phone are rapidly reaching fifty percent. Cell phones are like a miniture computer that fits into your pocket, therefore meaning, extremely convinient. If cell phones are one of the biggest resources students have to connect on why not let them use them to there fullest advantage? Today'g high-end cell phones have the same computing power are our mid-1190's PC did. "It's time we begin thinking of our cell phones as computers(1)."
"Most American teachers and administrators believe that cell phones have no place in the educational procces(2)." Maybe it is time to re-think the cell phone, the main question Prensky says is "What can the learn" and the answer is "anything," but it all depends if we design it right. Think of exactly every part of a cell phone, and its potential for classroom use.
Voice only cell phones, they are the most common but rapidly being upgraded. They can be used for things like learing languages, on of the biggest things it is being used for. It also can be used for poetry, literature, public speaking, writing, storytelling, and history. One can take a guided tour of voice or listen to a lecture. "...virtual relationships are now second nature to students, and often preferred(4)."
SMS, or also known as Short Messaging Service, they provide timely remiders and other things. SMS is used by tv shows to do polls and by marketers informational quizzes.. In schools SMS can be used for pop quizzes, poll students' opinions, class discussion, tutoring, and testing.
Graphic displays, most peoples cell phone has some type of graphic display even if it is basic. Schools are currently using computers for animations in things like anatomy and forensics, but just think, we could use cell phones instead. Someday cell phones will replace text books, since they can be put onto phones.
Downloadable programs, people can download the same tools and teaching programs that we download on our computers, and use them in new ways. So by letting them use their phones you will see more exploration.
Internet Browsers, the downfall is that the internet cost more money a month, but it is possiable to use it on almost every phone. There are websites being specifically designed for cell phone compatability. Therefore this is turning peoples cell phones into research tools.
Cameras, they can be used in the classroom for collection data, documenting, jouralism, classifing images, follow progressions overtime. It can also encourage creative writting when they capture a perfect image.
Global posistioning, since each cell phone has a device in it to tell exactly where you are, it is easy to collect information from your location. Some colleges are already using this feature during orientation.
Video clips, this is a new feature, but is able to be used in class to encourage television journalism and creative movie making.
As you can see there are endless possibilies to the world of cell phones. It is accepting them and changing our norms to fit into the 21century technology. As future teachers we need to accept the changing world and encourage the use to help teach our students.

Prensky, M. (2004). What can you learn from a cell phone - Almost anything. Marc Prensky. Retrieved October 6, 2009, from
http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky-What_Can_You_Learn_From_a_Cell_Phone-FINAL.pdf

Not All Who Twitter are Twitts Reaction

Doug Johnson gives an interesting take on exactly what twitter is, and who is currently using it. He states that he does have a twitter account, but he does not twitt. Twitter sounds like it is quite similar to a blog, as Johnson says, "micro-blogging." One of the big hits that people often write on is, "What are you doing," a better question may have been what has stumped you today.
Johnson has yet to find exactaly what it is that he could use twitter for in his class, but he does give a link to a website where teachers blog about their use of twitter in class. Twitter seems that it could be a good thing, but you need to explore it quite a bit first to see what content you need to avoid. Twitter is a social system, sounds like a mix of facebook and blogger, I am not a current member, but it sounds like I soon will be.
One complaint is that people always blog about being stuck in an airport, going to work, talking at a confrence, and what happened to them today. It is irrelevant to most people what happened to everybody else in the world, so why post it. Johnson states that he wishes the site would have, may I say, more intellectual conversations going on. Also, he notes that the website does not promote in depth things because they only let you type one hundred and fourty words per post.
When are people twittering is another question to consider, is it on their time or somebody else's. Students are doing it via mobile internet during class, and workers are doing it while they are on the clock. This is a huge downfall since they are taking up valuable time that needs to be done elsewhere. So, how valuable can twitter be.
The nice thing about twitter is that it lets people connect and follow each others post, they can see exactly what you said and when you said it. One may describe it as a twenty four seven chat room, where you don't always have to be logged in to see what happend. Therefore it makes it easy to stay in contact with people and ask questions and get a timely response.
I went to the teacher who twitter homepage, but it was hard to naviagate and find good information on it. I do think that twitter could be a good way to connect with your students and your students with each other, but you would have to have a close watch on everything they say on there and do. No matter what website you use the internet is a dangerous place, so twitter is just as good as the rest of the website you can use in your classroom.
Johnson ends his journal about how he may not be the biggest fan of twitter but thinks that you need to discover it yourself before you make any decisions. He is all about people learning about new technology and finding ways to put it to use in classrooms. Twitter can be a website you may want to use in your class, you will just need to navigate the site yourself and then decide.

Johnson, Doug. (2009). The online school. Not All Who Twitter are Twitts. Retrieved October 1, 2009, from http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/columnists/johnson/johnson034.shtml.

Geeking Out Reaction

"Geeking out," is a term that means actually learning from doing things like texting, twittering and instant messaging. A new study, or may I say project, has formed the word based on the fact that students are learning things like technological skills, how to get along with other people, how to maintain an online public identity, and many other things. People say that students of the 21st century have to geek out inorder to become interested, it allows them to be focused and make many gains in the area of interest.

A new website has emerged, and it is called Cagito.com, it is where students of all ages go to engage in science and math activities. This I find striking because it does go to show that kids are using the internet for educational purposes not only inside the school but outside it too. One way to explain this website is like a large chat room used for the purpose of talking about educational ideas. It allows kids to get somebody elses take on the topic. Which is always the best way to expand your knowledge is to learn from those around you and their ideas. The best thing about this site is that well known and reputable sources come on the site to chat with the students too, it would be like us going to a reading or signing of an author but actually gettting to chat with them. Amazing to say the least.

The site allows students to ask who, what, where, when, and why without feeling pressure from others. Allowing them to gather as much information as they want, and really getting to know what they believe is most important to them. The site is also said to play a huge role in kids choosing their career paths, because they become motivated for something. The quote I love that the student has said about the website is, "I learn, I teach."



Geeking Out With Digital Media. (2009, August 19). Retrieved September 22, 2009, from Tech and Learning: http://www.teachlearning.com/