ED 720 Week 12 Assignment-Classroom Integration

     In response to the prompt, we were asked to discuss and relate the impact of technology in our own classroom and how it relates to one of the themes in Karchmer's study.  I chose to focus on the themes of: evaluating the accuracy of internet use and ensuring safe internet use.

     Since the students in my class will be using the internet for multiple parts of the unit, I wanted to take them in to the computer lab before we really got into the depth of the lesson to to get a sense of their internet searching skills.  The students were asked a series of questions related to parallel lines.  The sheet that the students had can be found here: Defining Parallel Lines

     As I have students searching the internet, I try to watch what they are searching and how they are searching.  Many of them resort to the standard "googling".  They are very unsure of how to search for information on the internet and do not know how to evaluate the accuracy of internet sites and information.

I wonder that the information that the student's gather on the internet is something that they are retrieving safely. Each time I bring the students into the computer lab, I worry of the internet safety of my students and I am constantly walking around the room observing what is happening on each of their computers. I constantly wonder that they have open windows where they are searching for answers to my questions while searching for other things that relate to their own personal lives. When we gave the students the district assessment we were able to have the students all log on under a special log in name where they were unable to access the internet. However, when I need them to access the internet, it is a difficult job to fully watch them as they search for the information asked.

One thing I do try to do is incorporate chances for all students to use the internet. If the process seems difficult, I will sit with students or make a modifies assignment so that all students have the chance to access the internet. I did not like what the teacher "David" in the study said about students who had trouble keeping up with using the technology. He had difficulty finding reading material for his weaker (SPED) students so he did not permit them to use computers. He stated, " My weak readers, those in special ed, are not using computers. Their reading abilities make is so difficult to complete a task that they run out of time before completing whatever it is they must do."(Karchmer, page 1261) To me, he could have done a lot more to motivate these students to use the internet. And that was just another theme that Karchmer touched upon in her study.

Reflection of Open Mic #3-Twitteracy

     For the Open Mic #3, my group decided to look at Twitteracy.  This was a close look at Twitter, Literacy and how it related to the classroom.  I really enjoyed working with the three women in my group.  Our collaboration is amazing and we really know when to help each other.  We all took our parts and ran with them and in the end, we had a fantastic #twitteracy.  
     I liked how each person was required to answer the prompt and then turn it into a twitter post.  This may have been difficult for some and I did notice many use abbreviations to shorten their posts.  It was fun to see how people's responses and tweets were interconnected.
     When we first came up with the idea of Twitteracy, I was skeptical.  Although I have a twitter account, I must admit, I do not use it as much as I would like to.  I have co-workers who use it in school and tweet out assignments.  I really would like to get to that point, but I know that there are students in my classes that do not have their own devices and worry that it would not be fair to them.  I really hope everyone enjoyed the Open Mic as much as we did!