Weekly Reflection #9 EDTL230.2008.M008

This week in EDTL we learned about many things, but they were conveniently interrelated. The overall theme could be summarized as “An Overview of the Internet and How to Use It for Teaching”. Most of the information was nothing new for me personally, however, I appreciated that both groups presented it well. It was essentially an overview of the basics of the Internet such as web pages, email basics, and multimedia on the Internet. We also went more in depth about the different types of sites that you and your students can utilize such as governmental websites, web blogs, and educational portals. Web authoring and web site design was also discussed, especially what educators should consider when designing their own classroom site. The point seemed to be that we shouldn’t be afraid to utilize the Internet in our classrooms because it can help us to provide the best learning experience for our students. In my future classroom I plan on doing a few application projects where the students would need to research and compile resources for their presentations. I would try to monitor the student’s computer use in school because I accept the reality of proxy servers that allow students to bypass filtering systems such as BESS. In essence, I agree that the Internet is a wonderful tool that can expand a student’s mind; however, not all students will remain “academically focused” and must be monitored a little more.