Internet Safety: Part 2

After reading articles and watching the documentary about internet safety i spoke with my little brother, who is a senior in high school. We had a great conversation about what I learned about internet safety from this assignment and from class discussion. He shared some personal experiences that he has had with teachers using technology, people he knows who have been bullied online, and various techniques he knows how to use to be safe online.

He mentioned that the teachers who try to learn new technology and incorporate it into their teaching end up being the most effective at reaching the students. He feels like it is really helpful when the school encourages teachers to connect with their students through the internet. I taught him about the various methods I learned about in class to be safer on the internet and he was really excited about using them, like the password protection techniques.

His biggest concern with internet safety was that he worries about people living in a virtual world compared to having face to face interactions. We talked about the documentary I watched and the stories about teenagers who built new lives online and the dangers associated with living a virtual life. My brother was very aware of the dangers of things like that and I feel like he is in a good position to be smart about what he does online.

Internet Safety: Part 1

I just watched the Frontline Documentary about internet safety and current problems teenagers are facing due to the internet. Click here for the link to the video. I also read an article about privacy settings on Facebook at this link.

One of the main points I gained from watching the documentary is that it is very important to be involved in your child's life. A couple of the families described in the documentary had no clue their children were facing very difficult situations even though their kids were proclaiming their problems to the world online.

Another interesting point that was made in the documentary was that, as teachers, we need to embrace reality and use technology in ways that our students can relate to. The internet isn't going away. Rather than dwelling on the dangers of the internet i think it is important to embrace the benefits of the internet and teach our students how to be safe online. I plan on using a classroom blog and website to engage my students in my class.

I would like to encourage my students to be aware of the dangers of the internet and to take preventative measures while they are online. I can teach them how to create strong passwords, set strong privacy settings, recognize dangerous situations, and any other techniques that will enable my students to use the internet wisely. I need to also practice what I preach so that my students can see the benefits of being safe while on the internet. For example, after reading the Facebook article I went and checked my Facebook privacy settings to make sure my info wasn't public to the world!

Here are the links to my comments on the videos of the people in my group:

Brett's - http://brett-smith.blogspot.com/2011/12/instructional-videos.html#comment-form

Liz's - http://lizipt.blogspot.com/2011/12/my-instructional-video.html#comment-form

This is a video that I would assign my students to complete as a project for the Substance Abuse unit in my Health classes. I apologize for the random voice that chimes in throughout the video (there were some issues with the imovie program that left a watermark on my video).

Creating these videos are lots of fun and would be a great way to engage students in learning. I could create videos to document a long term experiment or goal, such as documenting my training for a marathon or my eating for a week. My students could create videos about health habits they are changing, similar to documentaries. I specifically chose to make a video that exemplifies a project I would assign my students because I feel like this type of assignment would be an effective way for my students to personalize the information they are learning. For example, I would love to have my students create a music video, a poem, a song, or some other form of expression to demonstrate what they learned about refusal skills in the substance abuse unit. Overall, I think this would be a great way to captivate students and change teaching methods up.

Instructional Video Storyboard

I have created a Google Doc with my storyboard on it.  Here is the link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m0TV_eZV5tQE4OD2n9ek9zq2ZB3S_pDJykB8leUr9qg/edit?hl=en_US


Thanks!

Personal Technology Project #3 - Polls Everywhere

I have seen several people use this technology in classes and I think it is a great way to use technology!  I could use this technology to overcome the problem of not knowing what my students really need to learn.  Yes, I can do pre-assessments by observing my students or by having them take tests, but this is an interactive, anonymous way that will allow my students to confidently get involved.  This could also help overcome the problem of having a specific set of students always answering questions.  This technology invites everyone to participate and freely share what they truly think.

I could use Polls in my classroom to test students' knowledge during a lesson or to review something we've learned.  I would love to use this to have students answer open-ended questions like "What type of physical activity do you prefer to perform?" or do a multiple choice question with yes and no being options A and B to answer the question "Do you know somebody with a mental illness?"  By using Polls I can encourage involvement, especially n circumstances that students may not feel completely comfortable saying what they think to the whole class.

A major obstacle that would prevent my from doing this in my classroom is if a student doesn't have a cell phone or text messaging capabilities.  I wouldn't want to just leave those students out so I would need to find a way to include them, like having them submit their answer online.

Here is the link to my new page with my poll and my Power Point presentation with the polls included on my class website:
https://sites.google.com/site/gillehealthclass/in-cla

Personal Technology Project #2 - Google Groups

I learned that Google Groups is fairly similar to a blog.  For instance, it can be interactive where people can reply to posts and you can post pictures and attachments.  I also learned that you can categorize your group so that it fits into a specific genre of groups, like I categorized mine in the health group.

It would be useful to use Google Groups in my class room to overcome instructional problems like misplacing a student's work.  If they are able to complete assignments online by simply posting to a response, then I will not have to worry about losing their work.  It would also be useful in overcoming problems like limited numbers of copies each teacher can make.  By attaching an assignment or having them submit it online, I won't have to worry about limiting the number of copies I can make.

A couple of activities I would use Google Groups for are to create discussions online.  Like I could post an interesting article about a unit we are on and my students could respond to the article through the Google Group and respond to each others' comments.  I could also use Google Groups for group projects.  My students could create their own groups and contact each other through the group or post information for a project online through Google Groups.

The problems I see that are associated with Google Groups are that not all my students are guaranteed to have access to the internet or a computer based on where I teach.  Also, I feel like there are more capabilities for interaction through things like blogs and class websites.