Article Review 8

Article Review 8

http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/21/tech/web/kids-tech-education/index.html

This article acurately portrays the biggest issue, in my opinion, plaguing our country.  The amount of children having various technology devices and access is alarming.  I am a huge supporter of technology in the classroom, recently discovered BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and 1-to-1 programs at schools.  With the access to the web, students have the world at their fingertips.  But where, how, and who is teaching these children how to act on the web?  For me, I always am very clear about classroom ettiquite while using deviced in my classroom, but I'm affraid that as soon as the student leaves the room, they are tweeting angrily at another student, or cussing about Mr. Gravitt's class, etc.  We often see in modern education the parents saying, "it's the teacher's job to teach my child everything" and on the opposite site, us teachers saying, "gosh, why don't these parents teach there kids a thing?"  Yes, it's true, teachers do "teach" more than content.  We teach proper behavior, politeness, and other life skills (even in German class I try to get the students to speak properly - particularly in the foods unit, when at McDonalds, rather than saying "gimme a nummer 1" perhaps one could say "I would like..." or "May I please order..." - this helps them with the German modal auxilary verbs.).

I know we, by state law, are required to instruct about internet safety - some schools do it differently, but it seems like we show a video, and teachers talk about it, but we must begin to teach deeper digital citizenship as the article states.  For example, when working with students in the computer lab, or in classroom with our iPods, I often have founds students translating an entire sentence on Google Translate.  Nothing against Google Translate, but I would rather my students create their own language.  I would much prefer them to say something completely wrong in German than to produce something from a translation website.  They do, however, get confused regarding the use on an online dictionary (my preference is www.leo.org).  I think at this point they are well aware that they are not to use a translation site, but where in their mind is it ever ok to use someone else's work and claim it as their own? 

Parents need to be more involved with their children's access to the web.  If they don't have time to monitor it all, then they must not buy the phone, the data plan, etc, for their child.  Period.  I do think, as the article suggests, that colleges and universities, and local community centers, can do a better job to promote internet safety classes for parents.  It is true, some parents don't even know how to use the devices, much less patrol what their child is doing with them.  This does seem to fall on parental responsibilities though, not the school.

I feel that we as educators can begin to incorporate more and more web ettiquite into our classrooms daily, so that our students can grow to become digital citizens of the highest.  We can do our part, in conjunction with parents, but ultimately it is the student who must recognize the importance of using the web appropriately.