Technology is a very important part of the 21st century classroom. There are countless tools and resources out there to help teachers deliver a quality education to students. The great thing is, many of these tools lead us to discover more applications which create even more opportunities in the classroom.

Technology does not have to be costly, you just have to know where to look. Google Earth is an incredible tool that can be used anywhere, even our phones, but it is completely free. As you can see from the map above, we have learned about many useful applications out there. In doing so, it made me realize that this course can only scratch the surface because there simply isn't enough time to spend exploring them all.

Another thing I learned is the power of group collaboration. The searching power of one person can be great. When those resources are pooled, the useful things that are found on the internet are multiplied. This can be applied to the classroom. A group of students can uncover things I never thought possible because they may be even better at searching than I am. This is the idea behind social networking, and it is a very powerful thing. I have certainly learned some very interesting and practical uses of technology in this course, and it will give me an advantage over those who do not recognize the power of using the internet in the classroom. After all, it is the gateway to an amount of information my mind cannot even comprehend. Shouldn't it be on every desk?

Until next time,

~MjG

Bridging the Divide

The Digital Divide is the biggest obstacle teachers face when trying new innovative techniques in the classroom. The internet is a very powerful educational tool when used properly. There are countless, free online applications that have high educational value, but must be accessed using computers and the internet. Access to these applications is fairly common in this era, but it only takes a few breaks in the chain to prevent a teacher from utilizing these applications. If a small percentage of a class cannot complete an assignment at home, it will discourage that teacher from using the lesson because students shouldn't be excluded from a lesson.

Of course, there is no going around the fact that technology costs money. The cost of smartboards, projectors, computers, and software can really add up considering the volume a school would have to purchase. Education grants can solve this problem if your future school is having budget problems. Edutopia has a list of websites to get you started. An educator should not have to look for private funding for a school's technology. Proper education of students is a State and Federal issue. Therefore, there are options for struggling schools to get at least some technology in the classroom. The website also has a page on how to actively lobby for this cause. Teachers stay silent on many issues, yet we should be the loudest voices. You can access that here.

Bridging this "Digital Divide" can be difficult, but the best way to do it is through the school library or media center. This serves as the school's hub for technology, information, and learning. If a school lacks technology, convincing the school board to upgrade the media center would be an easy argument to win. A school cannot justify that it is fulfilling its commitment to education with an outdated media center. Doug Johnson of the Blue Skunk Blog has posted the following checklist for the 21st century library:

Information technology

• Does the library media center give its users access to recent information technologies such as:
  • computerized library catalog and circulation system for the building collection
  • access to a computerized union catalog of district holdings as well as access to the catalogs of public, academic and special libraries from which interlibrary loans can be made
  • full on-line access to the Internet
  • a wide variety of online reference tools like full text periodical indexes, encyclopedias, atlases, concordances, dictionaries, thesauruses, reader's advisors and almanacs
  • a wide variety of computerized productivity programs appropriate to student ability level such as word processors, multi-media and presentation programs, spreadsheets, databases, desktop publishing program, graphic creation programs, still and motion digital image editing software
  • access to collaborative learning/networking tools such as wikis, blogs and other online sharing programs and cloud computing resources such as online productivity tools and file storage?
  • production hardware such as multi-media computers, still and video digital cameras, scanners, and LCD projection devices.
  • educational television programming and services
  • access to desktop conferencing equipment and software
  • educational computer programs including practices, simulations and tutorials that support the curriculum

Part of the digital divide is knowing how to use the technology. More importantly, educating those who do not know how to use it can be a major obstacle. That is why having your school invest in a certified library media specialist would be sound. It is an important part of bridging the digital divide because teaching is more powerful than spending. Many families have this access at home. The media specialist can help fill in the gaps.

Ariel Sacks,teacher and author, encounters these gaps on a regular basis. She writes on her blog that some of the students' parents say they do not have the Internet at their home. Some people do not prioritize technology if they are on a strict budget. Even when she found a way around that obstacle, she was still faced with the school blocking the website she wanted to use for her lesson.

Another option is to advocate for the idea of the "One Computer, One Classroom". This concept can bring the Internet into the classroom because it is cost effective and practical. The Wired Classroom argues this idea. An important part is having the proper display in the classroom. Having a projector connected to a laptop is a fundamental part of the modern classroom because it allows the teacher to use the Internet as a presentation. It is an absolute bare minimum if using any web-based application because the class has to be able to model what the instructor does using application of choice.

At home, I feel that the digital divide will have to be bridged by parents. The Internet has become so important for the daily activity of many of us. I believe it will eventually spread to all Americans. Very soon, a family without the Internet will be like a family without a television to witness the first man on the moon. This cannot be funded by the school, so it will have to be bridged by organizations like the Community Technology Empowerment Project. These programs are not in every part of the U.S., so I urge you to talk to parents about the issue. If they do not have the Internet, try to convince them that it would be a sound investment and that it could greatly improve their lives.

Encountering the digital divide will frustrate many of us, but we cannot let it discourage us from using technology to enrich student learning. There are an abundance of free programs that are very useful to the modern educator, and they should not go to waste. We will have to be creative, but if we cannot bridge the digital divide ourselves, we may be able to find another route to get to the other side.

~MjG

Teacher leaders are a vital part of all public schools. They are able to motivate student achievement beyond the boundaries of the school. These leaders are woven into the fabric of the community, and are known for more than what they can accomplish in the classroom.

Pathways to Teacher Leadership

I encourage you to look at this link because it has a very good video on the different ways of achieving teacher leadership. Dr. Murphy basically says there are both role-based strategies and community based strategies. Without both pathways being pursued, teacher leadership will not exist to its fullest extent. He says,

“There are pathways to create teacher leadership in schools; this is the central idea you want to gravitate toward. There are two very broad paths you can follow…Stopping with the notion of role-based strategies is a truncated and limited model to get teacher leadership infused inside of a school organization.”

So what's the difference? Role based strategies are what we, the teacher, display in the classroom. We know we are successful when we have students coming by just to say hi, or to take a picture for homecoming. Community based strategies are what happens as soon as we leave the school. It's how we get involved with off-campus, community activities and clubs such as being a coach. When students and parents see your face outside of the classroom. They are more receptive to what you have to say in the classroom. You are much more likely to achieve the respect and attention of your students.

Resources for Teacher Leadership

I really like this website to use for reference because it refers to all the issues associated with becoming a community leader. It answers questions such as:

• How do I engage parents that have not traditionally been engaged in the education system?
• How do I connect with parents in a low-income or rural area?
• How do I establish partnership with parents other than the traditional approach?

These resources offer in-depth .pdf articles that go into great detail about how to move past these and other such obstacles. This website focuses more on community-based strategies, but I feel that these are the hardest obstacles for most teachers to move past. I feel that this is mostly because it requires a lot of additional effort after coming home from work. Some teachers do not want to move in to a role that they have to fulfill 24 hours a day.

Do you agree with Dr. Murphy when he says, "“We create mentors, literacy coaches, and induction coaches. We create more roles that teachers can move into. Not a bad strategy but insufficient to get you where you want to go.” ? Why or why not?

~MjG

The Human Network in Schools

The human network allows people to have contact with anyone or any information at any time. The implications that these networks have on education are tremendous. No student in the history of time have been allowed the amount of access to people or information on mobile devices. So, instead of students having the responsibility of carrying class materials around with them, they can access everything, whether it is asking a teacher a question about an assignment or the actual textbook from a mobile device. In a few years this will be even more commonplace as technology becomes more accessible to the masses.

Digital literacy is a requirement to use this, but because students are growing up in this environment, it will be natural. Just as young people who grow up around a different language are able to adapt at reading and speaking it, this is true for new technology as well. This is especially true because technology becomes woven into our everyday lives.
Teachers cannot possibly compete with this volume of knowledge. That is why we must adapt our teaching style to fit the 21st century classroom. Networked students reinforce the concept of the "banking pedagogy". The teacher cannot possibly provide all the information that the students will be curious about. If we can direct this curiosity to the right Internet resources, student learning will greatly increase.

This is a very good thing! Instead of concentrating solely on content, lesson focus can shift to finding the proper use of the human network. Any and all information taught in the traditional classroom can be found online. Therefore, we need to help our students access it. I can envision myself doing this, but it will be difficult. This is because it is probable that future classrooms will have higher digital literacy than I. Even as I try very hard to keep up with the latest programs and resources, I may not be able to learn it at the rate of my students. That is why it is all the more important to shift learning focus away from me as a bank of knowledge towards the classroom network. Students can then pool their digital literacy to learn content cooperatively.

I found this blog called Technology Enhanced Learning. It has several interesting posts regarding the future of education. The most recent of these posts is a link to 50 lectures on the future of education. Among them are some very relevant topics to this course.

To what degree do you believe that networked learning should be endorsed by our schools? Would you say it would be wiser to buy mobile devices that anchor to desks instead of laptops?

~MjG

Glogster

Here is my first glog! I couldn't quite figure out how to embed it on this page, but it can be accessed here.

Let me know what you think!

Service learning ideas

Here is a link to my notes taken the last class. The following are my classmates ideas for service learning based on their presentations from last week:

Chance: Calls to congress, letters. getting them involved in government
Adam: Voter registration, community outreach
Megan: Human trafficking, spreading awareness, modern day abolitionists? current legislation to stop it. Blue heart facebook pic to raise awareness.
Jen: military letter writing drive.
Josh: Honoring veterens, November 11th, interview one veteran for 30 minutes about their service, blog about their experience participating , others can learn by reading
Jeremy: War on drugs, similar to DARE but less one-sided
Megan: Connecting students with specific soldiers from the community; more than writing letters to them; film a video about their progress and upload to the website. present a weekly question about what they learn about technology or their soldier. Good way to keep them aware of geography and intl events.
Liz H: operation Christmas boxes, christmas for children less fortunate, interview and blog about their experiences
Eric: lives of the elderly- elderly participate in research project. encourage them to email their family. do a questionaire 1 month later to see if they make a difference.
elizabeth j - global awareness; help students understand immigration; focus on the culture and language of a certain country to create a wiki
Mallory - habitat for humanity to determine cost of houses; research cost effectiveness; inverview habitat people, help students learn about homlessness and urban economics
louisa- senior oral histories. "5 things they couldn't live without" - then create a vodcast. vodcast viewing party at the home. make them feel good about their experiences.
Mark- political class wiki, biographical sketch of local politician that they interview posted on the wiki. use clipart if students do not want to draw their own.
Katie- visits and interviews with the elderly
Jeff - groups of kids pick up local parks and public places. wildlife conservation and environmental awareness, make a video of them at the park
Megan P- reseraching past presidential election trends, differences in media roles at those times, role of government in daily life over time, interview seniors about past elections, have them create a podcast
brit - voter turnout exercise, use surveymonkey to creating a questionaire about public opinions, makes them aware of election issues and teaches about data collection and interperetation
Nicole - students learn about voting and campaigning. They will have their own campaign. Use google motion to find trends in past elections. They will have polling questions of their own to create a motion chart.
Angie - Students learn about their individual rights. They select a topic concerning them and they will research their topic, determine current value, then publish their findings on a wiki.
Trish - at risk students making pen pals in Japan. letter exchange will expand cultural horizons and global citizenship. Help teach them about bias and they can exchange information about their dialy lives. possibly exchange packages. Create a wiki about their experience. They would right a paper talking about any issues they had.

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Our Community from Long Ago
Civic Responsibility, Community Service
Grades 8-10
American History
Goals:
1) This lesson aims to make students more aware of the history that exists in the place they are growing up.
2) It seeks to help the elderly within the community by giving them a sense of pride about their past experiences.
3) It gets students more comfortable with using technology to create a piece they can be proud of and learn from. This piece will be a collaboration of primary sources that can be studied by later generations.
4) Give students an appreciation for senior citizens and the stories they have to tell.

In order to get students aware of their local history, they will conduct interviews with seniors from their community to get a firsthand account of the past. Every day, seniors pass away in isolation taking with them countless untold stories and experiences. Unfortunately, our society allows such treatment to our elders. This lesson plan aims to teach students that our seniors are good people and are part of the community, too. They have many stories to tell that can help students gain a better understanding of their identity at such a crucial time. To achieve this, students will interview three different people from a retirement or nursing home in their community. Because they are using multiple participants, the service to the community will be increased. At the same time, students can hear multiple stories told from different points of view. They may work in pairs. The topic must focus must focus on daily life of the subject from the time they were the approximate age of the interviewer. It should include a discussion about cultural values and societal norms of the time. This is to help them understand that the city they live in now was a much different place 65 to 75 years ago. They must record each interview using Garage Band or some other recording program. Using these recordings, combined with images of their choosing, students will create a digital storytelling project to illustrate what they have learned in their interviews.

Standards met by the project:
SS.8.A.1.4
SS.8.A.1.6
NETS addressed:
1.Creativity and Innovation (B)
2.Communication and Collaboration (A & B)
3.Research and Information Fluency (A & B)
4.Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making (B)
5.Digital Citizenship (A & B)
6.Technology Operations (A – D)

Students will use a recording program, preferably GarageBand, to record their interviews with senior citizens. Using portions of each audio file, combined with images relevant to the interview, students will create a digital storytelling presentation using iMovie or Windows Movie Maker. Narration from the students is also an important part of the project, as it will assist in transitioning from subject to subject.
Students will be graded based on the completion of their interviews, and will be assessed on the thoughtfulness and relevancy of their presentation. The final product should give viewers an insight into the history of the community. It must be between 5 and 10 minutes long, and contain sound clips from all three of their interview subjects. In order to have the project evaluated each student or group of students must email the instructor a link from www.youtube.com showing their presentation on the website. If they are not registered, they must do so. Overall, they will be graded on their ability to tell stories about people and places within their community from many years ago.

~MjG

How social networking could have changed Civil Rights

TED Talk lecturer Clay Shirkey made some very good points about technological innovation. Social Networking connects people like no other invention in the history of the world. Now that it exists, it already impacts alters the way news breaks everyday. Imagine how it could have changed history if it was invented instead of the television.

When I think about social networking in the historical sense, I think of social movements. People are able to connect and organize without any fear of repercussion from the government or anyone else. That is why I wish social networking would have been around when segregation was present in the South . Civil rights violations boiled over and became a movement in the 1950s-1960's, but everything was organized by telephone and by meeting in local churches. Twitter and other social networks like MySpace could have connected people being treated unfairly and wanted to come together and protest social injustice.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott could have been seamlessly organized by connecting people trying to solve a common problem. Facebook could have been used to create a group for other activists to join. They would then use social connections to set up rides for people who have to get to work without using the bus system. Restaurant boycotts could be coordinated to make sure everyone is concentrating on the same goal. They could also communicate on how effective their protests have been in their area. Instead of people being afraid of being the first to come out of their homes to organize and march, everyone would know how many others are part of the movement. It could all happen without anyone leaving their homes.

As a historian, I can't assume that things would work out so easily. On the other side, Americans could have used social networking to connect with others from the status quo, using it to find others who share in the idea of preventing civil rights for all Americans. Conflicts could have been worse because Southerners would have been able to easily find out the time and place of major protests, and therefore been more organized themselves.

I would like to think that African-Americans could have used social networking to organize an effective non-violent protest, but would there have been an equal or not greater resistance using the same technology? How do you think it would have been resolved?

~MjG

Identity and Social Networking

Michael Wesch's video about the sociology of the YouTube community is very interesting. He presents YouTube as a means of expressing individuality. It can be recorded alone, but millions of people could potentially see it. This matters because it is a relatively new way of contributing to an online community. There are no parameters to how this is done, so the sky is the limit when it comes to personal expression. He points out that in our rapidly growing world, people need a way of standing out and shaping their identity.
Social Networking websites provide a way of expressing this identity, too. The "self" becomes what is on personal webpages like Myspace and Facebook. People list what makes them unique or what makes them who they are. People can stand out more online than they can in the real world sometimes, so it is important that the means exist for them to do so.
The same principle exists in the classroom. Students who are quiet or do not want to stand out, despite their intelligence, can do so online. They may be more active and expressive on a website like Ning, for example. These students might be more willing to communicate with the Ning leader at home rather than in class. If this is the case, students who's education suffered previously because they are an "outsider" will be more active with their work.
I have always known the implications of Facebook and the younger generation, but it is definitely a refresher on the emerging importance of social networking. As these websites gain more members every day, they will gain influence over daily life too. I look at Youtube differently with respect to how it impacts future social networking ideas.

There are many social networking websites out there. Facebook, Myspace and Youtube are all young in the grand scheme of things. How do you see social networking changing over the next few years? Will it always be a picture with a page? If you see it as being relatively unchanged, is that really a bad thing?

~MjG

Podcasts and history: Only a piece of the puzzle

Lindsey and I explored ItunesU for resources to teach the Holocaust to our students. It had several things to offer, but we finally settled on the first-person narration of the horrors that occured in the camps. While we think it is interesting and powerful to listen to, its not entirely interactive. There are ways to combine these podcasts and other similar resources to teach the unit to secondary students.


One incorrect, yet established belief is that the murder of over six million jews during WWII never occurred.There are different motivations as to why this belief exists, but as teachers we can use this for a lesson on the Holocaust. I found a website on this subject called the Holocaust Denial On Trial (http://www.holocaustdenialontrial.com/en/). This website hosts a multitude of content that refutes these claims, including arguments and counter arguments from noted Holocaust deniers.

One way of using this resource as a lesson is to have the students put denial claims on trial for themselves. As we plan the lesson, we can create obstacles for the students to overcome, such as giving them arguments and evidence from Holocaust deniers. This website (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/denial1.html) has a list of many different questions (with answers) that we can pose to the students. It will be up to them to use the HDOT website to find evidence and make their case that the Holocaust did exist. Another possible obstacle would be that they must present a wide variety of evidence, such as court documents, photos, podcasts, videos, or anything else they can find. The students will have to create a document that includes all of their arguments and presentation of their evidence.

I think this is one way of having students actively investigate the truth vs myth in history. They will learn a lot in the process because their is so much media that exists on this subject.

~MjG

Service Learning Projects and their benefits

Special Projects for Special People: Students with Disabilities Serve Others through Service-Learning Projects

As I browsed through many of the Service Learning Projects on (http://www.servicelearning.org/), the project above stood out more than others. The organizer, Lisa Olnes, teaches a 6th grade class that includes 5 disabled students. They all have a specific condition, but they all have a learning disability. She points out that at the beginning of the semester, they suffered from a severe lack of confidence in their knowledge and abilities, and did not see a connection between the real-world and what they learn in class. She believed that getting her students involved in service learning was a way to change all of that, and help their community all at the same time.

This stood out to me because the class was divided into different groups. Each group preformed a different service project. These varied from writing letters to U.S. soldiers in Iraq, adopting a grandparent, a pet food drive at the animal shelter, and bake sales/food drives for the homeless. She monitored the disabled students' progress and noted their improvements.

The benefits for this Service Learning are many. The most important benefit is what the students are able to accomplish in their own community. They make a difference by assisting the elderly or by providing food to a local homeless shelter. The great thing about this service learning project is that these benefits are byproducts. The true benefit is for the students, specifically, those in the classroom who are disabled. Many of them suffer from speech impairment. By getting involved, they are able to move beyond it and gain confidence that they would have otherwise lacked. According to Lisa Olnes, "As a result of the service learning projects, my students displayed increased motivation, showed they cared for each other, were eager to help, made connections of what they were learning in school to the real world, and improved their social skills and self-confidence. The projects benefitted everyone involved, including all the students as they realized that they have something to give."

The best practices and methods associated with this lesson plan are similar to what is listed on the inquiry-based learning research we conducted as a class. Students learn the value of working together to achieve a goal that benefits the community. When they report their monthly progress to the instructor, they are proud of the work they have done and are eager to continue doing it. Above all, the students that previously failed to see a connection between the classroom and the outside world had changed after doing the Service Learning Project. Everything they worked for had a real-life, tangible result.

The main challenge the author faced was that they were not able to implement all the service learning projects due to time constraints. That isn't a very bad thing, because the students will just have to choose wisely on what project they would like. The fact that they do have a choice will allow them a more personal connection to the work they are doing.

~MjG

Olnes, L. (2008). Special projects for special people: Students with disabilities serve othersthrough service-learning projects. TEACHING Exceptional Children Plus, 5(2) Article 4. Retrieved[9/27/2009] from http://escholarship.bc.edu/education/tecplus/vol5/iss2/art4

Supporting Inquiry Learning in the Modern Classroom

Inquiry learning isn't a new concept, but finding ways to support it using technology can be a challenge. This teaching method provides many benefits to students because of the different combinations of skills they require. When it is used correctly, students must critically investigate open-ended questions. This is especially important when teaching history because they will question traditional concepts and ideas. Comprehension and overall learning are assisted because students will often come across information they may not expect.

Use of the Internet is the best way to promote inquiry learning, and a great vehicle for this is the WebQuest. Zhara found a great article on its use within the classroom. It evaluated the benefits to using the WebQuest compared to traditional teaching methods. It concluded that students were much more motivated to participate in the activities, and they strengthened their critical thinking skills, among other things, as a result.

The Webquest teaches students to use the internet as a tool to help them answer important questions. They can be very unique and are available on a wide variety of topics. As educators, it is very important that we can teach students how to find what they need on the internet. Some of the drawbacks of the WebQuest are that students can be frustrated or confused by the amount of information on the internet. While this may hinder participation in the activity, it is important that we challenge our students to this sort of research because the amount of information on the internet is constantly increasing. The more research they do, the faster they will be able to access the information they are looking for.

Does anyone have any experience using Webquests in a classroom? Did it work well?

If not, do you think you will implement them into your lesson plans? How?

Blogs, Podcasts, & Wikis for the classroom

Podcasts, Blogs, and Wikis used in the Classroom?

When you hear those terms, you would normally think that they are just for entertainment. I didn't think they would be useful (even after the reading) until I saw some examples for myself. Apparently, they are not only new, but they are already being actively used in classrooms all over. It did take me a while to find something that I wanted to post here, which I think suggests that there is no standard formula for creating them yet.


Podcasts:
http://talkinghistory.oah.org/
This website hosts an impressive archive of history podcasts on interesting subjects. Prominent historians discuss topics such as assasination plots, race and gender in sports, and truths behind historical myths. One episode discusses the origins of the myths surrounding George Washington while another does the same for Pocahontas. They also talk about controversial topics that students are interested in. One is called "Confederate Emancipation", which is about the Confederate army's plan to free and arm their slaves. I would recommend that a teacher play certain excerpts from such podcasts for class discussion. Since they bring up many different historical issues, it can certainly spur some discussion.

I was surprised to find many podcasts created by students. Student Podcasts @ the Warhol ( http://edu.warhol.org/podcasts/) is a group of high school students involved at the The Andy Warhol Museum. They talk about a wide range of topics and issues. Students can definatly improve their speaking skills by creating these podcasts. They can record them wherever they feel comfortable, and have a very large audience at the same time. That way, they can have more confidence talking about what they know instead of feeling nervous about talking in front of a group. Also, I think students will pay more attention to the issues being debated if it is created by and for their peers.

Blog:
I found a great example of a history class blog here: http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/. The reason I like this is because it is created by the teacher, but it relies on student comments and input for its content. They can post pictures of their work and videos of them putting them together. This is a great way for students to take more pride in their work, because they have a much larger audience. Other students make comments, discuss their assignments, and see what others students think about their work. Students from all class periods come together to form a community outside of the classroom.

Wiki:
At first, I was unsure about how a class wiki can be helpful to students. Since information is so readily available on the internet, After seeing some examples of Wikispaces, it is much more clear. They are basically a way students and teachers can share important assignments, notes, and also host discussion forums about the class. http://bergmannscience.wikispaces.com is a good example of how it can be beneficial to the class. The teacher posts information about upcoming events, resources for their current units, videos and pictures. The benefits are similar to that of a blog, but everything is much more categorized (for .doc) and easy to find. I found a lot of different class wikis, but this seems to be among the best.

I hope to use these in my future classes, but I need to learn how to design these so that my students will want to use my website. These are potentially great assets to use in the coming years.

Thoughts on new technology in the traditional classroom

Why should technology be integrated into social studies classrooms? How has the learning from our first session influenced your answer?

Technology has always been slow to make it into the classroom. This is mainly due to the high cost that usually accompanies it. However, I am discovering new ways to integrate newer technology into traditional teaching methods using free and existing technologies. Blogs, Web Quests, and social networking software are a few examples of free technology that has many possibilities within the social studies classroom. The key is learning how to use them effectively.

It's a necessity to integrate these all kinds of new software into my curriculum. Students are becoming increasingly dependent on the Internet for all kinds of information they want outside the classroom. They can use the Internet to find information to supplement what they learn inside the classroom, too, but it's up to the instructor to provide them with the right resources to find it.

The first session did change how I feel about this integration, because I never considered having a home page for my students. From there, I can direct them to informative and reputable websites for their reference. The Netvibes website for our homepage (EME5432) will serve as a great model for something I will soon create. Such a website will be the starting point for students' homework assignments and other necessary research they will need. Also, merging the Internet with my classroom will teach my students to make better use of the wealth of information on the Internet. According to NCSS, integrating medial literacy with social studies can "prepare our students to critically question the information and media they are seeing, hearing, and using, the more likely they are to make informed decisions and to participate as citizens who can shape democracy for the public good. (http://www.socialstudies.org/positions/medialiteracy)

This week's reading provides several examples of how teachers can use this sort of technology in their classrooms. Blogging and wikis are tools I have seen before, but never considered using them for educational purposes. I gathered from our first session that both hardware and software are being developed at a very rapid pace. In a few years, blogs, podcasts, and RSS will not only be commonplace, but could easily be outdated technology.

As a future educator, I must consider that in the future my students will have a high media literacy rate despite their age. Understanding how to connect with them outside of the physical classroom will be vital to their success. Because of the volume of information on the Internet, both reliable and unreliable, I will need to be able to direct them to the best Internet resources.

-MjG