Where do we stand?
Whew! Been a few weeks since I have blogged. Seems like everything that could have happened has. But, we’ve been dealing with a few things in my department that I just needed to share and ask for opinions.
We are struggling with the idea of how much do we protect the students from the Internet and how much we allow them to grow. I’m assuming that by that statement you can figure out where I stand. I am all in favor of teaching students the positives and possible downfalls of the Internet. If we don’t teach the students, how will they know?
Is it better to shut everything down and shelter our students or teach them the correct way to surf the Internet? I’m afraid there are some who are of the opinion that it is better to shut everything down. Hmmmmm, and what do the kids do when they are given a few freedoms? They won’t know how to work the Internet safely.
So, where do we stand? Do we shelter or do we teach? I, of course, am definitely standing on the teach side of the road. Where are you?
If you get an opportunity, check out a couple of new sites and let me know what you think: Glogster and Animoto. I’d like to share these with my teachers and would like your opinion first. Both are wonderful resources, but are they safe enough for our students? Are there truly any sites on the Internet that are 100% ’safe’?
Until next time ~ Danita
April 30th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Dear Education Blogger,
I just wanted to make sure that you were invited to our education “Blogger Summit”. We hope you can make it and feel free to share this invitation with any other bloggers in the area that might be interested. The invitation is attached below.
Alex
ED In ‘08 Blogger Summit
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Strong American Schools is excited to announce the ED in ‘08 Blogger Summit. Conference details are as follows:
May 14th - 15th
Palomar Hotel, Washington DC
Registration is Free!
An opening reception is scheduled on the evening of Wednesday, May 14th. Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres will be served before the screening of a new documentary film on education, Two Million Minutes. A Q&A session with the filmmakers is set to follow.
Then join us for an all-day conference on May 15th. Nowhere else will you have an opportunity to meet and network with fellow education bloggers, participate in panels, attend workshops, and help tackle some tough questions on the state of education in America.
Space is limited, so be sure to RSVP today!
Register at http://edin08.com/bloggersummit/
June 3rd, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Danita,
I agree that we need to teach the positives of technology because the positives far outweigh the negatives. At my school barely anything besides myspace is blocked. The students have full access to youtube, google images, etc. Luckily we have taught them how to avoid the pitfalls of the Internet and stressing safety is a constant. I just had a student create a “How to” on blocking “bad images” from Google images and hand it out to the class,
As far as animoto goes, it is a great tool. My students made a “tour of the classroom” for the parents who could not make it to back to school night.
July 25th, 2008 at 11:15 am
I just wanted to add my tuppence worth and agree that animoto is a great tool. They have a special promotion on at the moment so students can get free access to creating full length videos which can be downloaded so that they can view them without even having to access animoto. If you haven’t already (after all, this was an April post!) then I recommend you sign up to that free promo!