This chapter offers a lot of information on
where to find valuable educational websites for students and teachers. I did not realize the vast amount of web sites
that offer students the option of taking notes to search engines that are
geared towards age appropriate resources. As the textbook says the search engine does
not know who is searching or how old the person is. It is more beneficial and involves less time
to allow the students to use those search engines that are geared towards
content that is related to the topic they are researching. For example, the Smithsonian Education
website is a great tool for the classroom and offers teaching opportunities
from art to history. I enjoyed exploring
this website and saved this one on my Delicious account for future use.
Another topic the textbook covered was
bullying and cyberbullying. This one is
a biggie for me. I feel students should
start learning empathy as soon as they begin school in kindergarten. They need to learn how to put themselves in
another person’s shoes and realize that everybody is different and that it is alright
if the person sitting next to them wears glasses or has different clothes. It is such a tragedy to hear news stories of
young kids that have taken their own life because of bullying. I believe getting students involved in the
community is a great way to teach this. The
website goodcharacter.com
has some very good examples of how to get students as young as kindergarten
involved in bullying prevention.
I was shocked at the number of students who admitted to cheating. The
textbook says “one is four and one in six high school students admit to
cheating” (Maloy, 119). According to
mprnews.org students learn how to cheat while they are still in elementary
school. The article Combat
Cheating in Elementary School explains that when children are encouraged to
work together in groups in first and second grade; then when asked to work by
themselves it can be overwhelming and they feel pressure to have the right
answers so they begin to cheat by copying answers. Students need to be taught early on that
cheating is wrong and there are consequences if they are found cheating. I feel
to combat cheating it starts by teaching them integrity and to have a sense of
pride and accomplishment for their own work.
MPR News (2013, June 25).
Combat Cheating in Elementary School. Retrieved from http://www.mprnews.org/story/2013/06/25/daily-circuit-elementary-school-cheating
Maloy, Robert,
Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park
(2013). Transforming
Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson
Education, Inc.
You will have the opportunity to discuss cyberbullying issues more in the Legal/Ethical topic later in this class. I agree that we have missed out on the opportunity to be sure that our students understand empathic skills at a very core level. Unfortunately, with economic issues and single parent issues, many families do not teach their children such values at a pre-K level as one might expect.
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