Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Technology Issues in Teaching Response- Due Feb 21
Please choose two topics listed in the Tech Issues Web site listed under Class 6 Web Links. Explore the topics by reading the websites associated with them. Post at least three things that you learned from reviewing the information on those two topics. That is, 3 things for each of the 2 topics. Look forward to reading your responses! Happy Learning!
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I chose the Dig Divide (Gender) and Information Literacy to investigate.
The Dig. Divide (Gender) discussed the differences between boys and girls related to technology. This really hit home for me and I fell right along with all of the reasons why girls don't spend as much time online as boys. "Girls want to accomplish a goal" is a statement that rings true in my own experience. When I compare my online time to my husband's, he leaves me in the dust every time. He will spend endless hours looking up sports stuff, going on news sites, and searching art and literature (he's a writer). I, on the otherhand, go on to check email, look at taskstream ;), and find sites directly related to the lesson plan I am working on. Once my job is done I am off the computer. I really found the tips to be quite valuable and will implement them with my students and children, especially my daughter. The top three that I liked were:
* provide techniques to build self-esteem/confidence in girls.
* engaging and relevent activities.
* teach "tinkering" activities.
I need to use these myself! I look forward to digging deeper and discovering specific ways of implementing these ideas.
Information Literacy: REALLY neat to understand and the Big6 is very helpful for students. I do agree that I don't like the "illiterate" term, simply because I feel that I am in the remedial stages to technological literacy. I didn't realize that there was a definition for the term. The Big6 link was really neat to see how it can be broken down to help a student complete a research project. I can see myself referring to this with my own classroom instruction in the future. Why not use links like this to assist with instruction of how to complete a research project? Chances are that the students will use the internet if they need help with assignments and projects, so how wonderful to lead them to sites like that. Be becoming informationally literate teachers, we can ensure information literacy of our students.
For my two topics, I chose Safety Concerns and Dig. Divide (Race.
The Safety Concerns section confronted the importance of knowing what kids are viewing or being confronted with on the internet--whether it is inappropriate material such as pornography, cyber bullying, luring or invasion of privacy.
*Something I learned was that each country has its own code of legality on the internet. For some countries, as an example, child porn is a crime. For others, shockingly enough, it is not.
*Something else I learned was that there are many sites for children to learn about the dangers of internet surfing. Parents and teachers are not alone in trying to teach their children to be on guard. Even the internet can teach kids to be aware about the internet!
*I also learned who I might contact for help if I was to come across a predator: local police, child advocacy groups, or even the federal police.
The second topic was about the Dig Divide of the races.
*One thing I was to surprised was that sometimes race can differentiate how much contact time one might have with technology. Whites, for example, have a higher percentage of having a computer in their own home, or having access to community computers.
*It is believed it is not merely because of income--Some African American families raising more than $75,000 per year still do not have computers--but that figure is still rising. (The article I derived this statistic from, however, was dated back in 1999)
*Last of all, but not least, I learned that "of the estimated 429 million people online globally, 41%of the online population is from North America." This is especially strange in a culture saturated with technology. How could that be? I thought that fascinating.
The issues I chose were Dig Divide (Gender) and 1-Computer Classroom to research.
The Dig Divide (Gender) discussed the differences of the use of the computer technology between boys and girls. I was very surprised that boys spent more time online than the girls. The statement of "Girls want to accomplish a goal" is really true as my daughter gets online gets the information needed and off she goes. I am pretty much the same way after I thought about it. After this class that is very engaging I must say that I spend more time "surfing" the web. Thanks Dr Pratt! The three major points that I learned and thought were useful were:
> Encourage multiple approaches to leaning
> Expose all the the students to the fun and logical ways of technology usage in their everyday lives and in the classroom
> Choose engaging and relevant topics and actiities
1- Computer Classroom
This was a subject that is near and dear to the heart of most educators who only have one computer in the classroom and feel challenged by how to get the technology introduced to so many students at one time.
I liked this one as it gave differetn suggestions to help the teacher utilize communication skills, tools, as a student motivator in a number of subjects.
Things that I liked were:
> That you must rethink carefully your teaching and instructional stategies, using groups of students then making the groups both working on similar or the same subject in different and creative ways
> Computer Management stratagies such as : centers , classroom agreement/contract to be signed by students and parents for appropriate use
> Teaming up with other educators on how they would integrate this technology in the classroom with one computer in each class.
The different links provided more ideas and ecouraging ideas for the teachers to implement in the classrooms. Both were enlightening and useful to any educator who is teaching in a limited technology funded system or classroom.
the first topic I chose was safety.
1) I read an article off of internet www.superheroes.org, on cyber bullying. This concept is very new to me and very disturbing. This one teacher was asking his class what they use the internet for, and of course things got candid. One boy said he used it for sports, chatting, and homework while another said he used it to send death threats via email. He is generally a good kid, he just likes acting out this fantasy life online.
This is so incredibly disturbing, i cannot believe these children are trying live a fake life online.
2)Next one the same site, i read an article about googling names and what i may be at risk for. now, i know that you can google people's names but I never knew you could find out where they live or their telephone number just by an old account they may have forgotten about if they didn't check the privacy box when they first signed up. this truly scares me because sometimes i even forget to check the box...so who's googling me?
3) The last article i read on this site was like a sort of checklist for cyberbullying. It tells you to start out by making sure you are sending the email to the right person, making sure it is worth sending and not junk mail, not attacking others, and basically checking your emotions when writing the email. The article is one that I would print out for my students, and have them follow those steps when writing an email.
The next topic I chose was on copyright infringement.
1) According to the law, copyrightable work must be tangible.
2)Copyrightable work must also be creative.
3)The only other tangible works that are not afforded copyright protection are works in the public domain.
The whole copyright thing to me is very confusing. When I become a teacher I am going to have to really read the law to make sure I am not doing anything illegal.
My two topics were Assistive Technology & Safety Concerns.
As Sara mentioned, Safety Concerns addressed innapropriate material that children may be exposed to. The additional info I learned was: 1) Disney created a fun website for kids to explore the hidden dangers of the internet. It offers smart advice for how to stay out of trouble.
2) Napster is a file-sharing program. I learned that file sharing means literally that--people can access your stuff and you can access theirs (although there are different types). I found Napster on mine, then realized you have to subscribe.
3) Probably a no-brainer to most--I realized that other kids can post personal info about my child without us ever knowing! What a scarey world we live in!
Adaptive Technology is technology that assists disabled or impaired people to use technology. It can be for hearing or visually impaired people, people with autism, and so on. I learned:
1) A child with Down Syndrome (or other speech impairment) can use a device called an Alphatalker that speaks for them. They click icons that correspond with what they want to say. It can even be programmed by a family member!
2) Developmental apraxia occurs when a person is unable to concentrate. Writing is a terrible task because they spend their time concentraing on the form of writing rather than content. A keyboard and monitor becomes their assistant, taking the focus off written print.
3) Awesome software by Intellitools allows customization using a students own interests. For example, a person with autism may develop strong interests to Elmo. With Intellitools, a parent/teacher can load images of Elmo and other favorites to motivate learning. More info to follow--I think this will be my Power Point topic.
For my first topic, I chose "Safety Concerns." About this topic, I learned that the UK is launching a campaign called "Next Generation Learning," in which they hope to have parents become more engaged in their children's learning and more supportive of the use of techonology in learning. It also hopes to benefit students more with technology and make them more willing to try new things with it. The campaign also aims to increase the number of schools that use technology to its fullest potential. Right now, that number is only 20% of all schools and colleges!
I also learned that it's important to sit down with your child as a family and discuss uses of the Internet and set clear guidelines for them, such as: never give away personal information over the Internet such as phone numbers and adresses, do not plan to meet face-to-face with anyone they meet online, do not respond to rude, mean, or inappropriate comments from anyone and to show you if this does happen- make sure they know you won't be angry and they can be honest with you.
A third thing I learned about concerning safety concerns is that as a parent or teacher, I can make it so that whichever search engine I have my children/students use will be filtered and prevent inappropriate sites from coming up in the results.
The 2nd topic I chose is Dig. Divide(Gender). I learned that girls are less interetested in technology than boys are. But ther are things teachers can do to change this. A few things we can infuse technology across the curriculum and teach tinkering activities that allow to students to experiment rather than meet specific goals.
I also learned there is a website called Girlsite that is just for girls, and there's a lot of different things for them to do here. They can ask questions, submit stories or poems, read about health topics, or read about feminism. The whole site is just a place for girls to go and be girls.
I also learned that we should provide techniques that will build self-esteem and confidence in girls, teach students to be active learners instead of passive participants, and a good idea is to find a volunteer who will come to your school and do a technology fair.
For my topics i choose both Safety concerns and adaptive technology.
For Safety concerns i learned of how a technological college actually tried using a filter system which actually worked out quite well but however in the end there were still loopholes in which students could look at inappropriate stuff and that in the end they say the only way for it to truly work is if they have precautions done at home as well as at school.For another website it told of premium rate access of some explicit sites and of how in the end it sometimes puts a dialler on your computer making your computer function lest productively and just take you to a different ISP number. I also learned how a firewall truly works as it checks everything passing through it and just gets rid of whatever doesn't belong as stated in the pre-determined security criteria. As for my second set on adaptive technology I learned about three major things they have available such as the Dragon simple speaking, the digital talking books from Trace, and electronic voting accessibility. The Dragon simple speak helps those who may be incapable of typing to just talk and the computer types it in for them. The digital talking books that i found would also be very useful to the blind people who just happen to need to read a book but if the book didn't come in braille at least this would come very much handy for when the times is needed. The electronic voting accesibility would be very useful for those who meet the requirements to vote but just can't get to the voting stations from their house. It would bring the voting right to them so that they can get their vote in.
I chose Safety Comcerns and one computer classroom.
Safety concerns discussed all sort of different concerns such as inappropiate websites, harrassment and other stuff. They gave you a list of websites that help you prevent theses concerns for happing. I didn't know there was so many things you could do to prevent all this stuff from taking place. The was a site called get wise. It gives you online safety tips and a link that is safe for kids to look at and explore. I learned you can set up policies to prevent this stuff from happening.
I really like the one computer classroom site, because it gave a list of website of how you can use one computer to do thing but it also gave you a list of issues.
I learned that there are good things with one computer and that there are issues as well. The issue don't alway come with one computer but several as well. Having one computer in your classroom can still be fun you can have presentation with that one computer. this website lburkhart give you a list of strategies of how you can do certian things with one computer.
The three things that I learned from the topic "adaptive technology" are...
*There are many forms of technology that can assisst children with disabilities. I never knew there were so many.
*Children with disabilities are no longer limited in the area of technology.
*Children who cannot communicate often times become easily frustrated or angry. This can lead to class disruption and further alienation. Through the use of the Alphatalker, an individual will be able to express themself clearly with less confusion. Adaptive technology has opened the doors for many people.
The three topics that I learned from "safety concerns" are...
* There are interactive sites available to children so that they can learn computer safety in an engaging way.
* The netwise website has a list of 700 sites that are good for the family and there is also a section on this site that gives you the information you need to be able to contact the authorities if the need arises. I think that this is a great site for parents to look over before they talk to their children about the Internet.
* There is assistance on the Internet to help you establish a good safety policy in using the Internet within your school. There are sites that can give you suggestions and guidance on what points should be addressed and considered when creating your policy. I think this a good thing to look at when constructing your policy because you might have overlooked some areas that you may not have thought to address.
I read Dig divide both race and gender. In digital divide gender the three new concepts that i learned were girls lack of interest, different ways to group individuals, girls thoughts about technology. I was unaware that girls interest in technology was lower than males. I also was shocked to find that girls often viewed technology as a tideous task. The article also pointed out that maybe grouping by gender in technology classes was a good idea. That was shocking because in most instances instructors do not group by gender.
The digital divide race enlighted me. Individuals often take technology forgranted. I never stopped to think of all the individuals who do not have access to technology. Not all races are raised to imbrace technology. The third thing was that I view computers as very affordable items, but as the level of household income drops the amount of computers drop significantly.
My two topics were Assistive Technology & Safety Concerns.
Safety Concerns addresses the innapropriate material that children may see happen to them or others. Additional information that I learned was:.
~Napster is a file-sharing program. I learned more information about how file sharing literally literally that people can access your information in your computer and you can access theirs. I have had Napster on my computer before, then got a bad virus and deleted it.
~ I also realized that other kids can post personal info about other children without others ever knowing so.
~I also didn’t know that Disney has fun website for kids to explore the dangers of the internet. It offers great advice on how you can stay out of trouble…I wish I read that when I was younger
Adaptive Technology is technology that assists disabled or impaired people to use technology. It can be for visually impaired people, people with hearing problems, people with autism, and other special needs people. I learned….
~A child with a speech impairment can use a Alphatalker, it’s a device that speaks for them. Icons correspond with just a click. It can even be programmed by a family member
~ There are three major things they have available to. The Dragon simple speaking, the digital talking books from Trace, and electronic voting accessibility are all examples.
~ Intellitools allows customization using a students own interests. For example, a parent or teacher can add information on a topic that interests the child. It is a great experience for a child to learn.
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