Week 14

I complete steps 2-4 for this week's PLE.

Internet Safety Reflection

1. I chose to read one of the articles under the Media section entitled, "Rated 'A' " by Marvin J. Ashton (such a great article!).
2. I watched over 60 minutes of the video footage under the resources of Netsmartz, iKeepSafe Faux Paws, and the PBS Frontline Documentaries. Some of them were short, informative clips of hypothetical situations whereas others were real stories told by the kids who had experienced them. The videos covered internet safety topics ranging from child predator fears to social life revolution to kids growing up online to creating new identities. I was blown away by how manipulative people can be just through a few clicks on their computers. It was so good for me to watch these stories and recognize how these things actually do happen.
3. Some of the most important things I learned from these readings and videos were founded in the principle of preparing and preventing (instead of "repairing and repenting"). Just as that one "feather in the wind" video explained, once negative things are said on the Internet, it is extremely difficult to pick up the pieces. I enjoyed reading the articles because they articulated correct principles that should govern Internet use and the reasoning behind the principles. My favorite article was Elder Bednar's talk on reality and how Satan wants to minimize the importance of our bodies by getting us to use technology incorrectly--I thought that was really poignant. So many of the videos really struck me as well, but the most interesting one I watched was the one about the goth model who put her identity so much into her provocative Myspace account that it was devastating when she had to delete everything. It demonstrated to me just how careful we need to be in not allowing virtual reality to become more important to us than actual reality.
4. I talked to a parent who was actually pretty well informed about internet safety. Although she was not aware of all the specific ways kids could manipulate each other through the Internet (like cyberbullying), we discussed some of them and realized how most of these situations could be prevented by carefully setting up safeguards, starting when kids are really little. Then, if they start to violate the parents' trust in different ways, then the parents will come down harder on them with more restrictions. I was a little bit surprised to hear how she would restrict Internet privileges so much, but it made a lot of sense considering how hard she has worked on relationships of trust with her kids. I shared a lot about the videos, especially with the girl who shared her best friend's password and she was taken advantage of and her reputation was ruined. I think the person I talked to was amazed by how little it takes to destroy a reputation, and hopefully she will keep teaching her kids important principles about relationships and little safety tips like keeping passwords private.

week 12

I read "Early Connections: Technology in Early Childhood Classrooms" thoroughly for week 12.

TPACK report

week 11

Here are the links for my lesson plans:

• Science lesson plan: http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddcbhwk9_1fkvj89c5

• Language Arts: http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddcbhwk9_2f8stj2cd

• Math: http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddcbhwk9_3gbc3kpd6

Also, I watched the videos for the PLE this week.

week 10

As I watched these three videos, I was impressed with the variety of technology these teachers used. Probably my favorite example was the technology activities helping the students to learn more about spiders. They took pictures using "spider cams" and then scanned their images into the computer so they could put them on a website. The best part was that the website was used to collaborate with an entirely different classroom a few states away. I love this example because it illustrates how technology can connect learners and create meaningful experiences (even across a great distance!) I also enjoyed watching about how the kindergartners (in the "Brown Bear Brown Bear" video) could use the computer to draw pictures to create patterns and make stories in an easy and accessible way. This was especially impressive to me since these were some of the students that had higher needs. The last video was an excellent example of how KidPix provides students with good opportunities to use drawing tools on the computer. Something I noticed about this specific activity was that it enabled students to interact with their teacher and with each other as they drew using KidPix. Overall, I thought that watching these videos helped me to understand even more options to increase my use of technology in the classroom.

week 9

First of all, when I visited two different preschool classrooms, I noticed how much school funding really influences the technology that is available. One school had very few resources, with only a CD player, an overhead, and a VCR (with the tv). While these are decent resources, they seemed outdated in comparison to the other class, which had those resources as well as several new computers (along with updated educational programs), a projector, a digital camera, and access to bigger speakers than just a CD player.

It was interesting to see the teachers' differing attitudes about technology. The teacher with fewer resources seemed more indifferent about its effects in helping the children learn and did not seem as concerned about how to integrate technology with lesson plans. The second teacher who had access to more resources displayed a very healthy and balanced approach to technology--she acknowledged how beneficial these tools were in helping her to teach and also in helping kids to discover the world from different perspectives.

I think the biggest way that technology influenced both classrooms in a preschool setting was just how much music played a significant part in the kids' experience. Both teachers had access to technology that could play music, and although better funding equates to better quality of music, teachers can still grab kids' attention so much and teach so much by using this tool regardless of its quality. So although it is nice to have more up to date technologies, the most important part is using the technologies that are available and incorporating those into the lesson plans.

It is very interesting to see how different teachers view technology and I hope that when I become a teacher, I appreciate whatever resources that are accessible to me.

Also, I completed parts 1 and 2 for this week (the mid-course evaluation and the informed consent).