Chapters 1 & 2 reactions

Chapter 1

In reading the opening chapter of the text book, I realized just how much the Internet, or Read/write web as the author calls it, can offer students and teachers a like. Up to now, I knew of a very few ways to research for sources and other resources a student and teacher needs. But after reading chapter 1, I realized that there are various ways for a person to connect to the Internet in an educational frame of reference. I knew very little about web blogs and wikis, but I had no idea about RSS's, Aggregators, Social Bookmaking's, and the other tools, or sources "that share content in new collaborative ways,"that the Internet has that we in the education Field can access.

Whenever accessing information from the Internet I get a little leery of the information that I am receiving, or going to receive. Always aware of the dangers and pitfalls that the Internet can offer because I hear about the horror stories of people getting false information. The part in this chapter about keeping students safe was interesting to me because as a teacher I want to be aware at all times of the dangers that are out there on the Internet. That way, I can portray the information to my students so they won't get caught up as well. Knowing these dangers can help the teacher with the use of the Internet within their teachings. In that same section, he goes on to talk about the dangers of having a blog. A blog can be a very useful learning tool where a child can read something, then write his/her own reaction and opinion. This can be useful in the classroom because it gives the students a chance to interact with one another on a level that would be a lot harder without blogs. But what happens if someone outside of the class comments on the blog. And they fill the blogs with a bunch of false knowledge. This is the exact situation that I was leery about. The author says that in his experience most of the outside comments have been positive ones, and he says that if you communicate theses types of issues to your kids, then you will be fine, and the education of the students will be increased.

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 goes in depth with weblog. A weblog is an easily created, easily updated website that allows an author to publish instantly to the Internet. This gives the teacher a real usable tool within the classroom that can help the development of opinions and thoughts of the students that they teach.

When I was in High School, we never used the Internet for any daily classroom functions. Even though the Internet has evolved 100 percent since I was in High School, I never looked at the Internet as a source for a class portal or an on-line filing cabinet. The author goes into details about setting up a class portal to help give and receive information from your students. I think this is a tremendous idea. This gives the teacher the opportunity to post all of the class guidelines and assignments on the net. This also helps the students because they know exactly where to locate things if they need to. This also helps in regards to parents. I am a person who wants to keep my future parents involved with their children as much as possible. I believe that creating an environment that involves both students and parents only increases the child's outlook on education and the possibility for higher education. Parents can access the class portal to see just what and how the student is doing. They can see just what assignments are due and overall help the student with their educational process. Another thing a weblog offers in schools that can truly help out the process of education is the weblog acts as an on-line filing cabinet. This helps the students a lot. The students will never misplace work and all of it will be completely organized. Most teenagers are not the best when it comes to being organized or on time; neither are most adults. But this provides the children a chance to locate their work when they need it.

A weblog within the class can help out the students and teachers simultaneously. It also gives the forum to open their minds to others opinions and points of view. And that is one of the points of education.