Internet Safety Reflection

I completed steps 1-3 listed to do for this week's PLE:

1. Complete the University Course Evaluation in RouteY.
2. Complete the Course Feedback Survey.
3. Check grades in Moodle and let the instructor know if there is anything that seems incorrect.

- The article I chose to read for my article of choice was, "Entertainment and the Media" from For the Strength of Youth pamphlet.

- The video resources I watched:

On Netsmartz.org -
Cyberbullying: 'Feathers in the wind'- feathers in this movie are gossip, they can spread anywhere, and getting them all back is impossible. Same with gossip, once you spread things to others, you'll never get it all back if you want to fix it.
Cyberbullying: 'You Can't Take it Back'- a teen thinking he'd never do anything crazy, yet with the influence of his friends he makes comments on a rating site. Turns out the site was directed toward specific people in school, including his sister. People got hurt, and he can't take it back.
Cyberbullying: 'Broken Friendship'- Two best friends shared each others' passwords to everything. One friend gave the password of the other friend to some bullying girls who got into her email, sent risque messages to some of the senior boys in school. Now the boys look at her differently, she won't talk to her friend, and she feels alone.
'Julie's Journey'- Julie spoke to someone online who she didn't know, as retaliation to her parents; she needed to talk to someone. She'd talk 3-6 hrs. a day, which in turn caught her in his grasp leading her to run away with him for 3 weeks until someone recognized him on their way to Reno and turned them in. She didn't think of who he might be, and that he could have done something to her; now she feels empty and alone.
'Amy's choice'- Amy felt like she didn't have anyone to talk to about bad things in her life. She met someone online she felt safe talking to, which turned into more than she expected. He came to her house, she met him outside not telling her parents, she left with him for 2 days until she was found.
'Tracking Teresa'- It's easy to find kids online information from chat rooms. Within 20 mins you can find out their full name, phone number, where they live, what school they go to, their family dynamics, email address, etc.
'Keisha's Crime'- two friends liked the same boy. One found out the boy's chat name, and tried chatting with her, which he wasn't too keen on. She found out his email address, sent a risque picture of her other friend to him, which he deleted. Her friend found out it was her who sent the email, now their not friends.
'Angela's experience'- In a chat room someone sent Angela a mean message, which continues on until she got a hate email threatening her. She reported it to her mom, which was the right thing to do.
On iKeep Safe.org -
FauxPaw the Techno Cat- Never give your contact info to anyone online, don't give any personal information. Never meet someone from online you don't know.
On PBS.org -
'A revolution in classrooms and social life'- You've got to cut through media to get the students' attention. More students struggle to focus, they're used to immediate stimulus. two responses you can have to this: 1) fight it, or 2)accept it. Be aware of what your students are doing online.
'The Child Predator Fear'- Good kids make a bad judgment and they pay for it. A mother is concerned about her children online, and makes sure she knows what they're doing, has the family computer in the kitchen where she can see them, and tries to keep communicating with them. Faculty in schools are saying that kids are smart, they're not looking for trouble, they know to ignore risky things.

- The most important 'take-aways' from the reading and videos -
As parents, teachers, adults, we need to be aware of what is out there on the internet, and what kids are privy to. If we're informed, and communicating with children, we can hopefully prevent drastic measure that can happen. Encourage children to view and only work with uplifting media online or anywhere, and that can eliminate many problems as well.

- I did an interview with my 11 yr old sister, asking her what she knew about bullying online. She told me she knew it was where kids go online to send mean messages to people; she didn't know anyone who does that. I asked her what else she knew about internet safety, and she told me that a few years ago, in school, they watched a FauxPaws movie clip showing you that someone you meet from online can be someone completely different than you thought they might be. I was able to tell her the importance of being extra careful with the information you put about yourself online, because it's so easy for anyone to get your information. She was a little scared, but understood the gravity of the topic; she was interested in what I told her, and excited to share what she knew. I believe my sister will be a lot more cautious with what she shares with people online now.

Practicum observations

I was in Heber Valley Elementary School in Mrs. Hayter’s 1st Grade class. Mrs. Hayter was a wonderful mentor teacher who used technology throughout each day to teach her 1st graders. Every student, in their center groups, would get a chance to be on the computers for 13 minutes using Razz Kids, an online virtual reading program that tracks the students’ progress and tests them after reading books. Mrs. Hayter also would use her document camera to project on the whiteboard from her laptop the math website the school uses to teach math. She would also use the document camera to also project on the whiteboard different worksheets the students would be working on together as a class, or test material she would step each student through. The school had given Mrs. Hayter, along with all the other teachers, a touch pad to record students’ progress with different subjects; she didn’t know how to use it, my partner taught her so she could start using that technology to help benefit her and her classroom. I believe Mrs. Hayter adequately used technology in her classroom to effectively teach her first graders.

Video Comments

Bookends of War video:
http://etec.hawaii.edu/etecvideos/videos/bow/
Inside Kapunahala video:
http://etec.hawaii.edu/etecvideos/videos/kap/

With the ‘Bookends of War’ project, students are put into groups where they work on different parts to create the classroom website. One student is taught the skills needed and then goes back to their group to teach everyone else what needs to be learned. Cooperation is seen in this classroom, and their knowledge of technology increasing daily. Students see technology as aiding them in showing others what they have learned, and a great way to prepare for future jobs when they get older.
With the ‘Inside Kapunahala’ project, students that struggle are given opportunities to create commercial story boards and film short video clips to help them be better at communication skills and using technology. Students have found they can communicate more clearly from participating in this program, which has helped them in other classes with participation points because they can vocalize their thoughts and opinions better. Also, they find creating the story boards quite fun, because they get to write and draw pictures. Their involvement with technology enhances their confidence and abilities to learn and produce projects.

Using technology with young children

The most important thing I learned from the three videos about using technology with young children is to clearly define what the students are to do, model it for them to see, and then be there to help facilitate their work. With the video on spiders, the teacher was actively involved in not only helping the students learn about spiders, but taught them how to use their technology equipment (cameras) so they could take pictures of spiders they found. The video with the kindergarten class taking the book ‘Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?’ and applying that to vehicles by doing a book extension, which they put together on the computer. The teacher was there every step of the way for each student so they not only knew what was expected of them, but were able to get the help they needed. These two videos showed a great example of how to clearly direct students in their use of technology.

Technology observation

My initial observations about the technology available to the teacher I am working with in the practicum was quite interesting. I could see she has access to 4 student computers and a laptop for herself, which she uses with her projector to teach and also allows the students to use when doing centers. Also, I saw she has access to a TV and a VCR, as well as a CD player and headsets to let the students use to hear books on tape. She has access to basic technology that helps in the learning environment for children.
I completed the mid course evaluation, and the informed consent, as well as the technology survey.

Science Challenge Summary

The three presentations I reviewed were:
1. Alexandra
2. Beth
3. Andrea

The upside of implementing a science activity idea in an elementary classroom is it's a great way to implement technology for students to use in learning about science. The downside of of implementing this is the lack of control over each individual student, because they are individually or in groups using the technology.
Overall, though, the upsides outweigh the downsides, because it truly is a magnificent way for students to interact with science and internalize the learning better.

Sandy Kellyn & Maria

Science Challenge

For our Science Challenge project we will be teaching basic cloud types. The teacher will define the basic cloud types, while showing students different pictures of each type. Once they've been introduced to different clouds, the students will organize and identify the cloud types, and make predictions of what types of weather conditions each cloud will produce, recording that in their journals. For our assessment we will use the 'Clouds' worksheet on Kidsperation to see if the students can create their own organized sheet of the various cloud types.

For our content we've decided to fulfill the Science Utah Core Standard #2 objective 1 for the 4th grade. Students will be able to identify the basic cloud types.

Our pedagogy will have the students observe different pictures of cloud types, organizing and identifying the clouds, and making predictions of what types of weather each cloud will produce. It allows students to have a visual to see what the types of clouds look like, they'll be able to interact with their journal by identifying clouds each day, and finally they get to put their input in with their weather predictions.

We will us Kidsperation for our technology because the 'clouds' worksheet not only enables the students to have interaction with identifying the cloud types, it will assess their knowledge of what they have learned.

Using Kidsperation adds in a multimodal representation to our teacher because it allows the student to interact on various levels of their knowledge.

Virtual Tour Comments

I viewed Kerry's, Alexandra's, & Gillian's virtual tours.

The upsides of implementing a virtual tour in an elementary classroom are as follows: visually stimulating and virtually interactive. Students are able to apply different modes of learning. The Downsides are: there's a lot of room for playing around and it's hard to control the students; targeted learning information is put off to the side, causing other stimuating facts surrounding it get in the way.

National Parks Google Earth Tour

Virtual Tour Description

In my virtual tour of national parks, I will be addressing standard 1 for 3rd graders, which is: Students will understand how geography influences community location and development.

I chose to do a virtual tour on this topic because I've always had an interest in our country's national parks, and thought it would be fun to create a tour of some of them. The content in this tour will not only familiarize the students with 4 national parks, but give them activities to get them more acquainted with what each of them are like and give them a chance to imagine what it would look like.

Location	Activity Description	Google Earth Content
1. Acadia National Park	At Acadia National Park there is an island called Bar Island. You can walk to this island. How can you do that? Click the squares around the island to find out. Then imagine what it would be like to walk to Bar Island and write a paragraph about it. Make sure to use descriptive words.	Students will use the square icons to find information, along with looking at photos.
2. Craters of the Moon National Park	This park is a barren area of lava flows, mini volcanoes (called cinder cones), and volcanic tubes. It was called "Craters of the Moon" because people thought the moon looked like this National Park landscape. Use the street view function, zoom, and look at the pictures to get ideas about what the landscape looks like. Draw a picture of what this national park would look like if you were there.	Students will view pictures, use the street view, and zoom function.
3. Glacier Bay National Park	Here in Glacier Bay National Park there are mountains over 15,000 feet tall, coastal beaches with coves, tidewater glaciers, and freshwater lakes. The shorelines and islands you can see today were covered by ice over 200 yrs. ago. The land by the mouth of the bay is now covered by forests of spruce and hemlock trees. Look to see where the forests are around the national park. Why do you think the trees and plants don't go inland further? What other types of plants do you think could grow in this climate? Write your answers down on a piece of paper.	Students will use the zoom function, as well as clicking on various places to view pictures.
4. Arches National Parks	This park was established to protect over 2,000 natural sandstone arches. These arches are rock formations that have been eroded over millions of years. Using the weather function, find out what kind of climate this park has. Also look at the street view to see what the landscape looks like. What kinds of plants and animals do you think live here? How does this national park compare to Glacier Bay National Park? What kinds of plants and animals do you think live in the Glacier park? Why are the plants and animals different in these two different parks? Write your answers down on a piece of paper.	Students will use the weather function, along with the street view and zoom. Also viewing pictures.

Digital Storytelling

I think the most difficult challenge with implementing a digital storytelling project in an elementary education classroom would mainly be organizing it to not only make it worthwhile for the students, but a good learning opportunity. Setting up groups, or having them do it individually, setting up the requirements, and teaching them how to use the resources available to them would add to the challenge. But despite the time and hassle it might cause, the overall experience would not only excite the students, but teach them another way to share their thoughts and ideas to others.

The ABC's of BYU Dating

TPACK & storyboard

TPACK is different kinds of technology and how they work together. Teachers really should have an understanding of TPACK because not all technology works for certain objectives they might have. For example, with TCK, a scientist might use a telescope to look at insects; whereas, with TPK, a teacher needs to know how to manage a classroom that has a laptop for each student. Understanding the different types of technology and how they work together will help teachers use them more efficiently and correctly.

My group's storyboard is the ABC's of BYU dating. We have chosen different facets of dating that correspond with each letter of the alphabet, with a picture to represent each one. Using a digital story to teach this content will be beneficial in not only educating others about BYU dating, but also adding a humorous flair to make it fun along with being educational. Each picture with it's description will aid the students in comprehending the different aspects of BYU dating, which are otherwise implied but not expanded upon in public.

This week's assignment

Learning how to create a website was really amazing this week! I've never done that before, and now I know how. Being able to create new pages, link google maps and documents, videos, pictures, and website links was something I didn't know how to do, and now I do. I enjoyed making a poster on glogster.com, that resourse is fun!
So overall, I learned a lot of things this week that I plan to not only keep up on, but continue to use throughout the years.

Technology background & experience

My technology background is basic; I can get around quite well on the Internet, have a face book account, email account, enjoy instant messenger, and have a cell phone, laptop, and mp3 player. I don't know the basic forms of technology, but there is so much more that keeps coming out that I haven't heard of yet. I'm excited to learn more!