Using technology for research and is easier now than a couple of years ago; however determining is the content online is false is the challenge. Anyone can create a webpage and post content online. I once had a business website selling products online. A lot of what I didn't know with HTML I taught myself using online tutorials. Information is always at your fingertips you just have know how to search and what to use. I use Google search engine all the time; my husband calls me the “Google Queen”. Using Google I learned how to further my photoshop skills to some digital art through photo manipulations.
Students should be taught how to search for information. This is beneficial to being able to self teach themselves in any subject they are interested in. Using sites like youtube are great for learning new skills. My husband was able to learn how to fix our washing machine and I learned some photoshop tips as well. As much as there is great information out there students need to be able to look past the jumble of misinformation or the distractions and learn to stay focus on a topic for an assignment and find accurate and useful information. When collecting information its best to have an electronic note taking tool. For example I use Evernote audio recording feature to record the lectures from my classes on campus. After reading chapter 5 in Transforming Learning with New Technologies I really should be using it to take my online research as well. Evernote is a great way to keep classes organized in books. Its like having an electronic five subject notebook that can be used on any device.
Students should also be taught how to not plagiarize. Just because the information is online for everyone to see does not mean you copy word for word and call it your own. Being able to analyze information and interpret in your work is a lot more rewarding. Also you retain the information much better than plagiarizing or copying.
Schools should have filter systems in place when letting students access the internet. There is bad and harmful information including sexual imagery disguised in childlike material that can be potentially damaging. If my job can ban me from going to websites the schools most definitely can protect our children. What I would like to see if the schools/teachers can reach out to parents and show them how to create filters on their own home computers. Not every parent is tech savvy and kids are growing up knowing how to use technology better than most adults.
With technology and the internet bullying has taken a new form. Cyberbullying is something that truly breaks my heart. I have seen so many documentaries or news stories about teenagers harming and commenting suicide due to cyberbullying. I 100% believe that parents, schools and society must join together to help put a stop to this. I think once we own the doors to having technology use in classroom to our students that very first day children need to be taught how awful cyberbullying can be and the effects it has on others. We cannot control what happens outside of school in the lives of people who use social media but we can support and teach student how to avoid it and not be a part of cyberbullying. It truly hurts my heart when I see people on Social Media say cruel things to each other and it should really stop by teaching children early it wrong. The same way they teach children don't use drug.
Reference
Canate, K. (2016). Artwork Collage. Retrieved 2 October 2016, from https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pic-stitch-1-photo-video-collage/id454768104?mt=8
Maloy, R. W., Verock-O’Loughlin, R.-E., Amherst, M., Edwards, S. A., Woolf, P., & Woolf, B. P. (2013). Transforming learning with new technologies (with MyEducationKit) (2nd ed.). Boston: Pearson.
Sun News (Ed.). (2012, February 26). Ohio’s cyber-bullying law - editorial cartoon. Retrieved October 2, 2016, from http://www.cleveland.com/, http://media.cleveland.com/allsun/photo/bullyjpg-a081f09d740644c6.jpg
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