Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Internet Safety

I talked with a parent about internet safety in her home and she said she tries to keep all of the rules outlined in the strength of youth pamphlet. She knew about Elder Ballard's talk and she was very adamant about teaching her children about internet safety. She said she has many firewalls up to protect her children but still bad things will get through so she said she is continually telling them to come to her if they do see anything bad. She also does not allow any videos or DVDS in her home that have bad language or anything that drives away the spirit. She said she was glad we were learning about internet safety and the evils of the media in school, she said she wishes she could have been educated about how to teach her children. 

In contrast I talked with a peer who felt that nothing was wrong with watching bad media if you didn't end up swearing and doing those things yourself. This was after I showed him the talk. How does that contrast with what the apostles say compared to what he thought was right? Completely different. Anything with bad language or ungodliness drives the spirit away, so it should be applied in every individual's life.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

additional resource: internet safety

This wouldn't let me post it. Here it is: H. Burke Peterson, "Leave it alone"
I loved how he said, turn away, walk away, burn it, leave it alone.

Internet Safety

What does Elder Ballard say is our “biggest challenge” related to media?
Elder Ballard said our biggest challenge is to choose wisely what we listen to and what we watch.
What guidelines have our Church leaders been giving us for safe use of media such as the TV and Internet?
Church leaders have said that to be strong and happy, families need to be nourished by the truths depicted in the thirteenth article of faith—by a belief “in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men.”
Also Elder Ballard said this, "The time has come when members of the Church need to speak out and join with the many other concerned people in opposition to the offensive, destructive, and mean-spirited media influence that is sweeping over the earth."
As a teacher, how can you appropriately influence children and parents to develop healthy patterns of media use?
As a teacher I plan to take media in the right context and make sure and use appropriate media. I also have to realize that something that may not be offensive to me, may be offensive to a parent or child, I have to keep that in consideration, and prepare to deal with those issues. I also would like to possibly do a unit on internet, media safety to my students before using the internet.
Pornography-
Which of these guidelines do you follow?
I personally follow all of these guidelines.
How might you share these guidelines with family and friends?
My mom is really good about following these guidelines, but it is difficult to safeguard individuals when they have their own computer in their rooms. I know I have shared information about certain blocking website programs that are available for free.
McKay Today Magazine
What experiences have you had with the balance between protecting and providing when it comes to technology use?
When I lived at home my parents tried several different approaches to protecting us from the internet. At first when question arrived, they attempted to get all of our passwords, or take away privileges. That did not work. The children felt taken advantage of and had no privacy, and did not even want to use their email after that. Which is completely understandable. But they learned to accept MSN chat and facebook after time went on. They began to use texting themselves. My mom even ended up getting facebook because 8 of her children had it. I believe that my parents became educated over time and then that provided my siblings the freedom they needed but also my parents trusted them, and no problems occured after that.
What ideas do you have for learning to preside, provide, protect, and nurture when it comes to technology in your own home?
I want to be involved with the games they play, play them with them. I want to know about the internet activities they are engaged in, then if something ever did come up I would talk to them about the best solutions. I dont believe taking it away is a good option either, that could cause more problems. I know that with the Lord's help and guidance I will find the appropriate place to stand on technology.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Learned!

I learned from peers' posts on technology in the classroom that technology has unlimited possibilities! Also, it is beneficial for the students and the teachers! A really cool thing I learned from jenncobb.blogspot.com Jenn's Blog was that researchers found that manipulatives were the best way for children to learn in 1994!! So now we have virtual manipulatives on computers and online, thats great! Its the best way for students to learn. So USE them!!

ECE Technology in the Classroom WK 13

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

lesson plan

Kindergarten Literacy
Standard 3
Phonological and Phonemic Awareness - Students develop phonological and phonemic awareness.
Objective 3
Orally blend word parts (blending)
Indicator a. Blend syllables to make words (e.g., /ta/.../ble/, table).
Content: The content is to help students learn how to blend words. Objective three in the core curriculum. (blending)
Pedagogy: The Pedagogy is to help students have an awareness of blending. As a teacher when working with blending, it is a task of repetition and consistency. Blending is where you teach the different word sounds then ask them if they know what the word is. t op, what does that spell? Top. It is helpful for the teacher to be encouraging and have enthusiasm when addressing blending.
Technology: The technology in this lesson is the game called the Hay Loft from Internet4classrooms Kindergarten resources. This is where the student can roll the mouse over the two characters and they will say the two different sounds, the student then chooses a picture that represents the word they are saying. There are three different pictures to choose from. This activity fits perfectly with the content because it addresses blending, and it is easy for the teacher to be enthusiastic and encouraging while the student is doing this. This fits well with literacy because it is exactly what the teacher needs to do, this is just with visuals and on a computer so students will be much more interested in it.

Content:
Kindergarten Math
Standard1
Objective 3
Model, describe, and illustrate meanings of addition and subtraction for whole numbers less than ten.
Pedagogy: Teaching addition to students with actual chips would be helpful, also with candy or toys to help them be motivated and not really know they are sitting down learning math. Just do it with them, without saying okay today we are going to learn addition! These hands on methods will help students develop the rules of addition without saying, okay when you add.....
Technology: The technology here is from the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives and these are two virtual manipulatives students can play that introduce them to simple below ten math. This is adding and with these games they can count and they will help supply them with additional back up from the teaching of addition. Technology is fun and students need to be introduced to it in all different realms. This first game is where chips are used and the student can drag the chips to create the same problem as the numbers represent. Instead of doing this on paper the student gets to use a computer so they will be more interested.

Virtual Manipulatives: are on the computer activites that help enhance math knowledge.
This game is where they find the amount of blocks that the number says. This manipulative can be used with real blocks as well, but this method is faster and easier to clean up, because there is no clean up! These manipulatives are similar to games, and students will be excited to learn with technology.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Interview, Computer

So...after much frustration, here I am.

Interview:
Technologies available: TV, VCR, DVD, Projector, recorder, 2 computers, digital camera
Technologies she wished she had: MORE COMPUTERS
She tries to use technology as much as possible, but feels like the school doesnt support it as much as she would like. She likes using the two computers but if she had even 3 more, she said she could do a lot more.
I wanted to know how she came about getting the technologies that she did have. She said they were her own or a couple of classrooms shared them.

It was interesting to me that the school didn't really support technology. You would think with all the computers and online resources and services that the school district would be so involved with working on getting technologies in the classrooms. But, they really aren't worried about it, and are doing nothing to provide more computers for anyone. A computer class seemed to be enough, once a week. But really, as a college student I am using the computer everyday for everything. Not just homework, but looking for books, looking for apartments, recipes, supplies, and advice. So really the internet, and technologies are more vital than this school wants to realize.

In my very own classroom even if I am only able to access very few technological resources, I will make sure even my Kindergarten class knows how to work and deal with technology. It is important to be technology savy, and I think even students are more interested in learning about something that has electronics involved than paper and pencil.

Computer:
That computer is awesome. The coolest part about them for me..was that they can be powered by the sun!!!!! WOW!! I love the internal bumper for the screen because you know that if a kid owns this it will get dropped. I also like the idea of it being a non-profit organization, so really it is focused on what is best for the child, not what will market and allow the child to become obsessed with the game or something. Although, I would love to get this for my classroom to integrate into every lesson plan in order for my students to become obsessed about learning.

Reading: on the page where it said to read about online articles for ECE, there was nothing. So there was no link for me to read about. Maybe its my browser not showing it. Because Amber found it.

Techonologies:
OKAY, where was I supposed to find directions to choose what technologies I used? This made sense to me because I looked at Amber's blog. But where are my instructions? They weren't on the assignments and they weren't on moodle, and they weren't on the ple page. I wish we had one page that said everything we had to do. PLE and all. Thats my only complaint right now, that I have to assume what I am supposed to do. Anyway in my confusion I am "Assumming" we are supposed to choose a technology and choose a standard and write a pre-lesson plan. If anyone knows. Please tell me. Thanks.