Growing Up Online
Every educator should watch the PBS Frontline special, “Growing Up Online.” It is a great insight to the digital world in which these kids live. What are the implications for education? What are the new issues? Your comments about this program are greatly appreciated.
Growing Up Online (PBS Frontline, 1/22/08)
Categories: Blogroll · Copyright and Fair Use · Digital learners · Ed-Games · Educational Technology · Integration Ideas · Internet Safety · Podcasts · Video - Vidcasts · Web 2.0
Tagged: 21stCentury, digital learners, Internet Safety, online, Web2.0
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7 responses so far ↓
Melia,
This was a very provocative, yet disturbing, documentary. I ran through the gamut of emotions while viewing it. Here are some of my thoughts:
1. How, as a parent, can you allow a child to just spend hours upon hours on the internet? There need to be limits and restrictions.
2. There is no way that I would allow a child of mine to tell me that I could not have access to their account. I would cut the whole internet service at my house if that became a problem. But, for children to be able to tell parents “no” and the parents docilely accept it is unacceptable!
3. I was appalled that Autumn Edows parents supported the rebuilding of her site–those pictures were too risque, especially for a teen.
4. There needs to be a balance of technology and “paper and pencil” classes in schools. We have to help them to focus and to be able to function well in the 3-R subjects.
I had more to say, but I will let it suffice with these few comments. To sum it up, we have to do all that we can to protect and to raise our children. We cannot allow the internet, other children, and predators to do our job!
Thank you for your thoughtful comments. Have you been to MySpace and seen what the kids are posting there? It is truly scary and appalling, especially since once you have put something out on the web, you can never truly take it back. Other people can copy your words, photos, or even archive your website and then re-use it. We need to teach
This is my first year as an educator and I have learned so much from a technology standpoint on how to use the many tools available to reach my students and excite them about learning. My first group hasn’t always benefited from my learning, but I can assure you that next year will be awesome.
In my previous profession, I had a relatively good understanding of PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. We used these almost daily in completing our work. However, I realized I needed to be reeducated in learning how to apply these tools to the learning environment of students who more often than not, do not have ready access to technology. Educators today cannot afford to be illiterate when it comes to using technology. In an age where young people are constantly bombarded with instant and vivid multimedia products, we have to learn to harness their energy and apply it to their learning experience.
I am so much more aware of what is available and how to use them effectively in the classroom. I have expanded the opportunities that my students have with technology and continue to look at how to integrate newer and more exciting methods for use in teaching all subject areas.
I am really excited about the Webquest concept and the ability to integrate a multitude of other technology tools into the process of completing group or individual projects.
I also am very impressed with Inspiration and Kidspiration as tools to use in the classroom. they are so easy to use and navigate and the students truly enjoy working with them.
Web 2.0 is here to stay with us and we need to be able to use them for good within the classroom. Students love to blog and to interact online. they love to post information about themselves and see what others are posting. Why not grab onto this phenomenon and maximize the opportunity within the classroom by using class wiki’s or blogs on “think.com,” type sites that are safe and allow the students to do what they want to do within the education context.
Nice thoughts – your students will benefit!
When I first decided to take this class, I was truly taking this to meet my requirements for recertification. I saw the class and thought it would be a great way to meet my requirements and learn some new information about using technology in the classroom. To me, technology has always been something that I think is paramount in the current field of education. I would like to say that I am fairly savvy with the computer, but by no means, do I know everything. With great resolve, I was determined to learn something new this semester….
I think that one way that I have changed from this class is that I have a more refined sense of what technology can do for our students in the classroom. I think the one activity in class that really helped promote this change is the web-quest and survey reading that we did at the beginning of the semester. It really helped me see where our current state of technology in schools really is and where we need to go in the future. I think that we have an obligation to prepare all students—regardless of ability for the future. Technology can help to prepare them for our ever changing world. The field of education is rapidly changing from year to year and it is getting to be more challenging for educators to provide engaging and stimulating activities. Technology can bridge the gap between where we are now and where we would like to be. I am not saying that it is the end all solution to all problems in the field of education, but rather that it can help us achieve more in the classroom.
With regard to my thoughts for the semester, I have learned some new ways to incorporate programs that I have already used in the classroom. I think that I got to brush up on basic skills that I have forgotten and learned some new tricks and tips that I will use later in future career in education. More specifically, I will be using word task cards and excel programs to help add more depth to my math, social studies, and language arts lessons. Another tool that I will try to incorporate is the use of more cooperative learning activities and web-quests. Also, I think that the use of discussion boards has a lot of potential in an upper elementary education classroom. Students love to share ideas with one another; I think that blogs, web 2.0, and think.com could be used to stimulate productive conversations about a variety of educational topics.
All in all, I think that for me this semester has been informative. I will strive to use some of the activities that I learned in my classroom in the future.
When I was searching for a course to fulfill my recertification requirement I was just looking for the easiest and most convenient class to take. I came across this class, read the course description and thought to myself “this will be a piece of cake.” I figured that because I had only graduated college a few years ago and because I work at the elementary school that specializes in technology I would already know everything this course had to offer. I was wrong. Throughout my technology usage as a teacher I had merely touched upon the surface of most of these programs.
For example, I use Microsoft Word everyday in my classroom, yet I had no idea that I could create a quiz for my students using drop-down menus. That is fantastic! In addition, I have created assignments for my students using Inspiration in the past. Their only task was to drag bubbles to their correct locations. I had no idea that I could have the students attach notes and web links.
This course has given me the courage to use Excel Spreadsheets, which I had always thought were too complicated. I now understand how to create spreadsheets and manipulate the data to create graphs in many different ways. Next school year I plan to incorporate Microsoft Excel into our graphing unit. I believe it will greatly enhance the subject for my students because it builds upon something they already love to work with, technology.
The students in today’s classrooms are much different than they were 50 years ago, as well as 5 years ago. With our ever-changing technology we as teachers must learn to adapt and change our mode of instruction along with the times. Web 2.0 is what our kids know, so we must build upon that. We need to teach them how to use the web safely and to their advantage so that it does not take advantage of them.
Overall, this class has taught me to respect the ever-changing technology and grow with it. Thank you.
When I first saw this class listed on our PDMS site, I thought, “This will be a way to fulfill my recertification requirements!” I’m pretty good at Inspiration and using video streaming to enhance my teaching. I was in for a shock about how little I knew about technology and the classroom. I had always used technology as an activity to do IF we had time. Something I would get to but in my mind was just the same as doing a worksheet but on the computer. I was wrong.
Our students are growing up in a time where they will not remember growing up without technology. At my school, we have taken the initiative to start a school based web 2.0 called Think.com. This has been a wonderful experience. Students can post answers to questions and projects that we are working on. Other students in other classes can post comments. Our principal has even gotten in on this and she can see what our students are learning by clicking her mouse. Parents are more connected to what their children are doing. I also get to keep up with what my former students are doing and get to have conversations with them about the projects they are working on. I feel this has brought our school closer.
I have also learned so many new applications and new ways to use applications I already use. For instance, I have always used Microsoft Office to generate report and to type up definitions for my students to use in their interactive notebooks. I never new that you could make quizzes with drop down menus! How cool! Even better you can lock them!!
I have always considered myself proficient at Microsoft PowerPoint. I was wrong again. I never knew you could make a PowerPoint interactive; you could insert movies and sound clips. I have already used this in my class to help give my students background knowledge for vocabulary and a chance for them to practice word meaning in context. My students love this center.
Microsoft Excel is still my weak point. What I have learned is that it is vital that we teach our students this application and I will not let my fear of Excel stop me from teaching it to my students. I will take baby steps of course and first have them use pre made worksheets but end the end my students will be creating their own worksheets in excel. I will just spend time this summer familiarizing myself more with this application.
The one application that I am most excited about is the Web Quest. I see Web Quests as project based learning. They student becomes responsible for the learning (with teacher guidance of course!). I cannot wait for my students to use the Web Quest on Ancient China. My students are excited about this as well.
This class has truly opened my eyes to the disservice I was doing for my students. Technology is not something that you should get to if you have the chance. Technology should be and will be an integral part of my classroom.
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