Recent Changes

New School
I also think that I will have to be in constant contact with the other teachers my students have. As a Social Studies teacher, it would be so easy to collaborate class work and lessons with the English department. For Social Studies, literature is very important but there isn't always time to read entire books in class and it may be too much work if the students have to read for an English class too. So if a book assigned for English works for a Social Studies class, it would be perfect. Secondly, as a teacher, I will make it my responsibility to learn all the new tools that I can and become adept and sufficient in them. I will attend all possible seminars and lessons on new technology and also urge my fellow teachers to do the same. The more that we know, the more we can use with our students.

Students' Online Safety
I think that the most that any school really can do is to set up firewalls and filters. Although sometimes these filters block certain websites that may be beneficial, they do a pretty good job at keeping students away from harmful or unnecessary sites, too. Students should be using computers at school for educational purposes, not updating their facebook status or posting to their MySpace. These sites should be blocked. I also agree with Corinne in that there needs to be some sort of talk going on between teachers and students. Perhaps a large assembly at the beginning of the year for the whole school could be held to talk about internet safety. Honestly, telling kids not to do something is not going to stop them. The best way may be to use some sort of shock value. Perhaps show them a story about a girl who pretended to be 19 on MySpace and didn't end up so well. I know that sounds cynical, but sometimes that's the only thing that works.

Discussion Question
I think that perhaps the Wikispace could be the most useful tool in the classroom. Throughout my coursework at New Paltz, I have been instructed and had to use Wikispaces for numerous different projects and assignments. I have grown to actually like them, which turned out pretty well since we are using it for our book review. I like that it can be used for collaboration and organization. They are free and available anywhere where there is a computer and the Internet. There is so much you can do with a wikispace. You can add videos, photos, discussions, pages, and I'm sure more that I don't know how to do yet. I would say the only disadvantage would be the layouts. There is only so much you can do with the layouts. A little more creativity in design might be helpful.

Chapter 10 Discussion Question
I have actually used many of these tools because of our Computers in the Classroom course. I think that many of them hold educational benefits, but some more than others. I have had to use PhotoStory 3, Zoho Writer, Audacity, Wikispaces, Google Sketchup, and Diigo. I personally do not think I would use out of all of these softwares Google Sketchup. After doing our learning environment project, I vowed I would never make my students use such a frustrating and annoying and time-consuming program. I think it is cool, and unique, but it is far too hard and annoying to assign to students. It is also somewhat art-related, so I feel that the ability to use it well comes more naturally to some than others. I think out of these listed programs, I would definitely use Wikispaces and some sort of Blog or Glogger site with my classes. They are really fun and easy ways to collaborate and organize information or projects.

Chapter 1 Discussion Question
I agree with Dan. I think that kids aren't necessarily up to date on all of the different educational tools, but they are computer and technology savvy for the most part. Students have definitely used a lot of the programs that Web 2.0 consists of-- like wikis, blogs, etc. That means that teachers will just have to teach students how to use these programs and softwares in the education realm. I think that sometime in the future, or at least I hope, we can expect to see many more computers in the classroom, and much more technology being put to use in everyday lessons.

Chapter 1 Discussion Question
I think that it is a slight overreaction because though education hasn't had a positive role in terms of students' preparation for web 2.0, I think that they themselves have dabbled in this world long enough to be experienced professionals. Web 2.0 chiefly consists of the interactive side of the internet: facebook, youtube, twitter, myspace, livejournal, blogger, etc. Who has been using these since they've been put up? -students! So they are not exactly under-prepared in terms of ability to use the product; they are perhaps under-prepared in terms of appropriate judgment in particular contexts. This is one area where education can have an active, positive role.

From the survey, we found that all of the participants feel they are prepared for the increasing technological world. They feel that they have become prepared mostly due to school and figuring out things on their own. The majority of participants also reported that they use the Internet mostly for school and communication. According to the Web 2.0 book, schools are doing their jobs for this.
However, when asked how often students used the Internet in high school, we had quite mixed results. Also, when asked about the "new tools" covered in the book, all participants reported that none of these tools had been integrated into their high school classes. However, this could be because all participants were of college age and these tools were not as popular when they were in high school. Most participants have heard of and/or used most of the new tools but reported that only wikis and video/photo editing and sharing tools were used in their college classes.
prepared means. Also, much of students' preparation for the increase in technology, such as with using the "new tools," comes from students' interest in using the technology rather than schools teaching students the technology and integrating these tools into the curriculum.

We will devise a survey to distribute to various other college students. The survey will ask about their experience with ideas from the book, such as their experience with using new tools, internet safety, and general questions such as how often they use the internet. We want to try to find out how much of these Web 2.0 ideas are actually being implemented in schools and how prepared students really are for the changing technology.
From the survey, we found that all of the participants feel they are prepared for the increasing technological world. They feel that they have become prepared mostly due to school and figuring out things on their own. The majority of participants also reported that they use the Internet mostly for school and communication. According to the Web 2.0 book, schools are doing their jobs for this.
However, when asked how often students used the Internet in high school, we had quite mixed results. Also, when asked about the "new tools" covered in the book, all participants reported that none of these tools had been integrated into their high school classes. However, this could be because all participants were of college age and these tools were not as popular when they were in high school. Most participants have heard of and/or used most of the new tools but reported that only wikis and video/photo editing and sharing tools were used in their college classes.
From this survey, we can conclude that students feel they are prepared for our technological society and their schools have had an impact on this preparation. However, when compared to the ideas discussed in the book, students are not as prepared as they believe. It seems that students may have a different idea from the author of what prepared means.

We will devise a survey to distribute to various other college students. The survey will ask about their experience with ideas from the book, such as their experience with using new tools, internet safety, and general questions such as how often they use the internet. We want to try to find out how much of these Web 2.0 ideas are actually being implemented in schools and how prepared students really are for the changing technology.