When I become a Teacher...

Technophile

Your Impressions

WebQuest	Strengths	Weaknesses
Grow School Greens	There are lots of clickable links. The pages are bright and colorful and there are many pictures and animations	No observable weaknesses.
Where is My Hero?	Good use of real world photos Each hero has a clickable link into an external website	Even though there are extra sources, this doesn’t give students a chance to explore the internet themselves; everything is laid out for them.
Underground Railroad	Good amount of external links for research. Some good pictures.	The site wasn’t very eye catching or colorful. Printable organizers don’t give the students any opportunity to incorporate technology. The evaluation isn’t very useful when it comes to incorporating technology and there is no opportunity for self-evaluation.
Ice Cream	The page is colorful	There are no links to external websites. Everything must be printed and completed, there are no online based activities The final poster is not completed with the aid of technology. There doesn’t even seem to be a reason to have this website, the teacher could simply print out the worksheets and tell their students what to do.
Ancient Egypt	Teaches students how to collaborate two different computer programs to create a project. Many external links for research. Everything is web-based The website itself is easy to navigate.	No observable weaknesses

I believe the two best web quests are the "Ancient Egypt" and the "Growing School Greens". I think this because they both encorporate technology in a way to help students learn something new while still creating the atmosphere of fun. Both of these sites were colorful and had plenty of examples and external links.

I believe the two worst web quests are the "Underground Railroad" and the "Ice Cream" quests. These web quest sites were not well put together and used very little web-based technology to acomplish the task. There were not many pictures and the projects could have been done without the use of a computer at all.

To me, the best web quests are ones that appropriately use the internet and technology available to engadge the students into doing something they wouldn't normally without the aid of a computer. Good web quests are ones that are eye catching, have many pictures, and have lots of external links to help the students learn web-based research skills. The worst web quests are ones that dont't use technology and could be done in the classroom without the aid of a computer.

Group Choices:

2 Best: "Ancient Egypt" & "Grow School Greens"

2 Worst: "Where is my Hero" & "Underground Railroad"

DEJ week 12

Quote:

"Today we work with the written or spoken word as the primary form of communication. But we also need to understand the importance of graphics, music, and cinema, which are just as powerful and in some ways more deeply intertwined with young people's culture."

Reaction:

I completely agree with this statement. People today live in a visual and emotional world. We need to allow students to express themselves using all forms of media, not just with writting or speaking. A lot of students in today's society have a hard time expressing themselves on paper. However, if we give these students a computer, or a video camera, we can truly see how deep their understanding of the world goes. I believe all media can be powerful and the key to unlocking expression in students is allowing them to use everything and anything available to them in the learning process. We as teachers have so many resources available to us and we usually just stick to the basics of pen and paper. Why? Not exploring all our creative options isn't only hurting students, it hurts a teacher's creativity as well. I believe a good teacher is one who works to unlock a student's potential and desire for learning. This can be done more effectively when students are doing something they enjoy which means branching out to find the interests of the students.

Related Source:

Citation:

Daly, J. (2004, September 4). Life on the Screen: Visual Literacy in Education | Edutopia. K-12 Education & Learning Innovations with Proven Strategies that Work | Edutopia. Retrieved November 13, 2011, from http://www.edutopia.org/lucas-visual-literacy


ordinary, A. l. (2010, March 27). Planet Earth « Daisy Chain Days.Daisy Chain Days. Retrieved November 13, 2011, from http://daisychaindays.co.uk/blog/category/heal-the-world/planet-earth-heal-the-world-2/

Glass Giant

Double Entry Journal #11

Social-Networking Ban for Sex Offenders: Bad Call?


Questions:

• Summarize the argument made in this article.
• What evidence is presented to support the argument?
• State and justify your opinion on banning sex offenders from social-networking sites.

Answers:

• The argument made in this article is that the recent Illinois ban on social-networking sites for sex offenders shouldn't be in place. The author believes that this ban would hinder social rehabilitation for these people and that most of the people on the sex offender list aren't people who have sexually abused children anyway. 
• Larry Magid uses evidence from the Crimes Against Children Research Center and a study done by the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use to explain that the amount of predators who actually contact and form relationships with children over the internet is highly exaggerated. He also uses the argument that banning sex offenders from social networking sites would hinder their ability to gain access to resources that could help them in their careers which is an important part of rehabilitation. The author also references two articles to make the point that sex offenders aren't all molesters and rapists. There is a wide category range to who can be listed as a sex offender. Magid also goes on to point out that the most dangerous sex offenders are the ones who haven't been caught and registered yet. 
• I personally agree with the author of this article. While in theory it is a good idea to limit the types of contact sex offenders can have with children, I believe it should be the responsibility of parents to know what their child is doing on the internet. I also don't think its necessary to ban some of these people who are on the sex offender list for reasons other than crimes like rape or molestation. Above all, I go back to my first point. It is the responsibility of the parent to monitor their child's internet usage. All a ban like this does is lull parents into a false sense of security. If a predator wants to get around this ban believe me, they will find a way. Parents need to teach their children about the dangers of contacting someone they don't know on the internet and how dangerous it can be to be "friends" with someone they don't know on a social networking site. Educating teens and children on the dangers of the internet should be as commonplace as teaching them to not take candy from strangers. 

Yeti Crab

Wikipedia Reliability Worksheet

Article title:
Answer the following questions to see how reliable a Wikipedia article is.

1. Start with the main page. Does it have any cleanup banners that have been placed there to indicate problems with the article? (A complete list is available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Template_messages/
   Cleanup.)

Any one of the following cleanup banners means the article is anunreliable source:

2. Read through the article and see if it meets the following requirements:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeti_Crab

Wikipedia: Friend not Foe

1.  Did the class activity about Wikipedia and this article change your opinion about the value of Wikipedia to society in general and education specifically?

 No. I still believe that Wikipedia can be a very valuable tool in online research. I don't believe it should be used as a source of information specifically but it can be a TOOL to use as a jumping off point to research. I have used it many times to just get a general understanding of a topic and from there I either use the references in the Wikipedia article, or I use the information there to further elaborate my research. I don't think Wikipedia can ever be credible scholastically but it can be a good start to a good research project.

2.  Describe how you might direct students to use Wikipedia in your future classroom. 

First I would explain Wikipedia to the students so they have an understanding that it is NOT a credible resource because there is no filter on who can edit an article. Once they understand that I would teach them that it is useful for getting a general idea of a topic and it is a good source of REAL scholarly sources. Before beginning any assignment using Wikipedia I would prepare my students with a lesson on how to tell a credible source from an academic one. Once students know the fundamentals of being critical of sources I would have no problem with them using Wikipedia as a jumping off point to more research. As long as they don't use the article itself for their research.