Week 2

While reading the article What Research Reveals for Classroom Practice, I found the statistics that were brought up to be very interesting. According to Lenhart, Madden, and Hitlin, eighty-seven percent of students between the ages of 12 and 17 in the United States report using the Internet, nearly 11,000,000 daily. I find this to be a very high statistic. According to Parsad and Jones, in 1994, only 3 percent of all K–12 classrooms in the United States had Internet access; today, 93 percent have access. I find this to be a positive statistic. I do believe that the internet in the classroom is not only a great tool for teachers when presenting a lesson or preparing a lesson, but it is also a great tool for students to use to do research or use it for fun learning activities/games. I remember when I was in fourth grade my class was the first classroom to have a set of five Macintosh computers. The computer did not have Internet access, we only used the computer for educational games. I remember during free time everyone wanted to use the computer because it was so new and fun for all of us. I personally really enjoyed using the computer at school and I did learn a lot from the educational games that we were aloud to play on the computer. Overall, I feel that the Internet and computers have helped increase students and teachers knowledge of technology abilities all around the world. After reading this article I feel my viewpoint on new literacy reflects upon the same as Coiro and Leu. I see new literacy as an important new strategy and dispositions, required by the Internet that are essential for online reading comprehension, learning, and communication. I also feel that the Internet is helping our student’s today connect and collaborate with each other around the world. Whether its through an online blog, e-mail or web-cam. I feel that collaboration and communication is essential in the literacy world. The Internet is also helping us teach our students how to communicate and learn from other cultures around the world.

Chapter one in the book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, was a very knowledgeable chapter about the web. I liked how the chapter brought up how the web and technology in genera is becoming so advanced for adults, but easy to use for children. Children now of days know how to create more projects on the web then their parents, usually it’s the parents helping or teaching the children how to do things. This could become very dangerous because the parent does not really know what the child is actually doing. The author in chapter one brought up a great point about blogging, although blogging can become a great way to teach students how to communicate, collaborate, and spark up a debate it can also be very dangerous in the fact that if a stranger comments on a students blog. We as educators have to explain to our students that a blog is out there for the public to read. Although I do think if someone does comment on a student’s blog it will more likely be a positive comment.

Chapter ten was a very interesting chapter to read. I personally think it is a great idea to upload books from research libraries to an online google database. I feel that it would be very beneficial to everyone. This would be much easier and faster to access instead of going to the library and searching for the book. I also liked how in this chapter it pointed out the independent work. When I was in elementary school I remember the teachers were very strict about working independently. Now a day there is a lot more collaboration going on in the classrooms. I think this is great! I feel collaborating and communicating is the key to a successful person. The more collaboration, communication, and teamwork involved during a project will help students succeed in the real life. Now a days there are so many ways to communicate with one another through technology it is much more easier for people to collaborate.