Module Six-Activity 5 Communication
Educators need to learn more about Web 2.0 tools to communicate knowledge. Whether it is to encourage students to share ideas and reflect and think more critically or to learn more about changes in education and content areas—educators need to communicate in a way that is effective, timely, collaborative, and media-rich.
In exploring Module 6 readings and activities, I found the information on research websites useful and insightful. The del.icio.us website is wonderful tool for organizing and sharing research, and I would make this tool available to my students if it were accessible in our school. I plan to share information about “tagging” and the website to coworkers and students regardless.
The Evaluation Wizard offered through the Illinois Math and Science Academy will also help students decide whether a source selected is highly rated and worth considering as a resource. Using website and blog evaluations help to determine the validity and reliability of the information presented and ultimately the use of the resource in critical analysis of a topic.
The use of blogs as an educator if they are not filtered in a school district can be a useful tool to post projects and encourage feedback. In some districts, it is a tedious process to be able to create a web page and have it uploaded to the district’s website dependent upon design. The use of a free blog website would surpass district website restrictions and allow timely postings, links, instructions, and conversation.
I do think that websites that offer free space to share personal information are being overused and abused by many young people in our society and by those who have a criminal intent. Recently, a local news program commented on a newer website titled JuicyCampus.com. The concern about the website is that those who author or contribute to the website are not accountable for the information posted—the information can be completely falsified and can ruin a person’s reputation or more personally-self respect and self image. Issues related to freedom of speech and freedom of the press will continue to arise about these types of websites.
As written by Joyce Valenza on information literacy “Students need to be fluent for all information formats—traditional, current, and emerging. They should be able to identify a wide array of information and communication strategies and choose the ones that best meet their needs.” As educators, we need to keep current with information formats and help students learn to use them effectively.
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1 comment:
You are right-- schools seem quick to ban any technology that's new instead of jumping in and teaching students how to use it responsibly. How are they going to learn what's appropriate/inappropriate if we don't teach them??
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