March+Journal+Articles


 * REFLECTIONS ABOUT MARCH JOURNAL ARTICLES**


 * K12 Online - "The Web 2.0 Classroom" by Victoria A. Davis**

The article “The Web 2.0 Classroom,” by Victoria A. Davis, discusses what the transition from the Internet to Web 2.0 means. Rather than surfing and consuming information, users become the “creators of information.” Web 2.0 encompasses “blogs, wikis, podcasts, video sharing, photo sharing, web page creation, social bookmarking, cell phone, iPods,” etc. Davis does stress that Web 2.0 requires effective classroom teachers to consider six specific ‘pillars’ as they relate to students’ use of technology.

Davis first focused on **Internet safety and privacy**, relating it to an ocean protected by a shark net. Educators should be protected from the “sharks” while at the same time taught the essential lifetime skill of interacting with the outside world. **Information Literacy** involves teaching students how to investigate and check for credible sources of online information. **Internet Citizenship** refers to teaching students how to “disagree, discuss, communicate, edit, and share” information using the Internet (e.g. political blogs). Davis discussed the need for **Internet Teamwork,** which involves using technologies to collaborate with others. Her comment on the need for students to comment and edit other’s work using tact and wisdom was right on. **Intentional Internet Activities** means using the Internet with a clear purpose in mind.

Internet activities should be planned (purposeful) and “//somewhat// tested.” Ideally, these activities will relate to building specific skills. **Online tools have the edge for engagement and** provide the edge to connect students (communication wide) in ways that the tape recorder/etc. cannot. (e.g. Skype via Internet in a second language class). Lastly, in order to establish an effective Web 2.0 classroom, an engaged teacher who is connected, open minded, vigilant, passionate about their topics, and holds students and themselves accountable is essential.

The six pillars require the class to be adaptive, allowing for different classroom assignments using Web 2.0 tools as related to the topic or content area. Davis’ class uses a variety (blogs, wikis, photosharing, RSS feeds, podcasting, etc.), but each is selected with an objective that relates to the curriculum. Overall, this article was a resounding plea that teachers be in a position to make decisions about their classroom and how best to increase learning and student engagement.


 * Mindshift: "Dispelling Myths About Blocked Websites in Schools" by Tina Barseghian**

Barseghian’s article “Dispelling Myths About Blocked Websites in Schools” focuses on a education gathering with Karen Cator, the Director of Education Technology with the Department of Education. This was a followup to an earlier article by this author about blocked Web sites. Cator discussed six areas of the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) during this encounter that the school community might not be aware of :

1) You Tube access does not violate CIPA rules. YouTube can be educational and CIPA attempt to block only inappropriate sites. 2) CIPA does not block websites to teachers. 3) Broad filters are not helpful, but schools do not ‘nuanced filtering’. 4) Unblocking appropriate sites does not lead to schools losing E-rate funding. 5) Teach digital citizenship (how to protect personal information and respect privacy online). 6) Trust teachers’ professional judgement because filters do not always work.

I was not aware that CIPA even existed. This article was informative for all teachers, who regularly discover the site they are trying to access is blocked and must return to their home computer to access something they wanted for a lesson. (This made me recall all the time we spent last year trying to get a site unblocked for use by the yearbook staff I was advising. We dropped out of a photo contest sponsored by our yearbook publisher, because beknownst to us, the site suddenly was blocked at a very timely period in the contest.