Web 2.0

I think Web 2.0 is a great resourceful tool that is very easy and accessible. I like how you can manage and create and edit content that you have online. This tool has taught me a lot on how to improve my future students essential skills as well as my own. I think it is very important, especially in today's time to know how to navigate around the world wide web, what we call the Internet. Students' today have so many projects, homework assignments, assignments, tests and other types of assignments for school that they are going to need to know these tools so they can have a successful assignment while on the computer. Children have so much accessibility to the Internet and social media that it kind of sets some teachers back a little just because they weren't grown up with the Internet and the children know a lot more than the normal average person, just because they have had access to it their entire lives so far. I think this will just strengthen and be a more positive outcome the longer it is around and time goes on. I think for us future teachers just need to be more involved and more knowledgeable to the internet and social media so we can know what our students are capable of knowing.

I think a way that we can use Web 2.0 tools to benefit in today's education would be setting up a Quizlet for your class and subject so your students can practice the material in and outside of school. Another way would be showing them how to create their own movie using Mozzilla and doing a presentation to the class about a certain subject you were learning about in the classroom. I think this will help kids with their creativity, imagination, grouping and organizing thoughts and having a way to express themselves through a school activity and having them present it the way they see the lesson we are discussing. This activity would be good in a history class, where you are learning about the certain time periods and have the students pick out a person they think is interesting and they create a presentation that includes these Web 2.0 tools to make them use their essential skills.

Copyright, Fair Use & Online Safety

I have learned a lot in this issue of copyrights, cyber bullying and netiquette. I found out that since the students have a lot more access to the internet than I did when I was there age. It is scary and unsettling on some things that they can witness innocently on their own with no supervision. The first part I will discuss is copyrights, that has been around forever, if not the internet it was a book that students were copying down word for word and now it is copying and pasting certain things from a website into their document that they are typing. I would educate my future students by showing and telling them good examples of "cheating" when you can just copy straight out of book, without noting it in citations, or quotes. Let them know that it's called plagiarizing, that is not tolerable on any level, tell them how serious the matter is and what precautions to take and how to correctly state something or put something in a proper manner in an essay, paper, etc. As far as cyber bullying goes, I think parents need to have more structure, restrictions and access to their child's information on the internet. I think that would control a lot of that. A child between the middle school and high school ages is hard enough as it is, but if you allow certain behavior to be allowed online by your child it is setting them up for far more failure. Children are cruel to each other, especially if they can text, blog, post or comment the discussion without having to tell them face to face. That goes for everyone these days, it is a lot more easier to say hateful things and take things hateful in a text or comment than face to face, because that comment didn't have an expression or meaning behind it so the person receiving these messages doesn't know how to take what the message is implying. I have witnessed so much of this just being an aide at the middle school this year. Kids are cruel, they are unhappy with their selves that they are wanting to bring everyone down with them and making the situation worse. There is a site/app now called Ask.com, I have not used this myself but I have heard parents, teachers and students talk about it and it is a site where you can post anything you want and it comes up as "Anonymous" and not yourself, so anyone can say anything like one post that I have heard is "Name the Top 5 Ugliest Guys in our 8th Class", and then the kids will comment and rank who they think. Now they are posting like it's just a joke, they were just kidding, but what they are not realizing is the damage it is causing for the people that get named in that post. I think more parents, students and even teachers should be aware of all that is going on and be familiar with the sites and apps that are available. Have some restrictions on what they can and can't download, I know that sounds easier than what it actually is but their is so much of this bullying going on in school and in person, why let it keep going where the whole nation can know about the issues. Why would you want to cause someone's death, or addiction from the people that are being bullied.
  I want to teach my students the good, bad and the ugly on this situation, because it could easily happen to anyone of us, especially them the students. I want to make the statement, as mentioned in the text of Netiquette, that when using your Facebook, social media apps, e-mails or your blogs, to remember to treat others like you would want to be treated. The kids that will stand together will stick together and I wish we could get all the students and kids on board, but those kids that are making these posts about other children, are having rough time with themselves. We should reach out to them, but as a person we want to lash out and scold them because of their wrong doings, but things are never what they seem. I have learned that more and more since working with middle school age, they hold so many things in, they don't want to talk and their way to relieve the stress, the anger, the depression is to make up issues with others so they can be brought down to their level as well. I would like to start a program for parents to be more involved and understand the situations that are going on in their children's lives. I am so thankful that I know this information and I am at the between age where internet wasn't around when I was growing up, at least not like it is today, but I am in College and didn't graduate high school too long ago that I know what the information is meaning as well as all the apps and websites that they are talking about and I am very much aware of what is going on. I hope something gets created in time that this gets less of an issue than what it is right now.

MAPping Information

I conducted an online search by going to www.google.com and typing in the information I was wanting to know. I use Google almost everyday on my iPhone. To me, Google is the best and easy accessible site that I have found that doesn't get me in such a panic or frustrated trying to use it. I like how every time I pull up Google I am not interrupted by an advertisement or banners, I can immediately go straight to the search bar. I learned more in detail in this lesson about the different search engines and what to look for. I think this will help me in the classroom as well if I am needing to look up something fast and efficiently. I just now found out about the different search engines. I mean obviously I knew about Yahoo, Google and Bing but not the others, out of those I would say Yahoo is my least favorite to use just because the site is too busy and gets me distracted on what I am supposed to be doing and searching for.


After doing the MAPping Information activity I think my habits won't necessarily change because I am still going to use Google, but it will make me go into depth and search on what is the best information for me to choose from out of the search. I will continue to search through Google and if that website happens to be down or unavailable I will have to go with Bing. It is probably the closest to the Google search than any of the others listed. I think this will affect my knowledge on teaching just because I know the search engine I choose will be efficient and accurate every time I go to it. If something happens in my classroom and I am needing information fast or something for a lesson I know that Google will have my back in those types of emergencies. I think that my students in the future will be affected by this search engine by them getting use to the particular search engine I use.


I am so thankful for having this class. I think this is such a beneficial class to have especially now days in the classroom with so many technology changes being done within the school and classroom. I think after understanding and knowing these different routes and strategies to input in my knowledge and in my classroom I will be more successful knowing all this. This search engine will help me by going to reliable search engines and as well as my students on what search engines that will help them in there research information. This is good information to have and help me to be more successful in my future classroom.