Tool #11

The things I would teach students about being good digital citizens are:

•      checking references
•      comparing different resources
•      drawing your own conclusions

I think that it is important to teach students how to make sure that what they are reading online is creditable. However, I feel that one should not start by simply teaching it based on technology. We need to show the kids with concrete examples. If you give them a book and show them how to check its references, compare it to other sources they will be able to transfer that information when they look for information online. We need to go back to the basics, if we skip the basics students will not understand the more complex online world.

Tool # 9

1. It would be very helpful to use Jing if I give the students an assignment that they have to complete on a computer. It would make it a lot easier for them to follow instructions and go to different pages and use different applications if they have visuals of what and where they are suppose to be and see.

2. Skype is an awesome program. I used it while I was in Spain to keep in contact with my family. Although the only draw back is that you have to set up a time for both people to be on the computer on Skype at the same time. This gets challenging when you consider time differences. However, it would be great for kids to be able to talk to students from different schools, and even be able to do projects together through Skype.

Cool Video

This is a fun video for kids to learn about a strange animal.

http://video.kids.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/kids/animals-pets-kids/wild-detectives-kids/wd-ep4-narwhaltooth.html

A Noun is a Person PLace or Thing

Tool #6

This website is very similar to google docs. It basically is useful in the same way, people can coordinate without having to send, re-send, and reply to tons of e-mails. I feel that this tool is more useful for projects and experiments. Students can use this to create a project together and then share it with the rest of the class. It would make it easier for different groups of students to compare information quickly. This would also be a fun way to have kids teach each other about different topics that they have learned about. I can really see this as a fun useful tool for kids to use. They might also enjoy seeing there work online and be able to show it to there parents and relatives.

Tool #5

These bookmarking website is really useful. I found the following two websites that seemed very interesting. One personally interesting to me cause I love soccer and its nice to find a website that sells cheap soccer jersey. The other website is a fun website with different tools to use in school with technology. The key words I used to find these two websites was "cheap soccer jersey" and "teacher supplies"

www.jersey99.com

http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/

It would be very beneficial to use these websites to have a set of bookmarked websites for the kids to use when they are on the netbooks. This way you no for sure the students are going to websites that you have already approved.

Tool 4

I believe that it is very apparent what all the benefits of google reader and Docs is. Basically making it simpler to share and cooperate with others. However, all though there are benefits, I can't help but worry about the detriment to the way all these children work together. If we give students more ways of sitting in front of a computer instead of face to face with someone, how will that affect their social skills. I strongly believe that our society is being negatively affected by the amount of interaction we do online and lack of personal interactions we have with the people in our communities. It is completely different to change the way and document looks online, and type in your ideas, and discuss things through a computer, then it is to have to cooperate face to face. When cooperating with people who are present there is a need for skills such as listening, compassion, emphathy, respect and understanding body language. Most of these are not present when discussing through a computer. There is no empathy for someone's feelings when you can not see them physically.  I believe that by constantly using these applications it is not allowing students the chance to build the skills needed for personal interactions. I would hate to see a future were nobody goes out for coffee, or lunch, or just to hang-out and talk because they can just sit in front of a computer and talk to people there.