Week+7

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 * __Week 7__ - Acceptable Use Policies for Internet Use**


 * Reflections:**

This week was the sceond round of presentations for our multimedia lesson plans. There were eight groups presenting, with my group included. The presentation was done with my partner Helen Graves. The subject we chose was grade 9 science, concentrating on the chemistry unit. The lesson can be found at http://ped3119-dp-hg-chemistrylesson.wikispaces.com/. Our lesson was research based and centred around the use of wikispaces.com. The students were to research a given element from the periodic table and then upload their findings to the class database wiki. I feel that the lesson went well and would work very well in a classroom. Other than my own presentation, there were seven others, all which were very intriguing. I particularly liked the math lesson involving the role playing as and astronaut. Math seems to be a difficult subject to make interesting for the students. The lesson was very engaging for us and I feel it would be the same in most classrooms. Here is a list of the lessons that were presented.

Presentations: -history (immigration to Canada) -history (webquest) -science (chemistry database) -english (comic shakespeare) -grade 9 english (Diamente Poems) -Health (Food Diary) -grade 10 math (Asronaut Problems) -grade 7 french immersion history (New France)

We also discussed ideas concerning ELearning and the virtual classroom. ELearning refers to online courses. There are some good aspects about it and some bad ones. The greatest benefit of ELearning is convenience, since internet access is readily available nowadays. Other than that aspect, I am not a big fan of online courses. I don't find them as engaging and I don't feel the information is retained as well. This comes from personal experience, since online courses are being implemented more often in University. I much prefer the teaching to be face to face. One way this can be accomplished is a virtual classroom. This things like Adobe Connect, Elluminate and skype. They allow real time transfer of ideas. The only one of these that I am familiar with is Skype. My girlfriend uses it often to speak to her friends back home. It live chat and imaging using the internet. It is starting to supplement telephones, since it allows visual images and is available for free if both parties are using computers.

The readings for this week centred around acceptable use policies in schools. These are restrictions set by schools concerning proper use of the internet in their facilities. I think it is a good idea, if only for liability purpose. In today's world you always have to watch your back and be prepared. In education yo always have to prepare in advance and lay out all the rules beforehand. Students are masters of trying everything and attempting to find any loopholes.

Pros: -safer student environment -age appropriate material only -the internet is used for many negative things; more than just knowledge
 * Pros and Cons to Acceptable Use Policies:[[image:pros-cons-hoboken-2.jpg width="250" height="174" align="right" caption="pros-cons-hoboken-2.jpg"]]**

Cons: -students should be learning skills to ethically access information -we aren't preparing them for the world after school, just shutting their eyes

Photo Source: []

-To educate parents about their children's use of the Internet -To protect vulnerable children from inappropriate approaches -To encourage accepted Netiquette from the very start -To encourage ethical behavior, and discourage criminal behavior -To encourage polite and civil communication -To discourage copyright infringement, software piracy, and plagiarism -To discourage slander, libel, defamation, and mendacity -To discourage profanity, obscenity, pornography, and waste -To discourage network game playing and/or anonymous messages -To discourage use of computers and networks for profit or politics -To assure Internet users that their online activities are monitored -To assure Internet users that their email privacy is (or is not) being respected
 * Some Areas Covered by Acceptable Use Policies:**

I found a website that gives lots of examples of acceptable use policies that are currently in place. It can be found at [].

[|www.readwritethink.org] There were some interesting software that got used during some of the presentations. One was Comic Life, which allows you to make your own comics. It seems useful for many subjects, as a way for students to present their information in ways that are more fun for them. Another fun one that students might like is Photo Story. This program lets your put together multimedia displays using images. This also has many possible applications within the classroom, though I haven't worked them out yet.
 * Websites of Interest:**
 * Software:**

Some interesting websites that came up in the presentations were Google Books, [|www.readwritethink.org], and [|www.dietitions.ca]. Google Books is a great way to look for books that are accessable through the libraries. [|www.dietitions.ca] was fun to play with, as it lets you determine how healthy you are. At the moment I don't see much application outside of health studies, but there might be some crossover opportunities. The site I found the most intriguing was [|www.readwritethink.org], which had lots of great ideas for the classroom.
 * Websites of Interest:**


 * A Comic Life Example**