Internet Safety Reflection

I. I chose to read the article entitled "Filling the World with Goodness and Truth" by Elder M. Russell Ballard. It was a really neat article that made one want to try their best to fill the world with what is good.
II. The movies I watched were shocking to me. These children were so young to be doing and going through the things they were. The PBS movies especially astounded me. That a girl at 14 could post somany horrible pictures, make it her life and say that they really weren't that bad and for a boy so young to be bullied so much that he committed suicide. It mad eme wonder what will happen in the future, how much worse it will get and scared to raise children amongst such dangerous situations.
III. My most important take aways were that I really need to stay up to date when in comes to technology so that I will not be ignorant. I also need to have a good relationship with my students and my children so that I am also not ignorant if they begin to get into things - to have a relationship where they can talk to me and so that I know them well enough to know when things are different and/or going wrong in their lives. I have also been engrained with the belief that the computer and all media should be in an open area in the house and that rules will need to be set and children need to be taught about the dangerous things out there and how to avoid them. One can never just assume that a child knows something.
IV. This parent already knew about the importance of having filters and programs established to block bad things on the internet, about having a computer in an open area, about not giving information out on the internet and not going into chat rooms. The parent was very surprised however by many of the things that I told them and I was surprised by how much they did not know. They did not know about cyberbullying and had never even thougt about its possibility or its consequences. They were astounded when I talked of how it is so much more dangerous because a child does not have a safe place to go to get away from it or how much more cruel children are because it is easier to say mean things over the internet than it is to say it to a person in person.
They also did not know about hate sites nor of the many dangerous things on the internet other than chat rooms (including the sharing of information on things like facebook)and pornography. When I gave ideas on what to do about these problems, the parent was very attentive and appreciative. This surprised me as I thought that they might not take what I said seriously as I am a college student who has not had experience with children. I believe that this parent will actually implement the idea of needing to be technology savy and talking to their kids about rules and expectations while on the computer.

I completed the university course evaluation, the course feedback survey and checked my grades on Moodle.

Here is my TPACK report

http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AZNKAjy7F643ZGZxZDNkNXFfNmRjYjQ4NmY4&hl=en

Technology lesson plans

Here are my three lesson plans!

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfqd3d5q_3hjh6tpsg

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfqd3d5q_4hcd8hkhn

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfqd3d5q_5dszjzjgt

Week 10 - InTime Videobase

One of a young child's favorite activites is drawing and it is often a great tool in learning - used to enhance many lessons. I had not thought before these movies that the drawing and art can be done using technology. Whether it is drawing using a computer, using KidPix or uploading pictures, students can use this art past just turning in a piece of paper. One advantage to using technology in the art is that it is easily accessible to young students. One of the videos showed kindergarteners enjoying using technology to draw. Another advantage is that it can be made into a slide show and shown to the whole class. The other videos showed how they can be encorporated into research - whether the student makes a research presentation or simply to compare the pictures with the information on the internet. One of the most important reasons is that the students love it - you could see from the videos how much fun they were having and that helps to enhance their learning.

Technology in my classroom

In the first grade classroom that I am in, there is not a lot of technology that the students have access to. There are two computers in the classroom, but I have only ever seen the teacher use them. The only time the students have used technology is when they watched part of a movie once, used the smart board for making words and once a group used an electronic math math (a game for the students to touch the number they hear called). Out of all the time I have been there, these things have only been a very small portion of the time. Outside of the classroom however, the students have access to a lot of technology. There are times almost everyday when the students have a chance to do work on computers in one of the many computer labs. The teachers has access to more technology also, many of the teachers simply don't utilize these resources.

I completed the midcourse evaluation and the informed consent.

Science Challenge PLE

I was able to watch the Voice Thread of Lauryn Paul, Leah Barker and Kaitlin Tingey. It was neat to see three completely different projects using probes and Stellarium. Using these technologies takes away many of the inevitable problems that comes with normal observation - things like weather that you can't control, PH strips all over the room, etc.

Doing these science experiments using technology makes it easy enough for all students to use and less of a hassle for the teacher. Plus, everything can be done in the classroom at any time of the day and year! It also allows for class to be facilitated easily in groups so that all students have the opportunity to explore and they also have the opportunity to collaborate. These experiments also follow the Utah Core Curriculum, so the technology is a good investment as they can be used year after year!

Force Plate Science

Here is the voice thread of my science project. (as a side note, make sure to read the text comments by my picture for each slide as well for further reasons why this is a great tool!)