First of all, let me just say (and I know I'm in agreement with you all) that this was a great class! It felt like those two hours just flew by. It was definitely my favorite 7500 class so far, as I felt like I learned a lot about things I didn't know and a whole lot more about things I clearly didn't know enough about. I attended Lucas's Copyright Issues, Gretchen's Social Networking, and Erin and Katie's Cyberbullying presentations. All of them were excellent and very informative. Lucas did a great job opening all of our eyes to the extent and reach of existing copyright law. We all need to be more careful- that's for sure! Being that I grew up in the 80's and graduated high school in 1993, I didn't know much about cyberbullying and the ill-effects of its use. I have probably turned a blind eye to it as a teacher, as well, being that I teach 3rd grade. I now know that this is a problem for kids of all ages... beginning with children even younger than the ones I teach! That is very sad. Lastly, I felt I took a lot away from Gretchen's presentation. For someone who just set up a MySpace account a couple of years ago, is now doing their first blog, and has yet to join Facebook, I now realize the magnitude and reach of these sites. There are certainly some very exciting things on the horizon in education regarding Social Networking and its proper use!
I felt like Lenrose and I also learned a lot from the research involved in our presentation. I know I will never look at Internet filtering and blocking the same ever again. As I was telling Lisa in her blog, I think COPPA (and CIPA, in addition) needs to be made more apparent to teachers. These important pieces of legislation need to be in the forefront of our minds anytime our students are online.
I really enjoyed this class and the unique use of room to room movement in WebCT. I look forward to looking into the presentations I missed as well as looking deeper at the ones that I did. In addition to the Cool Tool Demos, this assignment was the most enjoyable of all we've done so far.
Have a great week!
Mark
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2 comments:
I think that the Megan Meier case really opened my eyes to the serious and potentially lethal consequences of cyberbullying. It needs to be addressed in the classroom to a certain extent, but parents also need to take responsibility for monitoring their kids' behavior on the Internet. Of course, in the Meier case, it was a 13-year-old girl being bullied by an adult, which opens an additional can of worms, so to speak.
I've also observed cyberbullying first-hand in Second Life and it definitely concerned me under those circumstances as well.
I thought all of the sessions were very informative and I thought the DC class was extremely enjoyable and educational.
Mark,
I agree with you that this was a fun class and I always enjoy the cool tools too. It is amazing what you can do with online classes!
I haven't seen or heard much cyberbulling with the students I interact with on a daily basis either, but I can sure see the potential. It is quite easy to write mean things when you don't have to see the hurt in a person's eyes. We try very hard at our school to teach our students empathy. For the most part they are a great group of caring kids. It is so hard to see them move on to the middle school environment.
Lisa
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