CSU

Keeping Kids Safe yet Engaged by Tyler Wood

There is no stopping the internet these days. There are still many things even adults are working on for safety and privacy, but not understanding these ideas and problems is no excuse for allowing kids to use the internet with no knowledge of how it works and what could go wrong. Children use the internet for many things and are on-line more than children a decade ago were riding their bike near streets. We still teach children road and bike safety, but what about internet safety? Click the button below for more information on how we can protect our kids and students on-line.

"The proportion of children with home access to computers has increased steadily, from 15 percent in 1984, to 76 percent in 2003, to 83 percent in 2011" (Child Trends, 2011). Clearly, this is something that should be addressed with every child, and educators are in a great position to bring this up. This is an educational opportunity. As I walk through a few of the issues - hacking, copyright, bullying, etc... - I will talk about what I think we as educators should do from my particular position. I teach in Korea, so you may have to look up the rules, regulations, and policies in your area for more accurate information. However, there is no place that the internet doesn't or won't reach, so these are issues we should all be taking on and trying to solve for the future. 


References

Child Trends. (2011). Home Computer Access and Internet Use. Child Trends. Retrieved from http://www.childtrends.org/?indicators=home-computer-access

Common Sense Media. (2014, July 19). Keeping Kids Safe Online. Retrieved from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/videos/keeping-kids-safe-online

Policies, Plans, and Procedures by Tyler Wood

Since I am in Korea, the rules protecting children in the USA do not apply to my school; however, Korea has a few different rules for protection as well. Most of these rules are from the government, not the school and are written in Korean. I can't cite anything specific without it being in Korean, but I can explain what they do.

The first thing that protects kids, but actually applies to the whole country, is the block on pornography. There is a ban on pornography countrywide here, for all people. So accessing porn sites is mostly blocked by the government so there is no need to have that particular safety net at school. There is a government mandated protection of juveniles (Juvenile Protection Act) in place that requires the same rules for all schools on top of that. This is the information I was given when asked what our school policy was. Our school technically doesn't have a student use policy, it's a government policy we must abide by. That policy has a site blocking program called NAT (not sure what it stands for) that blocks additional sites not appropriate for children, though I couldn't get a list of them. They also have a p2p block that bans all downloading sites as well. They require that students and teachers to use different IP's so that the access is different for searching for school materials. Of course, the teacher's block is less limiting. We are still blocked from gmail and sometimes facebook, but that is up to the school.

They also require all students and teachers to have accounts we have to log into to use anything on-line, so they can keep track of what has been used and when. There is software installed, I was told, that keeps track of downloads and problem sites and the school is given a rating. Schools are supposed to maintain a 100 rating (no problem downloads) and if they don't the IT people will investigate and try and figure out what is happening or change the blocks to fix the problem.

On the subject of strictness and over-blocking, I am in a different position than teachers in the US because the first sites targeted with blocks in Korea are Korean sites. Besides pornography, the English sites are nearly all available because the IT guys don't always understand what the English sites are saying. Anyone can see the pornography and block it, but sites without pornography, but still possibly inappropriate, are usually allowed simply because they don't know its content well enough. It could be argued that the children would have the same view of it and it won't be a problem, but I would say that the children are much more clever at finding bad things. However, the children are always monitored in school and doing something specific, so I don't think they would ever be surfing the web for random sites at school, so the blocks are relatively pointless in practice.

I think the only problem with strictness is our (teachers) block of gmail because I tend to send myself files sometimes if I don't have my USB. It has made me think of alternatives, or not to forget my USB though, so it isn't that bad now. 

I personally don't have a problem with children accessing social media during school hours because there are ways to utilize that for class, as long as they are being monitored in school. However, that is irrelevant in my school because, like I mentioned, the kids have no time alone to access what they want in school. The only times they are on-line is when they are in computer class and doing something as a class or taking the SRI test through the schools website. I haven't seen any children on a computer doing research or surfing the web freely. Cell phones are prohibited at school, so they are not on-line there either. The kids have cell phones, of course, but they are locked in a glass case in the homeroom until after school by their Korean homeroom teacher, so they are not sneaking a peek at anything with that. Once they leave the school, then they can access what they wish, but they are almost always picked up by their parents or monitored on the bus, so they have little to no time between being monitored by teachers to being monitored by parents. It makes it easy to believe they aren't accessing anything inappropriate on-line, but makes me feel a little sad that they have no alone time or free time for themselves either. Click the link below to see a more detailed breakdown of policies in my school and classroom. 

Policy in My School and Classroom 

 

For more information about international standards click the button below.


References

학교 정보보안 관리 (School Information Security Management) *This was printed for me, I don't have the information for citing properly.

International Society for Technology in Education. (2010). National education technology standards. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards

Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. (2014) Retrieved from http://www.mogef.go.kr/korea/view/policyGuide/policyGuide07_04_07.jsp

Social Media, Gaming, and Bullying: Education's Response by Tyler Wood

Gaming is a big problem, according to the Korean government. Students are never on computers in our school alone and do not use on-line games at school. The PC Bangs they speak of are outside the school and outside our jurisdiction. PBS did a documentary on the subject that you can watch below. 

Cyber bullying on social media is a very interesting subject because of the unique problems schools have in dealing with it since it's online and usually outside of school's traditional jurisdiction. It's also so easy to spread information that it can escalate so much quicker than before social media causing more drastic reactions by the victim, in some cases, suicide. It's tragic, but there isn't an easy solution. I haven't witnessed, or even heard of, cyber bullying at our school, but I believe this is a cultural and legal difference being showcased. The Korean government, as I have pointed out before, has it's hands involved in this problem, not just for children, but for adults as well. There is a law making defamation a crime. The controversial law claims "defamation is considered a criminal offense under the Criminal Code and an "unlawful act" under the Civil Code." (Youm, 1992, p 1) this creates a unique situation because even adults that make hurtful claims (even if they are true) about others can be sued or even prosecuted. In order to uphold the law, there is a lot of government monitoring of media and the Internet and children are no exception. Because of the relatively strict legal precedent it makes cyber bullying not just into an unacceptable category, but an illegal one. This makes my addressing of the issue redundant and allows for my classroom to run smoothly without worry. My students all have an ID to log into the network that can be tracked. Even though I disagree with this privacy intrusion on a moral level, it does make it easier to let my students on the Internet without worry. It also frees my hands from having to worry about off-campus cyber bullying, since it remains a law enforcement issue, not a school issue. However, the controversial part of the law is the obvious 'Big Brother' and freedom of speech breaches. For more information on the controversy click the button below. 

In my class, I use a handout that can be taken home to go over the expectations and good practices of my class’s use of technology. In Korea, the government, because of the Juvenile Protection Act (MOGEF, 2014), are able to monitor cyber bullying and block pornography from children. At our school, each child must have an ID and password to log on to the internet and that code is matched with what sites they can use or not use. This allows the teachers to not worry too much, though we are still there for monitoring purposes. Since these rules are in place, I will focus my short lesson on netiquette and general rules of thumb the children should know whenever they are on-line, no matter where they might be. The handout explains more - click below. 

Internet Dos and Don'ts Handout

 

For more information on Cyberbullying in Korea click the button below. 


References

Carnegie Cadets. (2014). Fun Stuff. Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved from http://www.carnegiecyberacademy.com/funStuff/netiquette/netiquette.html

Ministry of Gender Equality & Family (MOGEF). (2014). Laws & Data. Government of the Republic of Korea. Retrieved from http://english.mogef.go.kr/sub04/sub04_11.jsp

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS). (2014) Prevent Cyber Bullying. Retrieved from http://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/prevention/index.html

Youm, K.H.. (1992). Libel law and the press in South Korea: An update. Occasional Papers/Reprints Series in Contemporary Asian Studies, number 3, 1. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/cgi

Determining Credibility by Tyler Wood

Credibility is an on-going challenge for educators. This is not a skill students learn one year and know forever. This is a constantly evolving critical thinking skill that must be addressed regularly in school. As the Internet becomes more pervasive, understanding credibility will become more and more important. Before the Internet, we could look in books and generally trust the publishers to do a lot of the fact-checking for us. If we still weren't sure, asking our librarians would be a very useful next step (still is a useful step if you are at the library). However, more and more children (and adults) are just Google searching for information on the Internet and looking for sources that way. This can lead to more and more problems with getting good information, as anyone who cares about any controversial topic can attest. Although I do appreciate social media for creating a place where people share ideas and, seemingly more and more, respond with asking for sources, it is still bemired with misinformation. If you click below, you can see my lesson handout on the subject of determining credibility. 

Safe and Effective Web Searching Lesson Handout


References

 

Clark, H. (Oct. 16, 2013). Do Your Students Know How to Search? Edudemic. Retrieved from http://www.edudemic.com/student-search-skills/

Geier, D. (Feb. 18, 2014). Module 4: Determining Credibility. Social, Ethical and Legal Issues in 21st Century Learning. CSU Global Campus. 

To Use or Not to Use: Copyright Compliance and Fair Use by Tyler Wood

Teaching in Korea, where copyright protections are minimal and still being pushed for by the US government in trade deals, means that I don't have the, albeit minimal, restraints of copyright law. Having said that, I make it a point to teach my children about the academic ethics of copying and plagiarism, and practice what I preach. Although I have never been told to worry about what I copy (I've actually been told to find a password for sites so the school can use it) I try and make sure I am above board. It's true teachers get a lot of leeway on copyrights, but I am also quite skeptical of that leeway holding up in court having had many discussions with an intellectual property lawyer in Seattle. I go about covering myself by creating many of my handouts and visuals myself so there is no need for stepping on toes.

My first year in Korea was full of mad dashes in books and searches on-line looking for worksheets or visuals for my lessons. Then one day it occurred to me that it was just as fast to make exactly what I wanted than to search the Internet for something I was able to use that wasn't even what I wanted exactly. I'm currently attempting to create my entire year of lessons, in my own work, in worksheets and in visuals. I have even begun discussions with my school for a book-less class next year that would utilize my curriculum. So instead of dealing with other people's school related work, I am just making my own. A possible negative side-effect of those companies copyrighting their work, for them. I do, of course, use other works that would be covered under the fair use clause of the copyright law, however, and think I am perfectly within the law with my use (PBS). The issue I do have is trying to teach students raised on cheating being an acceptable practice how to cite, quote, or otherwise make sure they are giving credit to the people they are copying. This is seemingly a completely foreign idea here. This is, for me, the most important part of this issue - academic honesty. For more information on copyright for educators and what fair use is click below.

Click below for my handout on the subject of copyright for the students.

Copyright Lesson Printable Handout


References

 

Copyright Society of the USA. (2014). Copyright Basics. Retrieved from http://www.copyrightkids.org/cbasicsframes.htm 

Dowshen, S. (2011, Sept.). What is Plagiarism? Kids Health. Retrieved from http://kidshealth.org/kid/feeling/school/plagiarism.html#

Hacking and Education by Tyler Wood

"Persons of genius, it is true, are, and are always likely to be, a small minority; but in order to have them, it is necessary to preserve the soil in which they grow. Genius can only breathe freely in an atmosphere of freedom. Persons of genius are, ex vi termini, more individual than any other people -- less capable, consequently, of fitting themselves, without hurtful compression, into any of the small number of moulds which society provides in order to save its members the trouble of forming their own character (On Liberty, J. S. Mill)."

It is such a terrible crime to turn those that love learning into criminals and against society generally. I think creating a world where potential assets to our world are locked up so young for making mistakes, as if we never did, is over-doing it. Should they be punished? Sure, but arrested and have their lives potentially ruined? No. If they cheated on a test or hacked to cheat, it should be considered the same offense at school - cheating. Why are we becoming so aggressive towards kids who clearly don't always understand what they are doing? Isn't that the teachers' job to teach, not to punish and destroy their lives. If the offense continues, then escalate the punishment, but I don't understand throwing the book at kids that get up to no good one time.

How do we utilize these talents?

The first thing we should do is more education before the hacking can occur. If we begin educating students on the meaning of copyright and ownership, they might be more inclined to understand later, why it's unacceptable to steal tests or worse.

The second thing, we should give these kids alternatives that are actually appealing to the kids. It seems to me that not only is it true that "nobody is looking out for characters ... whose unwitting descent into criminality might have been avoided had somebody spotted his particular talent" (Glenny, 2012), but we should be trying to challenge them like gifted and talented children for their talents and interests and focus. It appears that the teachers are so out of touch that they don't even understand what the kids are doing, and instead of learning and steering them on a path of positive uses, they turn quickly to punishing what they don't understand. This only makes the underground more robust and appealing.

Also, anytime teenagers are better at something like this than businesses that get paid to stop it, perhaps it's not the teenagers that we should be worried about but the false sense of security our businesses and governments have surrounded us with.

Should we have no limits on children's use of the internet?

I agree with some reasonable limitations, like pornography and adult content sites, but that won't stop the hacking. In fact, that will only help create the hackers like prohibition created speakeasies. The question is what do we do when we find the hackers.

Teens' brains are not fully developed, so how can we trust them on-line?

I would argue that if we are basing our decisions on the lack of trust we have for a brain in development, then how can we trust these same morally limited teens to share a locker-room or hallway space with others? The internet is no different than any physical space the teens are in, in my opinion. If we can trust them to walk to school, walk the halls, and engage with each other, then they can certainly interact on the internet in the same way (teachers should be present in school, as well). We need to educate that behavior, not ban it. I have taught for 4 years in a kindergarten and I have seen punching, kicking, pushing, shoving, gropping, and many other activities that would be illegal for adults to do with each other, but do we throw these kids in prison? Do we kick them out of school? No. Of course they are developing, but that doesn't mean we should ruin their futures because it might be easier, in fact, that is precisely why we shouldn't be arresting them. If they hack to get answers on a test, then they cheated, they should be punished accordingly. If they hacked to steal an identity or personal information, then they stole and should be punished accordingly. I think we have developed a very perverse idea of justice towards minors in general, and the way we handle hacking teens is really highlighting our attack on the young. 

Consider this, cancer has been talked about like a computer code/virus. We do want to cure cancer, and yet we are systematically locking up people that read code and think outside the box to fix or pervert that code. If we could be embracing these minds and allow them to flurish, we could be helping the world at large. Instead, we scare, intimidate, and push them out of mainstream life to go down that rabbit hole and find people who accept them, and those people don't always have the best of intentions. Kids aren't born bad. 

What about the businesses that are hacked?

As I pointed out previously, if we can offer alternatives to hacking businesses that can still challenge and stimulate the minds of the children, then this might not be as big of an issue. I also have concerns about our morality on this issue. Why does it seem, based on our laws and reactions, that what is morally superior is the businesses profits over the potential educational opportunities?

Article I Section 8 | Clause 8 – Patent and Copyright Clause of the Consitution. [The Congress shall have power] “To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.” (Stanford University Libraries)

The Constitution protects copyright for the progress of science and useful arts, not explicitly profits. Do I think we should all download music illegally - no. But to punish some teen or child who does download illegally so harshly that their life could be ruined (a life that is still learning, developing, and growing) for the sake of a business' profit stream, that seems morally obtuse to me. I believe education is morally superior to profits and I appreciate the fair use clause for that. I think that hacking is an area that is so new we don't understand it and are over punishing because we don't understand it and don't see the potential learning opportunities in teens and kids who hack.

If children in Ethiopia can hack without even knowing the language then this is clearly children's natural curiosity and creativity at work and this is a teaching opportunity (Mangu-Ward, n.d. paras. 1-2). If we responded to kids' touching behavior like we do to this, seemingly natural behavior, we would ban hugs, holding hands, and handshakes and expect these kids to have a 'normal' life with touching later on after school. It doesn't make sense. We shouldn't shy away from challenges. 

We can't hide for long, sooner or later we will be implementing new technology into the classroom, but what can we do? I have drawn up a few ideas for possible problems and pragmatic solutions for my school. Click below to see my chart of problems and possible solutions for unexpected technology issues.

Obstacle Plan for Technology Implementation 


References

Glenny, M. (2012). Tap into the Gifted Young Hackers. The New York Times. March 8, 2012. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/09/opinion/tap-into-the-gifted-young-hackers.html?_r=1&

Mangu-Ward, K. (n.d.). Kids Should Hack Their School-provided iPads. Slate. retreived from http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/10/l_a_school_ipad_program_students_should_hack_their_tablets.html

Standford University Library. (2014). Copyright and Fair Use, US Constitution. Stanford University. Retrieved from http://fairuse.stanford.edu/law/us-constitution/#sthash.h9U9TdMk.dpuf

Online Privacy and Digital Footprints by Tyler Wood

After getting started on this very site, I have been checking Google for my site to see how specific I need to search for it to show up. I have a few people to compete with, worst of which is a male porn star/underwear model that shares my name and a president that shares my middle name (my grandma's second cousin, Calvin Coolidge). However, upon seeing my digital footprint, once I found me, I rediscovered a blog I did many years ago. Partly, it was nice to see and I pulled a few things from there I had forgotten to copy previously, but much of it was stuff I wanted to be deleted. What to do?

Many people think deleting the account is the way to go, but I've seen that it only makes it impossible to change the information that remains, so I decided to delete each piece individually, while keeping the account open until I couldn't find them anymore. I'm no expert in privacy, but it seems the best way to hide, aside from being a disconnected hermit, is to take on your footprint head on. This is what is wrong with information online, but we can also take advantage, by burying information with other information. Deleting works sometimes, but controlling what is out there about you by putting stuff you want out there out there works as well. When you Google my full name (without the middle name still pulls up the porn star - be warned) you get my website first and that is what I want to see. I've managed to get rid of everything else on regular searches. The real question is, how much is still out there copied on servers and in the government, and that is the real danger.

Not posting in the first place is the best way to control your footprint. Perhaps we should embrace the shift as Laura Stockman has, while always keeping eyes and minds open to possible problems with everything we post (Richardson, 2008). We should be thinking about our posts online like we think about the words that we say. We watch our words in public and around our parents, but we open up to our friends. Kids should know that online is almost always a public place and they should use words and only post information that they are comfortable with the public knowing. This is still a new technology and people are still adjusting to it, but a kid who has been taught these ideas about life can function most effectively online. Click below for tips for how to protect your digital footprint for students. 

 


References

Richardson, W. (2008). Footprints in the digital age. Educational Leadership, 66, 16-19. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/nov08/vol66/num03/Footprints-in-the-Digital-Age.aspx

Keeping Pace and Building Bridges by Tyler Wood

What is the biggest obstacle schools face with investing in or implementing technology?

The biggest problem I see with technology in schools is the ability to pull the trigger on it and let it flourish. I'm sure there are many reasons for this from financial, political, or even organizational. Personally, I think it is the "exponential growth. The smartphone in your pocket provides a better communication tool than the President of the United States had access to just 25 years ago, and provides access to more data than he had access to just 10 years ago" (Barton, 2013).

This growth is summed up in Moore's Law where the Intel co-founder claimed the processing power of computers would double every two years (Barton, 2013). He was right, sort of. It is possibly happening faster than that. The rate of change in the technological field means that what a school will buy for education will be outdated within a year or two. I firmly believe, especially with all the scientific discovery happening every week, that most subjects in school should be reexamined regularly, but technology has the potential to change the paradigm. We are too hooked on books that we try and teach out of for a decade when the information contained within it might be outdated. We need a complete change in the fundamental way we view educational "materials". This is where I believe pulling the trigger on technology will revolutionize education. It's not technology that needs education, it's education that needs technology to change the paradigm and get us past the factory school idea. Instead of books, we can use computers (maybe not a one-to-one ratio for students, but enough that each student has regular access in school). Perhaps, as I am attempting at my school, we can teach off the screen instead of out of the book. This means we (teachers) can adapt to changing information within the school year and between the school year because we aren't tied down to a book's information. This means that the technology can be updated with less cost than a one-to-one program because we can rotate. The youngest children can get access to the oldest computers to learn the basics and as they get older they get the newer and newer materials. And/or the teachers computers running the classroom materials could be regularly updated since they are the smallest number. 

I admit this doesn't solve the problem with the digital divide, but perhaps it can help change things enough that new ideas can flourish and solve that problem. Maybe connecting rural villages in other parts of the world with urban centers via the internet can mean that those children can be 'in class' with the other students using live-feed technology. Classrooms and materials can change, but the goal remains the same. If the goal is being hindered by the classroom or the material, why not change the material or classroom to reach that goal? 

What is the digital divide?

There are people out there attempting to solve this problem. Click below for another example of a group trying to solve the digital divide.

What are policy-makers doing to help this in the USA? Click below for more information.


References

Barton, R. (2013, Jan. 22) Technology is innovating and expanding at an exponential rate. Mainstay Technologies. Retrieved from http://www.mstech.com/nh-it-blog.php?show=171

Final Thoughts by Tyler Wood

Since I couldn't teach all of my lessons at once, I decided on the most important, in my mind - plagiarism. I started by using my copyright handout and going over the reasons for why we should cite our sources. My students had many questions, which lead me to believe I chose the right subject. One student even told me that their Korean teacher said 'stealing is learning'. I attempted to explain that what he/she meant (I hope) was that we learn from each other and grow, but that doesn't mean we do not cite our sources and give credit to those that gave you the ideas. 

After our mini-lesson on the subject of copyright and how to cite sources, we went to the computer lab to do some research and put what we learned into practice. I spent a few minutes explaining the basics of searching and let them search for information on Ancient Egypt because we were working on a project on that subject previously. Getting good information about Egypt was only of minor importance, I wanted to see how they would do citing their sources and using quotation marks for exact words they wrote down. As they searched I walked around to guide them and help them and watch to see how they were doing.

What worked well in the mini-lesson?

What worked well was getting at the heart of why we use quotation marks and cite sources. My students had never heard of citing sources before. They had heard of quotation marks for dialogue and vaguely for using the words from the book, but after the mini-lesson it was clear they mostly understood the concept. I used some examples of someone stealing their ideas for an assignment or project and getting a good score and praise from the teacher and they all understood that they would be upset that their idea was not being credited to them. 

What questions did the students have and how did they get addressed?

Most of the questions asked during the mini-lesson were pragmatic in nature. How do we cite? Where do we put the quotations marks? What if there is no on the website? etc... However, as I pointed out before, I had a few students that were confused by this idea because their Korean teacher told them stealing was learning and they didn't understand why they had to cite someone else. That was the meat of my explanation. I explained that this is not just to protect other people's ideas, but to protect theirs as well it became more of an acceptable idea for them. They were starting to see, with my examples of stolen ideas from them, that this is a good idea. 

How will just-in-time lessons on technology be integrated in future lessons?

My lesson this time worked surprisingly well, so I would do the same thing next time. Present the idea then use it in practice right away to get them familiar with it. The only thing hindering that method is that our computer lab is shared with all the classes and has to be booked in advance, so I would have to schedule the lessons far apart from each other, but that might lend itself to a good review from the last lesson before starting the next lesson. Then my students will have to build upon the lessons. For example, they would review citing sources and using quotations marks for exact quotes, then integrate the techniques for finding trustworthy source material. They can build off of each lesson.

What standards lend themselves to technology integration, and how will the knowledge gained in class be implemented for technology integration?

Unfortunately, my school doesn't follow a particular set of standards. Some of our material is American Common Core curriculum and some is not. We don't have a school-wide set of standards, per se. Since we are teaching ESL, the only real standard that we actually strive for is eventual mastery for the TOEIC test. However, that test is not taken until much later than our elementary school, so it remains a background motivator. Generally, our goals in class are internal in nature. Getting the kids prepared for the curriculum in the grade above them. Either way, we do not have any set of standards related to technology directly. The teachers use technology to teach, and the students use computers for one particular test in the computer lab, but there is no standard that I have seen that is pushing technology literacy in the school. I have been slowly pushing for such a thing at school, but that remains a future endeavor, not a current standard. Technology, in theory, could be applied to nearly all subjects in the school if done properly, though. 

How did the students do on the research?

click to enlarge

I was pleasantly surprised with how well my students took to research after receiving the mini-lesson on copyright/plagiarism. Maybe they were excited to be free to use the Internet, or actually interested in Ancient Egypt, or a combination of both, but they were focused and searching well. All of the students stayed on topic looking hard for information about Egypt. One student was even enjoying it a lot. He kept finding facts that he thought were interesting and excitedly raising his hand to ask if I knew this or that about Ancient Egypt. Once I told him I didn't know that King Tut might have been killed by a hippo, he seemed hooked. This was a way to get information even the teacher did not know, it seemed. He wouldn't even look at me, he was so focused. And more to the point, he was citing his sources well the whole time too.

click to enlarge

I was expecting to see a lot of misunderstanding on this and have to walk the students through it, which I did for a few students, but mostly they understood the concept. Some students were even moving into the next mini-lesson before I was able to teach it by asking if this was a good site or not. It was clear to me that this is something the students wanted to participate in and learn about. They all have the Internet at home, but I do not think any of them have sat down with a teacher to learn about how to use it. I'm sure their parents have taught them a few things, but they are hungry for more and that was evident by their voracious researching. A skill most students are not too thrilled about participating in regularly, but these students (mostly), were excited to do so. Even the students who did not seem interested were still reading and looking up things about Egypt, they were just being a bit lazy on writing the information down and/or citing properly.  

I think there is serious potential for technology education at my school after doing this lesson. I would like to do a few more lessons to make sure this was not an anomaly. Once I do a few more technology lessons and the reaction is the same, I can use that information to push for more technological education at my school in the future. The administration has been open to new ideas previously, so perhaps we can start to make changes as early as next year. I have already been pushing for a book-less class or even a flipped class to try it out at our school, so this evidence might help sway the administration to implement more technology into the classroom environment for the students to use, not just the teachers. We already have computers and large touch-screens in classrooms for teachers to use, but we need to bring the students into the fold on the technology. These kids have access to the Internet at home and will be using it a lot for research in just a few years in middle school and high school, so it would be prudent to get them versed in the subject now. I want to teach the students about the world they will be stepping into, not the nostalgic world of my elementary school education. As wonderful as it seems in our heads, our education has been outdated for awhile now and was probably even outdated back then. Our students are entering a world where the jobs many of them will have as adults probably don't even exist right now and we need to start teaching them at the very least, what technology we have now. We need to start young and elementary school is a good place to start.