PLE Week 14

*I completed steps 1-3 of the PLE

I chose to read the media and entertainment portion of the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet online. I watched a bunch of video resources. A few of my favorites were the FauxPaw Techno Cat Video, Real Life Stories-Cyber-bullying video, and Private World outside Parents Reach video. They all taught valuable things that are important to know with internet safety. The FauxPaw video was a cartoon made by a BYU student and it was geared more towards children. It gave 3 main points at the end. They were: Never give your name, address, phone number, or name of your school to anyone online, never meet someone you found online, and if you ever feel uncomfortable about something you see on the computer, run and tell a parent. The cyber-bullying video was interesting to watch because it showed a kid who really regretted his decision to participate in the cyber-bullying because his sister ended up being involved. This video just showed how hurtful using the internet in this way can be, and not only to those who are victims but even to the people who actively participate. The Private World outside the Parent’s Reach was maybe the most interesting of all for me to watch. It was about a girl who was anorexic and she went online to foster her problem. She could find support groups online where people would praise each other for not eating at all in a whole day among other things. There was even a site where anorexic people could go and basically worship the idol “ana” and make confessions to her and whatnot. This really surprised me. I could hardly believe that things like this went on. When this girl was asked how much her parents knew about her anorexia she said they knew nothing at all. They were completely oblivious. She viewed the net as a place she could go to be herself and talk to other people who are “like her”. This opened my eyes a little bit to other dangers that the internet can bring. If she did not have this anorexia support group online she may actually believe that she had a problem and that she needed to seek out help rather than to find new strategies to make herself look skinnier. Some more things I learned from the other videos I watched that I did not mention were that sometimes people say things online that they would never say in person, it is easy to say things you don't mean when you are online, there is a culture of internet involvement, many children who are involved in things they shouldn’t be are not necessarily bad but they are at risk of doing bad things, kids think that when they are in their home they are safe but internet predators are just as dangerous as the ones that are lurking in the dark, it is important to have your kids give you their passwords, and we need to think of kids less as victims and more as participants. It is the kids who go out looking for a thrill that get into trouble. One thing I learned from multiple sources was that it is important to only have computers in public areas where use can be monitored. This is a great preventative measure. The For the Strength of Youth pamphlet gave a lot of guidelines and outlined a bunch of things to watch out for when it comes to media and entertainment. I learned that everything we read, listen to or look at has an effect on us whether we realize it or not. It teaches that we should not only avoid the things that we know are bad but only look for things that uplift us. It talks a lot about pornography and how it is so important to avoid it at all times. It is likened to a poison that weakens us.
The person that I talked to about internet safety was an 11 year old girl. When I asked her what she already knew about internet safety she said she knew nothing at all. She said she only uses the internet for school projects. Her parents have a password block on the computer so she cannot get into any sites that seem at all sketchy. I was surprised how little she knew about internet safety. Her little use of the internet would explain a lot of that though. A lot of the content I had to share with her was about chat rooms and corresponding with people online. She did not even know what a chat room was. So I decided to teach her more basic things that I learned like what to do if something comes up on the computer that makes her feel uncomfortable. She accepted everything I said and agreed with me. She was easy to teach. I am not too worried about this girl but I think that now she will be more careful when she is on the internet to only go to sites that she knows are safe and she will tell a parent if anything comes up that she shouldn’t see or participate in.

TPACK Project

PLE Week 12

My mentor teacher did not use a whole lot of technology but she was good with using the things that she had. She could have done more with PowerPoint presentations or videos. It would have been fun for the students to see their own work projected on a slideshow of some sort. But she made great use of her document camera. She used it more than anything and it was very useful in helping the students to see the things she was demonstrating. She also used the internet to find a lot of cool astronomy pictures to show the students. It was fun for them to see those and talk about them. It would have been fun for the students to go to the computer lab every so often to do projects but I can see how that would have been hard for a second grade class. My mentor teacher used the internet to find the daily weather for the students to graph. That was a useful tool. She would also type things on the computer and project them up on the screen. The technology that she used was always very helpful.

PLE Week 11

Bookends of War http://etec.hawaii.edu/etecvideos/videos/bow/?page=ft_small
Inside Kapunahala http://etec.hawaii.edu/etecvideos/videos/kap/?page=ft_large

In the first video, the children were so excited to see their actual work on the computer. They think their website looks really cool. The technology got them excited about what they were doing in class. The students seem to understand what the website is all about. It seems like they understand the content more when they are displaying it in a fun way on the website. The children are eager to come to class and can’t wait to get down to the computer room. They think it is fun, not just busywork. The technology allowed the children to collaborate with each other and it allowed the children to problem solve. The students felt a great sense of accomplishment as they completed something that was a challenge. In the second video students were just as enthusiastic about technology. Students get the opportunity to be on a news program. It made students feel like it was a privilege to work with technology and to work on school projects.

Lesson Plans

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dg58m5bb_6dzrww5cr
http://docs.google.com/View?id=dg58m5bb_5hm65tfj2
http://docs.google.com/View?id=dg58m5bb_4hpgqrmfx

PLE Week 10

In the spider lesson, the teacher uses a video to teach her students about spiders. She also has the students use cameras to take picture of spiders. I watched as the students became engaged during the camera activity. This same teacher also uses internet communications to correspond with people from different states. Technology is the only quick way you would be able to exchange pictures. This is a great way to engage the students. Technology is the only effective way to accomplish this type of task. Technology provides students with experiences that they could not otherwise have. In another classroom they used technology to put together final products. Using the computer to make the finished product allowed the teacher to be able to send the student’s work home in a more exciting way. It gets old sending books and papers home. It is so much more exciting for the students to go home and show their parents something on the computer than a worksheet that they filled out. The computer also allowed the students to be able to easily draw and erase without too much trouble. This can be especially important for younger children. In the last classroom had the students make their own PowerPoint presentations to show to the class. The slideshows gave the students many tools that they could use to demonstrate what they were learning. So many things could not be provided without technology.

PLE Week 9

I was was pleasantly surprised with the technology that we have available to us in my classroom. We have 1 computer and some other simple technolgy. The technology that I find the most useful is the document camera. It works as a projector and it makes it some things can be viewed on the board. This is a very useful tool. I have already used it in a lesson. There are two seperate compter labs that can be scheduled at the school. They have various programs available to the students.

I completed parts 1 and 2 of the PLE.