Internet Safety Assignment

For this assignment I chose to read all 4 of the articles posted on the class website.  I was glad to be reminded of three basic principles that relate to keeping families safe from possible dangers on the internet :  that the soul is made up of the spirit and the body (DandC 88:15), that "all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men (women) to do nothing."  (Edmund Burke), and that nurturing implies protecting in a loving environment.

Remembering that the soul is made up of body and spirit shows how the two work together to create our whole selves.  It is critical that we protect each part from harmful influences.

It is important to stand up for truth and righteous beliefs as we live in the world, but try and keep ourselves unspotted from it.  Pretending that something is not dangerous will not solve the problem, whether on a grander scale, or just within the walls of our home.  We should not be timid in teaching our children and following up with them on family-decided rules regarding internet usage.

Understanding that the word "nurture" has an implication of protecting helps me to realize that in my role as a nurturer in my home I have a sacred responsibility to help protect my children.  This involves teaching them strategies to keep safe from cyberspace dangers and following up and checking in.

I watched:

http://www.netsmartz.org/resources/reallife.htm had a good video on cyber bullying.  Spreading rumors and lies about people online, which seems to be easier because it is not face-to-face and can easily spread, is the new form of bullying.

I also navigated around http://www.netsmartzkids.org/indexFL.htm to see what activities they had.  This was a fun website!


http://www.ikeepsafe.org/assets/videos/?vid=fauxpaw_video was also a very fun video.  It did a great job of teaching kids about internet safety.  The story was catchy for young kids and the message was firm.  I appreciate that as a parent.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/view/ was a very enlightening program about kids growing up online.  It was eye-opening to me about the way kids think that when they create an online persona it is innocent.  Making friends online is not though through in children as young as 7 or so.

I spoke with my husband about safe internet practices, and we discussed ways we might be even more careful with our children here at home in their internet usage. 

We decided that we would look more seriously into limiting time for our kids online.  Our computer sits right in the middle of the kitchen, so we find it easy to see what our kids are doing, but we could still do more to monitor time use. 

This was an important activity to participate in.  Online social networking and texting are not passing fads.  We need to be able to meet the children we live with and work with half way as we work together to keep them safe.  Just being afraid of technology will not solve any concerns, but learning about "their" world and joining them in discovering positive uses of the media is the answer.

Lesson Plans

I am currently working on three lesson plans that I will develop as fully as possible.  I want to get at least one all of the way completed and ready to teach by Thanksgiving.  This is a great assignment to get us excited about using technology in the classroom.  Self-directed learning projects would be really useful with kids in a resource classroom, and in case I ever end up working in that environment I want to get familiar with possible uses of technology.

Virtual Tours

I just took three virtual tours that my classmates set up on Google Earth.  This was a challenging but cool project.  I think kids in the classroom would really appreciate using this tool, and I plan on exploring it more and finding out interesting ways to incorporate it!

Making a movie

I took my photos for the storyboard project this weekend and also have been playing around with Windows Movie Maker, which seems easy to manipulate. I am now working on saving some audio files to put with the photos. I am familiar with Audacity since I use it regularly.

It is nice to have an assignment where I am learning about new technology. I am already starting to think about ways I might use movie making in my classroom.

New Media excitement

Today we spent time in my Instructional Psych and Tech class learning about using moodle. I am excited to learn more about new media because I am convinced it is so important in engaging students and in encouraging them to make their own classroom discoveries, both at school and at home on their own time.

I have been an avid blogger for a couple of years and have learned to appreciate technology and all that it can offer in both a social and an educational arena. I use Facebook and Twitter also, and have learned that these tools are much more than just social outlets. I am pretty comfortable with new media and am glad to learn more about its potential uses in the classroom.