Internet Safety Activities Ch 6

This chapter focuses on cyber citizenship and "netiquette" sense. Netiquette is etiquette for the internet, for example: respecting others' privacy and not doing anything online that will annoy or frustrate other people. It is important to educate our students on this matter, because a large part of the interactions will be through the internet so proper behavior is key. A key for texting is also included, which I think most teachers would agree is something majorly needed. Another chat is included where students can find questionable things that have been stated and identify the problem as well. There is a research activity that is include that have the students look up their state's cyber bullying law. This would inform students of what is going on in there state, which can only further improve their cyber safety knowledge. I noticed in these student pages that not many are include and when they are they are almost all writing activities. I would guess this is for early high school students, which would be a great unit since the topic is so relevant to their lives. Our students must be taught the proper way to behave on the internet since so much of their professional lives will incorporate the internet.

Internet Safety Activities Ch 5

This chapter focused on an internet safety unit that strives to educate students about the dangers of online safety. Students can make up profiles and examine one another to find information that might not be safe. This will help to make the students more aware of what they project on the internet. A role playing activity is included that will help students to see how a predator might present themselves on the internet. I think this could be a real eye opening activity for students to recognize that a predator will present themselves as someone their own age and as a friend. It is quite crucial that our students learn to protect themselves in the cyber world. Another useful activity is creating a class list of cyber safety tips. I think this would be a great way to have the students take ownership of their safety. If they have a hand in creating the class rules they are for more likely to respect them that if they are just simply impressed upon them. The student pages at the end of this chapter are clearly for older students. They include many more discussion question and independent writing activities. All in all this is a useful unit to implement into the classroom.

Internet Safety Activities Ch 4

The next unit focuses on managing personal information online. This would be a good unit to use with older grades as in fourth or fifth grades. This unit includes quite a bit of vocabulary terminology. I think there is a good possibility for some fun vocab games to get students into the lessons. In this lesson students and teachers will talk about what is appropriate and what is inappropriate to include in screen names. I think it would be good for students to work in pairs to come up with a screen name to present to the class. The class could then critique each other's screen names. The have an example of a chat for the students to look at and pick out what is wrong with the information that is given. I think a good adaption of this would be to have all the students get in a chat together and chat. The teacher could point out any problem that occur in the chat. This would be much more interactive and engaging for the students. This unit would also be a great opportunity to open the floor for discussion about texting and the danger that can accompany it. I think the odds of having students participate in an engaging discussion are pretty good since it is a topic they are interested in. Once again, student pages are included at the end for the teachers to use as they need them.

Internet Safety Activities Ch 3

I really enjoyed this chapter. This chapter discussed cyber bullying. This is so key to teach in every classroom. I think it would be truly beneficial to incorporate this entire unit into the curriculum. This chapter seeks to educate students on the danger of cyber bullying as well as what to do if themselves or a friend is being bullied. The chapter gives the teacher several option for the way in which they would like to implement the unit. Options include: groups, small group, or self-guided. I think small group would be best for this topic, personally. One activity has the students define what a hero is. This allows the students to begin thinking how they can act like a "hero" in terms of online safety. This unit also does a really good job of integrating other areas such as reading and writing into the unit., which is always a plus for teachers. At the end students can write stories about a cyber bullying and how they would stop it. The class could combine all of the stories into a big book of internet safety. Again there are a variety of students pages included at the end to support the teacher, which also allows her to use the parts of the unit she wants and discard those she does not intend to use.

Internet Safety Activities Ch 2

This chapter focused on a safari themed unit. The purpose was to educate students on make responsible online choice and always having the help and permission of adults when going online. Online pre and post assessments are included for this unit. Students will go on a guided safari online. The continually stress that when you go on a safari you need help, which is also true in browsing the internet. It provides an internet rules sheet, which would be great for teachers to hang in the classroom. Inappropriate and appropriate websites will be discussed. I think this is absolutely crucial to define for students what is acceptable and what is not. At the end of the chapter students pages are included, which are great resources for the teacher. I think putting internet safety in the context of a safari would be highly engaging for the students, which would help them to retain the information being given to them much better.

Teaching with Digital Images (Ch 5)

This was another helpful chapter out this book. This chapter focused on why we should use digital images in education. First the author began by citing a study by National Standards for ArtEducation that found students not only need to learn to communicate verbally, but they should also learn how to process information visually. The author also reminds us how images are significantly important in memory and imagination, which of course are key in education. The author illustrates the importance of images by showing two pictures that convey the same story, but they use different artistic elements in order to get there. I like that this shows how you can express two different feeling about the same story simply by using pictures, I think this is an important concept for students to grasp through education. Byincorporatig the arts students give moreo of themselves than the normally would in the general subject areas. I liked the quote the author used byEric Jensen "Good learning does not avoid emotions, it embraces them." this was a pretty nice quote since he is who we are studying in our brain based learning class. I definitely agree with him. I think students will learn more easily if they are emotionally connected to the material they are learning. The author then discussed several reasons why teachers should do storytelling with digital images, which include: humanistic, cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural, multisensory multimodal, constructivist, and memory and narrative. There are too many positives to not include digital images into the educational environment. It can really only serve to enhance your classroom.

Teaching with Wikis, Blogs, Podcasts, and More (Ch 3)

This chapter focused on teachers can appropriately incorporate interactive whiteboards into their classrooms. This is rather valuable, because I think teachers often have the technology in their classrooms, but they are not quite sure how to use it. The book first suggests to simply acquaint your students with the interactive whiteboard. This can be done by having students give presentations using the whiteboard. I thought this was a good way to instruct students on the interactives use, while at the same time supporting other subject areas through the presentation. Next the chapter gave a list of uses for the classroom. They listed multimedia presentations, video, notes, critical thinking, and special needs students. The first three options I was fairly familiar with , but I don't believe i would have thought of the last two onmy own. The author suggest using an outline to organize a classroom brainstorming session. The teacher can then use concept mapping software and graphic organizers to better present the information. I thought this was a really great idea that will help to engage the students in the learning process. The author also discussed how the interactive board is capable of producing larger fonts and brighter colors, so it would accommodate some vision impaired students. I really like the fact that technology can help to better our special needs students. It truly is a great tool to use for ALL students in the classroom. The whiteboard can also be used for a number of classroom response systems, such as : taking attendance, student feedback, classroom voting, student surveys, etc. This chapter was full of helpful suggestions to help better employ the interactive whiteboard into the classroom!

Teaching with Digital Images (Ch 4)

This was a good chapter to support the book, Copyright Clarity, that we are reading and focusing on this week in class. The firs topic that was discussed was Fair Use in the classroom. It quotes section 107 of the 1976 Copyright Act " the fair use of copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction...for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching...scholarship, or research, is not infringement of copyright". This supports the fact that teachers and students can legally use copyrighted material without an author's expressed permission as long as It falls under the aforementioned guidelines. In order to be eligible for this there are four factors that should be considered: purpose of use, nature of the work, amount used, and effect on the market. In order for teachers or students to be able to use copyrighted material they must first ensure that the meet the guidelines set up by those four factors. The next issue discussed was Creative Commons as a classroom resource. Creative Commons is something of a middle ground. While it protects the rights of creators, it also still allows for some educational uses. It can be used to search through images, music, and text that can be used in the classroom without permission. I believe this is a great resource for teachers! The final topic to be discussed is public domain. When copyright has expired it will automatically be made a liable for public use. I thought this chapter provided a variety of ways that teachers can find media material to use without breaking the law. This text was very informative, especially for educators that have not had formal training in the topic.

Teaching with Digital Images(Ch 2)

This chapter focused on how classroom teachers can incorporate digital photography into their everyday lessons. It started of with a section instructing teachers as to how they should select a digital camera. It is important for teachers to do their research before buying a digital camera. They should decide of what features are Needed to support the goals of its use in the classroom. The next important topic in the chapter discussed megapixels, file size, and resolution. The author does a good Jon for defining these terms for someone who may not be familiar with them. It theme discusses he use of megapixels. It explains that depending how you plan on sharing your photos can effect how many megapixels you will need to use. There is a very helpful easy to read table included that illustrates this. It also discussed the proper format for saving files.i found this helpful, since I sometimes get confused as to what format to save my images under.i generally used JPEG, but I now know when saving higher quality materials that I can save it under the format TIFF. The author then discusses how the teacher should organize their photos on the computer. It is easiest to do this through the use of albums, since the computer will generally number the photos for you. Also, when you use an album program there is generally some minimal editing software, which is great to use with students. The author then transitions to discussing how to introduce students to digital photography. He basically stressed to give the students basic instructions to get them. Omfortable With the new technology. Then it would be a good idea to introduce increasingly complex skills do they can ultimately be the best photographer they can be. I really like this idea. It is quite practical for the classroom. It then gave an idea to do a photographic scavenger Huntley this would be a fun idea , because it would engage students, while also honing their photography skills. This was quite a helpful chapter!

SAFE Internet Safety Activities Ch. 1

The first chapter in this book discussed Internet safety, and it contained a unit for either a kindergarten or first grade classroom. I really enjoyed reading through this chapter, because there was a plethora of good ideas and activities to be implemented in the classroom. The unit begins by stating the overarching goal for they unit, which is " learners will begin to develop an understanding of the need to make responsible choices, beginning with always having an adult's help when going online to ensure personal safety". This UBS an excellent beginning point for such a young age group. Safety, at this point, is much more valuable than skills on the computer. This unit would also takes time to discuss pre and post assessments, which take the form of an online quiz. I think this will help to get the students acclimated to computer use, while also testing their knowledge of Internet safety. It also make suggestions as to implementation options, so teachers can choose whether they would like to present this unit in whole group, small group, or semi- self- guided. This is really nice to have as a teacher, because it allows you decide which option will work best for your classroom. This unit is also helpful for teachers because it so well laid out and goes very in depth as far as details. IT would be completely plausible for a teacher to teach straight from this text. As I read through the activities I was ablet to see that these activities would've both engaging and developmentally appropriate for these young primary grades. I particularly enjoyed the Fish Swim Together activity. This activity compares the students' physical community to the cyberspace community. I think this would give the students a better understanding of the cyberspace community because they are able to associate it with something they have prior knowledge of. At the close of the chapter there are printable for each activity enclosed, which would be another major help to the teacher. Overall, I thought this was a quite a helpful book.

Adam Hotchkiss

I really enjoyed Mr. Hotchkiss' presentation. He began by detailing the importance of planning out the use of technology to reach and meet the goals of the student and the school. He discussed how it is important to look at what you are going to need to fulfill your plan. He said to look at financial and human resources that you will need to fulfill your plan. He also placed heavy importance of knowing where your teachers are in regards to technology knowledge, so you re able to train and assist those who need it. In order to do all of this a budget must be set in place. He talked about trying to gain grants, donations, or gifts from family in order to supplement budget. This is something I have heard quite a bit lately. There are a wide array of grants available out there for teachers and technology facilitators as well, so that is definitely something I will keep in mind in the coming years. He then began to talk about gaining the products. Something I found important was the topic of warranty. He suggested getting a warranty that allows the manufacturer to fix the product. I like this ide, because I only from personal experience that technology fails and always requires maintenance. Lastly he discussed forming policies. I agree with Mr. Hotchkiss in that policies must be put into place so students and faculty will be using the technology and it provides a legal document to hold them accountable. It's always good to cover all of your bases to protect yourself. I thought Mr. Hotchkiss' presentation was quite valuable and informative.

Polly Brake

      I enjoyed Mrs. Brake's presentation on being a technology coordinator. I can tell she is truly passionate about the job she is doing and this is always a positive thing to hear! You could tell this by her urging us to soak up all learning experiences, such as seminar, webinars, classes, books, etc. A good teacher never stops learning. It really struck me when she was talking about offering technology classes to the teachers and faculty at her schools that no one was interested enough to attend her classes. I think it was a smart thing for her to begin offering incentives in order to boost attendance, but it really bothered me that the teachers at her school were so disinterested in technology and had such a negative attitude toward allotting time for learning and personal development. At the school I am teaching in now learning opportunities are viewed in a positive light and are something to look forward to. I can attribute this to the positive supportive administration, but also to the teachers desire to further their teaching skills. Our technological world is changing everyday, and I think it is our job as educators to stay up to date on the latest technology so we can then teach it to our students. I was also really pleased to see in Mrs. Brake' presentation that she offers a variety of resources to the staff at her school. Having such resources can really help and support teachers who may not be as technologically aware. Overall I thought this was a very helpful and informative presentation.

Web 2.0: Making the web work for you (Unit B: finding media for projects)

      This book is a really great tool for teachers in incorporating web 2.0 tools in the classroom. The chapter begins by helping the instructor to better understand copyright. It discusses the purpose of copyright by explaining that the majority of parts consist of originality, fixation, and expression. As a teacher who plan on using a variety of multimedia in my classroom, I was glad that the chapter broke down copyright, so I know how to properly use it in my classroom. There is even a chart that breaks down uses into fair use and unlikely fair use. This is extremely helpful. It even introduces the website www.creativecommons.com to the instructor so they may license their own work easily by breaking down each step in the process.
      The chapter then goes on to assist the instructor in finding images. The author chooses to use Flickr as his means of finding images, so he instructs the teacher to go to flickr and make or sign into their account. Then to use the explore list and creative commons in order to view a variety of license types. Then he instructs the teacher to choose the attribution-only CC license, which will then bring up the one hundred most recent photos with that license. You can also search for whatever you would like, and you can limit the license type by using the advanced search feature. I really liked how they broke this down. While I am familiar with searching for images, I am not as familiar with searching for photos with particular licenses.
      The chapter then proceeds to finding video. It instructs the teacher to go to www.archive.org, which contains a collection of a variety of video clips. You can then search the site using key words for the type of clip you need. You can then view and download any clip that you deem as useful for you classroom. I had not previously heard of this website, so I was excited to gain another useful tool to use as a teacher.
      Next the author goes into detail of how to find music. This time he uses www.jamendo.com to find audio clips. You can take a tour of the site to help you better understand what you are looking for. You may then listen and download any track you like. Again I had not previously heard of this site. This was an extremely helpful site, especially to teachers who may not be very familiar with technology.

Getting the Most Out of Your Interactive White Board (Chapter 6: Students Examine and Create)

      I chose to do chapter six in this book, Getting the Most Out of Your Interactive Whiteboard, because I think it is extremely beneficial to have students both explore and examine quality work form both their peers and other professionals. This is something that can be easily accomplished when using an interactive whiteboard. Allowing students to view models of good work will help them to develop an understanding of what good work looks like. One way the book suggested this could be done is through the use of the Notebook software. A sample can be brought up on the board and students can then underline or highlight what is being studies, i.e. parts of speech, hyperbole, transtion words, etc.
      Another useful way to incorporate the interactive white board is for students to present their own learning to both the class and teacher. Using the whiteboard students can present their work to an audience which also helps reinforce public speaking skills as well as being an accurate representation of what the child has learned. Children can use sites such as blogs, wiki dot, classchatter, etc. All of these can be accessed through the internet browser and shared with the entire class. As a teacher I really like this idea, because it allows the classroom to be student-centered while also allowing the teacher to see what exactly the students have learned.
      Another way is to have students produce input into their assessments.Firstly, students can be involved in the assessment design process. The books suggests to ask the students to discuss in small group what could be good ideas for indicators on a rubric, such as proper blog writing. The teachers can record groups responses on the white board. A rubric can then be created. The teachers can also share each class' ideas to share with other class, so it is a good point of reference to be able to save on the whiteboard.I really liked this idea, because I know that when I was in high school I would have really liked to have a say in what my assessment would be. I think it would have helped me to take more ownership and also have a better understanding as to what would be expected in the assessment.
    
      

Teaching with Wikis, Blogs, Podcasts, and More (Chapter 6: Audio)

      This book, Teaching with Wikis, Blogs, Podcasts, and More, is a really great technology idea book for grades three and up. I read chapter six, which focused on ways to incorporate audio technology into the classroom.
      The first suggestion the book had was to have the students create their own podcasts. It gives step by step instructions of how to accomplish this. This was incredibly informative for me, since I have never attempted to make my own podcast. I think this would be a useful tool to use in the classroom for things such as giving a report or making a presentation, however I think finding the time to spend on a podcast would be quite difficult.
      This chapter also spent time discussing how to incorporate MP3s into the classroom learning environment. It suggested that using MP3 players allows students work individually on a myriad of different project, however I think it would make it difficult to tell if the students were actually working on a project or listening to music. Unless a class set could be purchased in which the teacher could control what is is on the player, it might not be the best idea. The book suggested a variety of way to use MP3s, such as downloading famous speeches, music lessons, foreign language podcast, and students could even read and record their own writings. As I said previously, if a class set of MP3 players are possible these would all be very valuable resources to integrate into the classroom.

Chapter 9: Futurelab

Chapter 9 focused on the issues concerned with gaming. In the chapter in the common objections section, the question of how gaming ties into the curriculum was discussed. The website I explored helped to answer that question by providing results from a year-long research project on the subject matter.  I looked at the Futurelab website, specifically the "Teaching with Games" portion of the site. This "Teaching with Games" was actually a study done by Futurelab that lasted for one year and explored the place of mainstream computer games in the classroom. This website outlines the benefits, complications, and findings of certain games. It also provided a list of games that were used as well as a small review on each one, which I thought was very interesting and useful for the teacher. Overall I think this website is quite informative on the findings of the "Teaching with Games", which in turn provided very informative data and resources for games in the classroom.

Chapter 6: SecretBuilders

In chapter 6 virtual worlds was the topic of interest. When I was reading this chapter it seemed like a slightly controversial topic. Personally, I saw that there were valid points for both support and disagreement on the issue. In regards to virtual worlds I explored a site called SecretBuilders. This is a virtual world website designed for children ages 5-14. On this website students can do a variety of activities, such as: children will explore virtual lands, undertake quests, play games, maintain a home, nurture a pet, and interact with their friends. The site offers many games and quests that focus on specific literature that is often used in classrooms, and the idea is that students will learn the literature better by fully immersing themselves in it via the website. There are also sections of this website that are available for use of parents and teachers. I like that this site allows parents and teachers to connect with the student, so the site is being constantly monitored, so thing such as cyber bullying are less likely to occur and the majority of the focus can remain on the tasks at hand.  In the chapter cyber bullying and privacy and safety were the main opposition to virtual world, so the fact that this site is so secure is quite reassuring and supportive of student learning.

Chapter 5: Alexa

Chapter five's focus was on social networks. This is something that most students are familiar with, which makes it an incredibly useful tool in education as long as it is used in an appropriate manner. Chapter 5 discussed the need for students to possess 21st-century skills in the workplace. Using social networking sites can only help to further develop these skills in students, which will greatly help to increase their needed knowledge base for jobs in the future.  I specifically  looked at a site called Alexa, which is a site I had not previously heard of, let alone had any experience with using it. First, Alexa is quite different from other social networking sites, such as Myspace and Facebook. Rather than focusing on keeping in touch with friends and staying up on the latest music, Alexa focuses on providing users with information on a multitude of websites available on the internet. It provides the user with information on how popular a particular site is, who's the creator, who owns it, or even just to find new websites. Alexa sorts websites by popularity so it is rather easy to navigate. Alexa also has a what's hot tab that works in real time to provide the user with the latest new, videos, and popular items on the internet. You must register to use the site, but it is free and you have the option of accessing it through your personal Facebook account. Overall this would be a useful site to use in the classroom.

Chapter 2: FCC KIDS Zone

Another website I looked at that was supported by Chapter 2 was the FCC Kids Zone. This is a website sponsored by the Federal Communications Commission. The site serves to educate students on several different types of everyday technology like cable, cell phones, internet, etc. The site features a history sections that allows students to discover the background stories on the aforementioned technologies. This site also helps the student to become more familiar with the FCC and its purpose. A nice feature of this site is in addition to the introductory pages, it features three pages separated by grade level. This allows students to find appropriate material for their age. These individual pages feature a sort of FAQ set-up. Again, everything is focused on technology and how it originated. This would be a great website to allow students to explore, so they could be more educated on how their favorite cell phones were created and why they were as well. Overall I think this website is good instructional tool to use in providing students with a brief history of the technologies they are regularly using.

Chapter 2: Poll Everywhere

In chapter two a variety of ways in which educators can incorporate cell phones into the classroom were discussed, along with the positives and negatives of using cell phones in the classroom. One specific way that was mentioned was using cell phones to poll the class. This is made easy through the use a certain websites. In particular I looked at the functionality of a website called Poll Everywhere.


This site is free for groups of thirty or less, which is perfect size for a classroom. This site works by allowing someone to pose a question and then giving them a code or number in which to send a text. The person who poses the question then shares the number with the audience, and the audience then responds with their answer. Poll Everywhere then organizes the answers to provide data to the person who posed the question. This certainly beats having students simply just raise their hands to poll the class. I really like this website. I think this is an inventive way to keep students interested and engaged in the learning process, while also keeping their attention on the subject at hand. This also provides the educator with an opportunity to stress proper etiquette for cell phone use, which is a key benefit discussed in the chapter.

HTML

Here's my website!

SMART-10

Some of the characteristics of a model digital citizen include: respecting yourself, respecting others, respecting other's privacy, respect of rules and laws that come from a source off the internet, follows codes of conduct, and does not attempt to cheat or plagiarize.

As for students and adults I know I would say overall they are not meeting the definition. The category that I most often see them failing in is respecting others. The internet is a place where cyber-bullying has run rampant. I think it is a problem that has become so commonplace that it often times is not thought of as a big deal. This is an area that I see that needs vast and immediate improvement.

Many prosecutors are charging students who participate in sexting with felonies. What do you think of this practice, and how would you handle the situation at your school?

 

Clearly sexting is something that should not be tolerated, however, I do not think bringing felony charges against children is at all productive. I believe this issue should be handled at the school and family levels rather than the law intervening. I think students need to be educated, and when they are caught sexting, along with their punishment, they should take classes or seminars about sexting and proper use of texting. I think this could also work as a preventative measure. I just don't believe law enforcement is the right approach on this issue.

SMART-9

The majority of my experience of accessing and viewing photographs and videos online comes from Facebook and YouTube. I generally visit these sites at least once a day and scan through both photos and videos.  I have also used Google images to download photos for presentations and other school related functions.

 

Again my experience in uploading and sharing photographs comes from Facebook. I take quite a bit of pictures so I post them very regularly. I have also used PhotoBucket to host my images at times. I also have a YouTube account where I have posted several videos that I have made for academic classes during my undergraduate career.

Explain how the concept of the creative commons impacts teacher and student use of phtographs and video clips created by someone else.

 

The Creative Commons is an international initiative aimed at providing a mechanism for clear and unambiguous licensing of content that does not automatically assume or require commercialization of the content. Creative Commons licenses allow creators to choose which rights they wish to protect and which they do not and, consequently, simplifies the process of making new content available without the default restrictions imposed by copyright law. Licenses can be customized in a variety of ways; for example, creators can choose whether or not they want to be acknowledged or if they will allow adaptation of the work, and they can choose to control commercial uses of the work. More than 38 countries have customized variations of the Creative Commons licenses that are designed to reflect contract and copyright law differences.

Creative Commons will give students and teachers a more clear way to understand if certain videos and photographers are available for use since the creator can precisely identify what their works may be used for.

SMART-8

A blog is a writing tool based online that presents entries with the most recent appearing first. They support text and image and can be the length of the author's choosing. A blog also accepts comments from other users on the original entry. They can be easily moderated and there are many free sites available on the internet. Blog readers may also subscribe to me notified every time an entry is posted to a particular blog through and RSS feed. In the class room blogs can easily be used as response journal in book studies. This allows students to easily publish their thoughts and reflections somewhere that is easily accessible to their teacher and classmates.

A wiki is an online web tool that allows users to add, remove, or edit content. A personal one can be created rather easily online and many are free. These wikis can be individualized by adding graphics to make them look unique. Many sites allow anyone to make changes, but there are some who do limit who can actually change the information. Wikis are very beneficial in the classroom during class projects. Students can easily add photos and information from both school at home, which makes collaboration very easy.

A web-based word processor is much the same as Microsoft Word without the hassle of purchasing or downloading a particular software, because it is all available online. Users may create, edit, save, and upload documents in these word processors. It is also possible to then publish files that have been created to the internet. Many of these word processors now support online collaboration among its users. A good function for this in the classroom is in round-robin writing. Students can each write on line of the story and the next can add on. This allows students to be creative and engaged while also practicing necessary writing skills.

Prior to this class I have had experience with blogging and wikis, but not with the web based word processor. In early high school I used to keep a personal blog and I used the wiki in my introduction to educational technology class to edit standards as an entire class. I never used the web0based word processor, because I have always owned Word and never saw a need for it.

SMART-7

Personally, I believe that gaming can be beneficial in the classroom. This is  great way to make learning fun and interactive for students, which should always be a goal in education. Gaming is quickly becoming more and more popular. People of the business, military, medical, and publishing professions are utilizing this for instruction opportunities, so I think that education should be the next workplace to adopt this engaging tool. It is not something that should be used every second of the day, but in moderation I think this could be quite appealing and beneficial to students during the learning process.

 

I think having children develop their own minigames in the classroom could be  a great way to incorporate gaming into the learning environment. First, students can work together in groups to make these which will not only help to enhance the knowledge of the subject they are designing their game around but it also helps them improve their teamwork skills. Allowing students to do this also helps students to be more invested and engaged in the subject being taught, which is always a positive in education. Overall, I think gaming can positively benefit the classroom if used in the right ways.

SMART-6

I have visited a virtual world. I cannot remember the name of it, but I took a class online at Pellissippi and we used the virtual world to have class discussions and meet with the professor as needed. Personally I did not care for it. I had taken other online classes and the class was able to function without, so it kind of seemed like a waste of time to me, but I guess it was okay for people who are in to those kind of things.

I do not think I would ever use virtual worlds in my classroom. I cannot see any real use for them. I don't really like the idea of having students interact with other people that way. I think this very easily can open children up to cyber bullying, which is already a problem. Another issue I have with virtual worlds is that it allows children to spend too much time on the computer. I just do not believe it is healthy for a person to spend that amount of time at the computer, especially at a young age. Overall I just do not see any real positive function for the use of virtual worlds in the classroom.

SMART-5

I have been using social networking sites for a number of years. Right now I solely use Facebook. This site allows me to keep up to date with all of my friends, especially those that do not live near by or that I do not get to see often. While I do love Facebook, I often find myself wasting a large amount of time on the website. At times this has been quite distracting, especially when I have other obligations, such as homework. It also at time can be quite intrusive and provide too much information about people you don't really know. However, I think the keeping up with friends and what's going on in their lives is worth the negatives. I am glad I have the opportunity to use social networking sites.

I think social networking will make major progress in the learning environment in the future. Student can use social networking sites to communicate with partner schools around the world. I could also there being social networking sites for specific schools , so that there would be a secure site to use in the classroom to keep track of all your students. It would also be useful in using the sites with distance learning, so if students were unable to be in class they could keep up with the happenings of the classroom. Overall, I think there are big things in store for social networking in the learning environment in the future.

SMART-4

Are you a proponent of one-to-one computing in classrooms? Explain your answer and provide supporting documentation for your argument.

I support the one-to-one computing in classrooms. I think of course there will need to be necessary shifts in teacher instruction in order to propel student academics. However, if this is done I think it can be quite beneficial in the long run. If students are given the opportunity to have access to one-to-one computing, teachers can easily set up programs and assignments that will extend learning beyond the schools day (pg 42). Without one-to-one computing this is nearly impossible. This is also something that will be highly engaging to students as well as giving them real life experience with technology, which is something they will definitely run into in the real world.

The small size and light weight of both netbooks and tablers make it easy for students to carry around.

Netbooks are lower priced than tablets.Many parents have already purchased netbooks for their children, while tablets have not reached the same sales yet. Both have lower power requirements, which cut down on the mess of power cords in the classroom. Netbooks have limited capabilities, which makes distraction of students by gaming highly unlikely. Allowing students to bring netbooks onto campus opens the school's network to anything that is on the student's computer, which is a major risk, while tablets do not run the risk. Different ages of students prefer different dimensions for both screen and keyboard, which makes it difficult to appease everyone for both. It is also quite difficult to find an operating system that will run all the needed programs on a netbook. Netbooks are often unable to support powerful applications that students need to use, unlike tablets.

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Pros
Teachers can instruct students to use MP3 players in a way to facilitate thinking.
Can propel foreign language skills.
Students can listen to teacher created podcasts.


Cons
They can be quite distracting in the classroom.
They isolate children form their peers.
The can facilitate cheating.

I really enjoyed the Teachers Teaching Teachers webpage. There were a variety of podcasts on this page that were up to date and discussed practical uses of technology for teachers. I think this would be beneficial not only for myself as a teacher but also my students. I think these podcasts could be used when introducing a new type of technology to allow students to have some background knowledge before we begin. This site would also be a good example to students on the format of a podcast if I was going to ask them to make their own.

I have no experience making podcast so all of the pointers were beneficial. I thought it was kind of cool that you can create a podcast from your phone. This would make it fairly easy to do with students since most will have cell phones. I also liked where the author discussed the positives of K-12 students creating their own podcasts. This helps to develop and support literacy skills, which is always a good thing!

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It was quite surprising to me when reading chapter 2 in Teaching with Tools Kids Really Use 262.7 million people in the United States are cellphone users. I think I would have estimated the number a little higher. It’s hard for me to imagine not having a cell phone. Another intriguing statistic was that forty-six percent of children ages nine to eleven have cellphones and maybe even more surprising was that reportedly twenty percent of children ages six to eight have cellphones. This was certainly not the case when I was that age.

Cell phones engage students. Who wouldn’t want to find a new inventive way of engaging students? They also can be used in a variety of ways to help support the curriculum. The first is in a visual way. Most cellphones have cameras, and many students learn visually, so having them to take pictures to support what they’re learning is quite helpful. Employing podcast is also helpful. Students can record a podcast to turn in that demonstrates a concept they are learning. Also by using phones in the classroom students can begin to develop proper manners for cell phone use by having role models in their teachers. There are so many positive possibilities for cellphone use in the classroom.

Cons of allow cell phone use in the classroom include running the risk of propelling cyber-bullying, sexual harassment, cheating, and prank calls. I witnessed all of these things in high school, and I realize the harm these things can cause students. However, I am prone to think that the good outweighs the bad, and that these things can be managed if cell phones are used in positive meaningful ways in the classroom. 

I think the most creative suggestion the book made was the use of cell phones in taking online surveys. This allows the students to combine texting with quizzes or personal input.  I have seen this used several times in classrooms, and it works very well.

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 This first chapter in Teaching with the Tools Kids Really Use was rather intriguing. The main discussion in this chapter was not only whether there should be a shift towards curricula that include 21st century skills but also how the educational system should go about accomplishing this. The book stated that the majority of the public thinks it is absolutely necessary to include 21st century technology skills in the curricula, which I whole-heartedly agree with this opinion. However, it is my opinion that these technology skills should be integrated with the general education courses.

  Children must be equipped with technology skills, because that is so much of what our world revolves around today. This is a fact that I did not realize until I began teaching in my field experiences during my undergraduate career. I was amazed when placed in a kindergarten classroom that students were already doing much of their work on computers. This to me was astonishing since I did not have a computer in the classroom until I was in the fifth grade, and I did not have one in my home until high school. I think by seeing this rapid rate of technology advances and subsequent skills in young children that teaching these 21st century skills is imperative. I am still quite young, yet I still feel behind in much of the technology that students are using today.

As a teacher it was encouraging to hear the author of this book urge teachers to work together. Changes in the curricula must be made, but it does not have to be done alone. Teachers can support each other in making necessary changes that will positively effect their classroom. I was also encouraged to read the authors suggestion to go beyond automated traditional activities. There have been many times when I was required to do an activity that included technology, but was not truly different from what the assignment would have been had the technology not been available. It will be my goal as a teacher to incorporate technology in the classroom in meaningful ways that will help my students to learn the technology itself as well as the general subject matter. It is my opinion that both aspects are paramount to a competent education.

I'll end with a quote from the book that summed it up quite nicely: "As educators work to align curricula to these standards it's important to remember that they do not replace content areas standards; they support them by emphasizing the importance of using modern tools and strategies to achieve academic goals." (pg 7)