Week 11 Reflection

While reading this section from Brave New Schools about an Internet scenario in “Explorations”, I couldn’t help but think how far we’ve come, as educators with the use of the Internet. At the time that this book was published—in 1995—the use of the Internet in the classroom setting was very new. Teachers were faced with the challenge of figuring out how to us it effectively while engaging students simultaneously. Ms. Reyes, the fifth grade teacher featured in this reading section, was very ambitious and embarked on a journey of her own to figure out how to create a unit around the topic of “explorations” with the use of the Internet. ERIC was a resource that Ms. Reyes found that provided her with an abundance of lessons and other resources that were useful for her planning of the unit. Furthermore, the use availability of Parents AskERIC, helped her to engage parents, as she often tried to do in her academic planning and teaching. I find this service to be especially important when students come from diverse backgrounds and varying cultures. My personal experience with diverse students has proved that it is often difficult to involve parents that either do not speak English or speak very little English. Thus, a service like Parents AskERIC seems like an excellent way for parents to be able to find information on their own about topics such how to aide in their child’s development and academic achievement. As an educator for students that come from diverse backgrounds, I find myself trying to help parents become involved in their children’s learning experiences in the classroom. Today, there are many different services that aim to help parents become educated and involved in the school setting. In my school, we hold Parent Group sessions, when the school social workers “teach” parents different coping skills that will help them to work with their children (who have emotional and behavioral difficulties). Once parents become involved with these Parent Group sessions, they become attached and really enjoy attending them. This in person service seems very similar to an online service that provides parents with important resources that can help with their children’s development. This makes me think, however, about which service is better—online or in person? My thought is that it would depend on the parent’s preference and ability to either attend a session or to simply find resources at their own leisure.
Ms. Reye’s experience with using a LISTSERV to both connect with teachers regarding theory and practicalities of teaching in addition to class to class collaborations is an excellent way to easily gather information that can aid in the planning and teaching process. Ms. Reyes simply sent a message on her LISTSERV and received one back from a teacher from another country. Ms Reyes was able to coordinate with this teacher and her students were able to compare their experiences learning about both historical ideas, in addition to their learning about space exploration. In my School Library class, I signed up for a LISTSERV. I was overwhelmed with the number of messages that I received daily about various topics. I was able to post a question in the form of a message, and within less than a day of sending it, I had received an abundance of messages in response to the question that I had posted about book banning. I found LISTSERVs to be very useful and helpful when looking for an answer to a specific question. However, they can also be quite overwhelming. Something that teachers must learn is how to effectively weed out the important messages and information received from the messages that may not be of importance to their own teaching experiences.
The use of the Internet in gathering resources for teachers is extremely valuable. Teachers can find resources that help them in their classrooms to both plan and teach lessons, in addition to helping parents access information to help them with their children’s academic achievement and development. When explored and used appropriately, the Internet can provide parents, teachers, and students with a wealth of information to help them as they progress through their educational careers in the school setting.

Annotations

Stevens, K. (2007). The development of virtual education environments to support inter-school collaboration. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 8. Retrieved from: http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/tojde26/articles/article_2.htm
This is a journal article that discusses the use of the Internet as a tool for collaboration between schools in Canada. The author discusses five stages that computers has experienced as they have become increasingly useful in the classroom setting. The use of the Internet as a network to connect rural and urban schools in Canada have opened up doors for students and teachers, as they become learners engaged in the world beyond the classroom walls.

The Global Gateway. Retrieved from: http://www.globalgateway.org.uk/default.aspx?page=4705
This is a website for a program, sponsored by the UK, but open to the world, where students can find schools across the world who may be interested in a collaborative project. The website provides resources to use in the classroom, in addition to a link that helps to find a partner school in countries all over the world. I find this website to be full of useful resources for the classroom setting.

Global Nomads Group. Retrieved from: http://www.gng.org/home.htmlThis group, established in 1998, aims to create international programs for students about global issues. The website features information about programs sponsored by the group. Programs for the Fall, 2009, include Rapid Response, a program that focuses on emergency response from events such as Hurricane Katrina, 2-Part Pulse, a program that provides students with the opportunity to participate in virtual town hall meetings to discuss challenging issues today, and a few others. The website also features videos and other media clips for both teachers and students to watch in order to become educated on various global issues.