Wiki Contribution

For my blog contribution, I linked the Shakespeare Teacher. Also, here is the link to my lesson plan and artifact.

Internet Safety, Part 2

I shared some of the information i learned from the assignment with a sister (age 36), who is also LDS.

The resource I shared with her was Elder Ballard's talk that I read. We discussed several of his points, especially the list of seven things that every parent can do to minimize the negative effect media can have on our families. We also discussed other ideas of ways that we can help children and youth make "wise" decisions in their Internet use. The discussion was positive, looking at the ways the Internet can be a positive tool. It was also valuable to gain each other's insights on the topic.

Internet Safety, Part 1

Some of the most important things I learned from the videos and readings:

• Most of what I read and viewed, I was already aware of. However, this assignment was primarily a good reminder to me of the potential hazards of the Internet. It reminded me that the Internet is a massive tool in today's world and that it can have far-reaching effects on children and youth. People today literally have the world at their fingertips, along with dangerous chat rooms, pornography, and media messages. Even when avoiding these blatant evils, there are other damages the Internet can have on youth and children, especially getting addicted to it and losing the perspective of what is true reality.
• The featured PBS Frontline Documentary taught me that if many children and youth are left unmonitored in their Internet access, they are at risk of becoming involved in countless harmful activities. The Internet can be a wonderful positive tool in the home and at school; however, children and youth need supervision and guidance in this endeavor.
• I enjoyed Elder Ballard's talk, "Let Our Voices Be Heard," in which he says that the biggest challenge in media usage is "to choose wisely." If we do this, Elder Ballard agrees that the Internet can be a fabulous tool for learning and communication.

Ways my learning can influence others:

From everything I read and watched, here are three things I think every parent and educator should do to help make the Internet a safe and positive environment for youth and children:

1. Always keep the computer in a public environment - This action alone would have prevented some of the tragic stories shared on the PBS documentary. Although it is important to place trust in your children, I also believe parents have a responsibility to protect their children from a lot of the filth that can simply be happened upon on the Internet. Therefore, I think it is a very wise practice to keep the computer in a public environment. This is something Elder Ballard also suggests in his talk.
2. Discuss potential dangers of the Internet with children and youth - Make clear what information is and is not acceptable to share on social networking sites.
3. Bookmark the most common acceptable sites on the Internet and encourage children to follow the links.

One other thing I learned that can have a positive influence of family and friends is in the Ensign article about sharing the gospel through the Internet. In today's world, when people have questions, they most often turn to the Internet for answers. By blogging and sharing such things as Mormon Message videos, every Latter-Day Saint can have a positive impact on the church's online image. This is one way the Internet can be a powerful force for good, as it has the potential to share the gospel to a much larger audience.

IIC Competition Reflection

After watching all of the finalists' video pitches (which were actually fun to watch I might add), one that stood out to me was the one on teaching persuasive essays using Diigo and Mindmeister. It is true that teaching students to look at persuasive essays critically and outline their own essay is very possible to do using no technology. However, I think one benefit of using Diigo to allow students to look critically at persuasive essays is that they can participate in a larger instructional conversation, commenting on other students' work and gaining more feedback from their peers and teacher. Also, some students may be more visual than others and outlining an essay may be a challenge on paper. Mindmeister allows these students to have a more hands-on experience in outlining, making it more fun and, as a result, encouraging more enthusiasm on the assignment. I think this idea could work very well in an English classroom and break up the monotony of the writing process.

Another video pitch that I enjoyed was the one that set up the "Road to Revolution" class wiki. If I had to pick one that seemed the most useful, this would be it. There are countless pros to this group's idea. It was well-organized, caught students' attention, and offered hundreds of resources to students throughout their unit. Something I really liked was how each day had its own page for students and the teacher, explaining step-by-step instructions of what the students should be doing. The assignment ideas had structure, but also allowed for student creativity. As a student, if I was using a website like this, I believe I would be more excited to do my work and would never question what was expected of me in any assignment. Although this project was designed for a history classroom, I think it could work just as well in many other subjects.