We have to encourage our parents to open those lines of communication daily. Talk with your child about only communicating with friends that they know. Also, stress that they can always come and talk about any experiences or questions that come up while they is online. Next, start by setting limitations while your child is online. For example, set a cut off time for being on the internet and even join in while your child is online playing games. The next strategy provided a large variety of teaching resources to help educators and parents learn how to talk with their children about using the internet safely and how to deal with strangers in real life and online. The Edutopia authors used some common tools such as BrainPop, Jr. videos, writing activities, and even games for students to play.
Introducing our students to the topic of strangers online and in real life helps them understand that all strangers will not be big, mean, or scary. It’s easy to understand what you should do if you encounter a real-life stranger, but an online stranger is different. Online strangers are brought into our homes and we have to give our students the tools to know how to deal with them. The third strategy encourages our schools and parents to set clear internet guidelines with your children’s input. This strategy encourages teachers and parents to include students in this process when creating these guidelines. This will help students take ownership of their behavior and remind them of the importance and need for internet safety.
This week we only had to choose one tool to investigate from chapter 10. From this chapter I decided to explore Netvibes. Just imagine if you could pull up one tool that housed everything that you used throughout the day. Netvibes can be described as that resource that pulls in all of your newsfeeds, blogs, social networks, podcasts, games, videos, and any other information that you check regularly from your smart phone all in one location. When I first looked at this tool, I must admit that I was overwhelmed by everything. For me it was too cluttered and just too much on a page for me to be able to truly enjoy it, but I could definitely see how it could be used in our classrooms. Teachers could use Netvibes to create WebQuests for student exploration or they could use it to house all of their favorite internet sites organized by concepts, and even use it share information with their fellow teachers. Also, teachers could create tasks for our independent or self-directed learners to complete. For example, having your students watch videos or lectures before coming to class, so your class time could be used for strictly application.
The future of Web 2.0 technology has only just begun. I believe that it is transforming each day for us and our students. In my opinion technology is changing how available it is for all of our students. About ten years ago it was rare to see classrooms equipped with laptop carts, document cameras, and smartboards. Many reasons that this happened is because of the cost for these resources. In the beginning your more affluent schools had the newest or most technology available while your poorer schools just had to make do. Now technology is readily available everywhere. Schools are getting away from purchasing the most expensive software because most of these resources can now be found for free or at an inexpensive price. Take for example Mangahigh, for years this great resource was free for our students to use and support their learning now you have to pay for this resource. One of the areas that I believe that our schools are going to struggle with is learning how to use technology to foster learning. Many of our classrooms use technology for games, review, test prep, and word processing. We have to take these tools beyond to application, collaboration, and product creation.
Another area that will challenge our schools is making sure that our teachers are prepared to use technology to its full extent. Many of our teachers are exposed to a wide range of resources and tools, but we are not giving them the time to successfully understand how these resources can impact their classrooms. I also have to wonder how technology is going to impact the social skills and face to face interactions of our students. So many of our students and even some adults hide behind their computer screens and they lack the ability to interact with others. The future of web 2.0 technology is going to continue to transform our schools for the best. I believe that these technology resources are going to help with meeting the needs of all of our students and encourage collaboration and application in our classrooms.