Chapter Eight Questions

CheyeAnne Williams
Instruction Technology
Week 8: Chapter 8 questions 1-10
October 28th, 2007

1. What online resources are available to assist educators in researching areas of interest? Describe each.
Online Professional Organizations: This websites are great for educators because they can offer a central repository of relevant and useful resources. On these website they also can offer addition useful websites to help with that certain area of focus. These websites are awesome for teachers, professional associations, content-area groups, and technology groups.
Web logs: These are virtual online spaces that support the posting of information and personal commentary on the web. They provide a great place for one-way communications and they can become a powerful interactive writing tool. Students can post their ideas, stories, and thoughts; then their peers can reply to them. Teachers can do the same. It’s a great way to get the whole class involved in the subject matter.
Governmental Sites: These sites are from the U.S. Department of Education and they are for educators. They are websites with abundant resources that don’t have false information. They are usually not .com, they are usually .edu or .gov.
Education Portals: Educational portals are resources found at portals many include teachers’ guides to the internet, lesson plans, audio clips, video clips, net events, art libraries, educational games, information on schools, and also instructional resources available for each grade level.
2. What is a PDF file? What advantage does it offer over files in HTML format?
These are files that have been saved in Adobe Acrobat format. This is a conversion software package which allows the user to save publication precisely as it looked on the printed page version. This software maintains all the information and detail that would be lost in the HTML format.
3. What is a web log? How might it be used for teaching and learning?
Weblogs or “blogs” are virtual online spaces that support educational learning. They are for posting information, ideas, stories, and personal commentaries on the web. They provide a great place for one-way communications and they can become a powerful interactive writing tool. Students can post whatever the teacher allows that their peers and reply to their postings and vice versa. It’s a great way to get the whole class involved in something that most of them will find extremely fun, entertaining, useful, helpful, educational, and also they would want to write better because they know that their peers and teachers will be reading and responding to it. It’s also a great way to get new ideas and positive feedback.
4. How are government educational sites of value in terms of resources? How do they differ from commercial and organizational sites?
Government and educational sites are sites from the U.S. Department of Education and most state departments of education. These sites (.edu, .gov) have correct information about current educational news, national standards, programs, grants, research, links to other federal agencies, and a wide variety of publications and reports available by mail or download.
Commercial and organizational sites could have been created by anyone. They could just be complete wrong, wanting to sell you their idea of what they “think” is write, a joke website, or anything. You have no idea if their information is legitimate.
5. What types of classroom management and academic tools are available via the Internet? Briefly explain how each tool might help you in your classroom?
Classroom management tools are tools that you can download that can assist you in the tasks required for your classroom. These software can create online or paper tests, they can grade things for you. You can make your own tests and have the internet grade them for you and send them back to your students. Also there can be textbooks online for you. Electronic grade books let you store and easily average a students grade.
Academic tools are great for students and are most likely free. There are worksheet generators of many types that help you make interesting student activity worksheets. You can make crossword puzzles, word searches, math exercises, flash cards, and many other exciting things. Connection gateways are websites that offer users the opportunity to communicate with each other. For educators it’s a great way to get ideas and to share yours.
6. How can a classroom web sire improve communications with students, parents, and community?
Students know that everyone will be reading and looking at their post so they are going to want it the best they can get it. Also after they had written something that they are really proud about they are going to want to see what others had to say about it. Either it being that they loved their post, ways on making it better, or agreeing with them. Through classroom websites there is so many communication going on. There is teacher-student communication, student-student communication, and also helpful communication about areas that students are having issues with. These website contain the students assignments, grades, questions that other students have asked, ideas, tips, other helpful websites, the schools websites, student and teacher emails. There is so much communication going on in these classroom websites and its also fun and educational for all.
7. What are web authoring tools? What types are available to educators?
Web authoring tools are available to make a classroom website easier. These tools can range from very easy to more challenging for the teacher. It focuses on the teachers level of their computer skills. The types that are available are word processors, desktops publishing software, and dedicated web development software.
8. How many new web sites added to the web? What resources do teachers have to do so?
To put new web sites onto the web you need to move your collection of web site files to a web server. The web server connects a network to the web and stores web files for others to look at. You need to upload it to a web server. Now many schools are providing space on their web servers just for the teachers use. If this is a case then you would just need to had your site to the school’s server.
9. What is an acceptable use policy? What impact does it have on the use of the Web in the classroom?
The acceptable use policy (AUP) basically expressive the ways in which the internet can be used by students. Since the Internet can be abused so easily.
10. Contrast the issues of privacy and filtering when using the Web in the classroom. What are the responsibilities of a teacher in each of these areas?
When having students work or images be present on your classroom website then the teacher must be carefully not to include and of the student personal information, like the students name. It is best to have a guardian’s permission before going ahead and posting student stuff on the internet. People that aim to harm children target these websites and go from there. So it is extremely important to know the rules and consequences.
Obviously the internet is not the cleanest thing and there are millions of sites that are not appropriate for children. it’s the school’s responsibility to limit access to such web sites. Schools use filtering software that checks the site before allowing it to be displayed. Its all about the safety of the students in school.