Internet Safety

The Internet is full of information that we would like to protect our students from. Information that may be inappropriate for students and can be harmful to their personal impressions of the Internet and possibly dangerous to their person, if private information of that student is used by the wrong person. Teachers need to take specific precautions to ensure that their students are protected from the possible dangers of the Internet.
To minimize risk, teachers should ensure that while at school students are being supervised at all times while on line. It is important that students understand why this supervision is necessary and why they must be careful while connected to the Internet. Taking precautions, such as educating students to the possible dangers will help them distinguish between what is safe and what is not. Students should also be taught why they should not post personal information on the Internet (as another safety precaution).
Another way to minimize the risks that the Internet poses is to establish firm rules for the class prior to using the computers. By reviewing the rules and policies that the school may have will educate students as to what is expected of them while they are connected to the Internet in school. As teachers we should also take the time to research any site that we will be directing our students to, this should be done in advance to the students connecting to that particular site. Teachers may also create a Webquest to direct students to particular sites, rather than having them browse.

Remember, Safety First!!

Spreadsheets in the Classroom

Spreadsheets are great for teachers, but can also be useful for students in the classroom. The following is an example of how excel can be used by students in a classroom setting....

Grade five students can use excel to keep a count of their reading minutes. By adding up and entering the minutes a student has read each day they are then able to average the amount of minutes they read every week. After a designated number of weeks (ex. one month), students can see how their reading has changed and/or increased. This assignment is meant to be fun, create a little competition and also works to increase the students reading.

Using excel in the classroom can be both fun and educational, I am looking forward to implementing it in my own classroom.

Discussion Boards...good or bad?

Enhancing the Classroom with Discussion Boards
-Promotes interactive participation from entire class
-Encourages students to work together while sharing ideas through interactive discussion
-Potential for creating online study groups and peer tutoring
-Gives students time to critically consider their thoughts, before posting
-Teachers can monitor where students are finding online information and help but adding threads to encourage alternate sites to check out. Thereby exposing students to sites that they may not have considered otherwise.

Pros
-Creates a sense of community
-Allows for a number of opinions to viewed at one time
-Supports the use of problem solving skills, personal inquiry and teamwork
-Can work well with face-to-face discussions
-Way of sharing information
-Highly interactive
-Geared towards continuous learning for students as well as teachers
-Support service

Cons
-Trouble with accessibility (computer access)
-Lacks face-to-face interaction
-Only able to share interactive resources
-A constant need for teachers to monitor student’s actions (ex. Research)
-Potential trouble giving feedback due to the limit of only being in written form

Concept Map

The concept map I have created is apart of a potential social studies assignment. In the classroom I could use this type of map to allow students to chose a person from history (either alive or deceased /or famous or not) and research very specific attributes. If I had been a student and chosen my Grandpa to present in a concept map, I would have been able to involve my family in getting information. This assignment would allow my students to see individuals from history from different angles as well as experiencing alternative ways of acquiring information through technology and/or word of mouth.