3. Online social interaction offers great opportunity to develop and practice positive social as well as good communication skills. However, the threat of cyberbullying and the possibility of inappropriate sharing require protecting children. What do you think the role of online social interaction should be in schools? What steps should educators take to ensure that such integration can be done safely?
Before beginning any online project, the rules should be gone over. Projects should be regimented and designed for success, but allow the students limited access to certain things. I see a lot of teachers on facebook doing projects where they see how far and wide their picture can go, in an effort for the kids to see the consequences of postings. I like this. It reminds me of the project I did as a kid where we put a letter in a balloon and see where it ended up. This is just the updated version. Whatever the project, teachers need to monitor the students carefully.
Chapter 12
- As emerging technologies continue to affect education, there is little question that the role of the teacher will change. Imagine yourself teaching a class in 20 years. How do you think your role would be different from the typical teacher’s role today?
The role of the instructor is definitely changing. Education is going more toward individualized instruction that celebrates the individuality of students and is presented on their time table, instead of the instructor's. The instructor will be more of a guide to learning, allowing the student to discover material for themselves- even going more toward what the student is interested in, rather than a particular curriculum. For an instructor to be successful at this, they have to learn to put themselves aside and focus on the student.
Projects:
I really liked the projects this week. The Scoop It was quite easy to do, although I accidentally signed up for a business account, and it took me quite a while to figure out how to undo that. I also had quite the time figuring out how to share it because my screen looked different than the tutorials. I think I did it right, but could be mistaken. At first I was worried about not being able to find good articles for it, but the website gave really good suggestions that I liked. I can definitely see myself using this for my classes. It's so overwhelming for students to try and figure out what articles to read because there is just so much out there.
I also liked the thing link. I wanted to find a picture that had different things coming off of it to represent the different aspects of med lab, but couldn't figure that out. I settled on just on hematology. I think this gives an interesting way to offer more information to the students. I don't think it would take terribly long to do once I got used to it, but I think that some of the things I would want to do would cost money.