I will definitely be using technology in my classroom. I believe the Internet will be much more useful, in looking up research and planning lessons. By then, maybe all schools will have laptops for all their students. Digital cameras will be helpful as well. In order for me to incorporate that technology, I myself will have to have some training, since I just mostly know how to get on the Internet, and type papers.

The group that made this site must be somewhat knowledgeable of the subject of MLK. The site has a lot of good information. Is the site appropriate for schools? Absolutely not! Did you click the link for the rap lyrics? The words in those lyrics wouldn’t even be appropriate for high school students. There was another part of the site explaining MLK performing sexual acts. There is a chance that this site could be appropriate for 11th or 12th grade students, but any grade under that I would immediately say no. First of all, students in the middle school/high school have to be accountable of their own choices of websites. If a student from that level is doing a report on Martin Luther King Jr, hopefully they should know that the site I just looked at will not help them very much. That site had mostly stories, not facts. Secondly, if an elementary class was doing a project on MLK/Civil Rights Movement, then I believe it is the teachers job to first find the sites he/she wants the class to be using. If you let the kids search on their own, they will find untrusting sites like that one. Another thing, how would it look if an elementary student found that site, clicked the rap lyrics link and started reading those lyrics, then went home telling his parents what he read on the Internet. That teacher will probably be in a ton of trouble. So at an elementary level it is the teachers responsibility to monitor the sites the students use. After doing a search for MLK on Google, the site we looked at came up second on the list. I really don’t know why it is so high on the list. Maybe because in the title it says, A True Historical Examination and the search must think it is that much better than the other sites. I can’t believe in the Google description it says, A valuable resource for teachers and students alike. I wouldn’t want my own kids looking at this site, let alone 30 students that I am teaching.

So far this online class is going really good. I was a little unsure going in the beginning, but everything is turning out ok. I have missed a couple of activities and blogs, but that was due to me not knowing what was going on. I am moving right along now, and am keeping up with discussions, activities, and blogs. I like that there is no time period. I am an independent worker when it comes to school, so you give me a date and time to turn it in, it will be turned in at that time. But I like the fact that I can do a little bit of the assignment each day, or I can do it all the night before, it is totally my choice. I cannot compare this to any other online class due to the fact that this is my first time doing an online class. I really like the discussion aspect better in an online class than in a class that meets face-to-face. I am a very outgoing person with my friends and once I get confortable with people, but in a new class, I usually sit back and just listen. With online discussions I can say what I want to say because I can edit my post and write exactly what I want people to hear. I don’t feel embarassed to ask a question in front of the class in a discussion board. I would definitely take another online class in the future, and I think there will be many more classes that are turning towards online learning.

In my opinion the five most important computer applications students should know are: Word or some kind of Word Processor, PowerPoint, Excel spreadsheets, Publisher, and Access.
I believe the most important application is Word. Students could be taught how to use Word as early as probably 1st or 2nd grade elementary school. With technology advancing so fast, every student at all levels will need to learn how to type using a Word Processor. The next most important application I feel is PowerPoint. I have made tons of powerpoint presentations throughout my years of schooling and will make many more as a teacher. It is an easy way to introduce information to people. The appropriate school level for powerpoint is probably like 4th or 5th grade. Next is Excel. Excel lets you create lists and sorting them. It is great for categorizing information. Students will probably understand this program in the later Middle School years. I have not used Publisher much in my schooling, but the time I did use it, it worked out very good. I made a Civil War brochure in High School, and there were many boxes where you just click and type, a lot of space for pictures, and the final product turned out pretty good. Everything is laid out for you so a middle school to high school student should be able to handle this program. The last application Access I have very little knowledge of. I was introduced to it in a high school computer class. It has a lot to do with business information. You can make detailed lists of product info, client info, etc. You can then sort through the lists, send them to different places. I can honestly say I have never used it other than the time I messed around with it in my high school class. So the student level would have to high school to learn and understand Access.

I would definitely talk about it. I think it is important that children know what’s going on in the world. The days following the disaster (ex. 9/11 or Katrina) I would ask the kids, “Does anyone know what happened over the weekend?” something to that effect. I would then have a class disscussion on what people think about the situation, how are their feelings toward the families the disaster struck, was there anything that could have been done to prevent such a thing from happening, etc. We would find information as a class from the Internet and watch TV programs such as CNN. I believe it would be a teachable moment. When 9/11 occured, teachers were going through their normal lesson plans for the day, but after it happened I’m sure many lesson plans were changed to disscuss the effects of 9/11. As for a teachable moment, you could have the students make homemade cards to send to families effected, organize food, clothing, supplies drive for the people in need. For a higher level class, you could have students do reports or projects on terrorism, or this past disaster; hurricane patterns. You would have to take precautions depending on age of students. For instance you would not want to show grade school kids pictures of dead bodies floating in the water of New Orleans, and you would not want them to see people jumping out of the World Trade Center. A high school class should be able to handle something like that. Also for the little kids just make sure they know what is going on.

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