Shante_Freeman_Web20

Skype Tutorial I am glad to be taking this course now because it gives me at least one full year before I become an administrator to ponder the pros and cons of using the internet for instruction, but I’m not sure that will be enough time! Yes!Yes!Yes!...As educators, we have a duty to prepare our students for the future…and the PRESENT! We have this phenomenal tool at our fingertips. We need to communicate with our N-Gen students, the digital natives, in their own language…On and on and on… I can not think of any arguments against incorporating Web 2.0 resources into instruction. I can, however, think of dozens of problems that will come the utilizing the web, and I’m not so sure that I can think of solutions. I remember being excited because I had four working computers and two color printers in my classroom. As a Special Education teacher, I was looking forward to introducing the students to new hands-on activities that would engage them and help them make real life connections with the curriculum. I was excited to know that I could find video steams for any lesson we would cover for the entire year. When my co-teacher was out, I could play a video lesson that I found online and then I could circulate amongst my students giving them assistance; a digital co-teacher! When my human co-teacher was there, we could BOTH circulate, doubling the time we spent with each student. Later, I grew to hate having to argue with kids about why they could not watch “Rump-Shaker” videos on the BET site and the secretary put me on ink restriction. How could I tell her I couldn’t control a student who printed full page pictures of Nike Jordans and his favorite football players day after day after day…? Of course…there were the endless “Yo Momma” jokes they pasted on each other’s Bibo? Dibo?...(something like that) pages. The ITRT said it was “cyber-bullying” but they called it good clean fun! It seems so simple to say, I’m going to tell the students what to do. They will listen and follow directions. I will supervise them and monitor every move that every one of them makes at every second…we won’t have any problems. Where/How does this go so wrong? Our school district does indeed use a firewall which restricts access to many sites, and I can’t say I blame them in full. There have been times when I was looking for images or materials that I really needed for students but seemingly “innocent” sites were blocked! On the other hand, I believe that some staff would waste the entire day socializing though Facebook if they could access it from work. The whole problem I see with using Web 2.0 resources in school comes down to how to teach, monitor, and enforce appropriate use…and I can’t think of the answer for that. Should we open the web to our students;Yes! I’m just not up for the arguments and growing pains that will come while we are trying to teach students AND STAFF…about appropriate use.