After reading the chapter, "Security, Issues, Ethics, and Emerging Technologies in Education", from Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom (Shelly, Gunter, & Gunter, 2010), I realize the role of the teacher has changed as fast as the onset of new technologies.
A teacher likes to feel comfortable in his or her own setting (classroom). If something new comes along, then it is the teacher's role to investigate it, research it, and then implement it. Students are entering classrooms with various experiences with the Internet and exploring web sites.
As an educator, you are the one responsible for the sites that the students surf to in your classroom. I have caught some of my students straying from the selected site to see what else is out there. They are young students so you can imagine that they accidently made a few clicks and end up on a tangent site. It is a major role for a teacher to be sure that the necessary measures are made for computers in the classroom. I have even gone to the extreme of hiding different icons on the desktop so that an unnecessary one is not clicked on by accident. It has made it easier for my students to navigate to the educational sites geared for their learning practice.
With the introduction of display boards in our classrooms, you need to be sure that the initial web page is one that is appropriate for your students to see. If you want to do a class search on a topic, then you need to be sure that you don't end up on a site that is not suitable. For example, clicking on the Internet Explorer icon on my Activboard desktop opens up to msn.com. Depending on what is happening in the world, the site will display images and headlines on the various events. Since I teach a group of primary students, I did not feel comfortable being engaged in a conversation about some of those topics. Especially since I did not know what events would be featured on the page.
Therefore, I contacted my school's technology expert and requested that the school's web site be the default page instead. After discussing the subject with some other teachers at lunch, it lead to an interesting conversation about having a site such as msn.com as the default page. A few teachers joined my side and wanted to be safe than sorry. While, a few other teachers felt that the site would only be viewed for a few seconds while you navigated to a search engine site. I raised the question about a student being on a stand alone computer in the room, clicking on the Internet Explorer icon, and going deeper into one of the stories posted. Therefore, the child might view images which are not appropriate for their age.
I know that teaching in a primary grade has led me to become a safety zone kind of a teacher. I just know that parents hold teachers in a regard that we will make the best decisions on behalf of their children. Not to say that parents might not filter their own child's Internet surfing at home. Our responsibility as educators is to make sure that we check programs and web sites for ourselves before we launch them in our classrooms. It's better to be safe than sorry!
Shelly, G., Gunter, G., & Gunter, R. (2010). Teachers Discovering Computers: Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Course Technology.
Patrick,
ReplyDeleteI really like your last paragraph. Especially the part where you say "I know that teaching in a primary grade has led me to become a safety zone kind of a teacher." I feel like I am in that safety zone as well.
I think it is important for us to preview and be aware of things that students could come across not even knowing. Especially primary students. They just see something that looks neat and will click, not knowing the potential dangers they could encounter.
Parents do hold us in a higher regard because the primary students are so "naive" as to computer do's and do not's.
Thanks for sharing!
Roxanne
Patrick,
ReplyDelete"clicking on the Internet Explorer icon on my Activboard desktop opens up to msn.com."
I can't believe that teachers were not upset about having msn.com as the default page. At my school, all of the computers default to our school website when Internet Explorer is opened. My fifth graders would be reading all kinds of news stories if we had msn.com as our default page. Some of the news stories are inappropriate, even for my students.
"Not to say that parents might not filter their own child's Internet surfing at home."
This may be true, however, it is just one more instance where teachers are held to a higher standard than the general public. We have the responsibility to teach our students proper use of the Internet, whether they get it at home or not. Thanks for a great post!
Linda