Web What Point... Oh!! ... Web 101 :)

Okay, so I learned something this week! (I do every week.. but I really enjoyed feeling like this could be used in every day conversations with non-ed majors)

First off... For anyone who doesn't know : Web 1.0 = old school! ie - you get information off the interwebs. Period.  End of story.  See you later!
Web 2.0 = you actually get to add stuff to the interwebs yourself and participate (like on wikipedia for example)

Next : according to Dr Ludmila Smirnova, whom I Googled and found to be a very well educated Russian lady, "the boundaries between teaching and learning and between knowledge acquisition and knowledge production break down" via web 2.0, and as I go through the lists and piles of options, I can't help but feel town about the various sites.  While there are some that I have thoroughly enjoyed/will enjoy in the future, I know there were others in those lists that I would even discourage others from using simply because my experience with them hasn't been supremely positive.  I feel that in order to make a less discriminate opinion though... I'm just going to have to use them in a classroom or even in this one? More to come

Internet Safety

So... of course this post deleted itself... ha! well, in brief, I just wanted to write about a few things I learned... Having been "victim"* to bullying myself growing up, I was curious to see what Cyberbullying really entailed.  This is what I learned from my readings and my classmates:

There are many different ways that people can cyberbully. Some are listed:

• Sending messages or emails containing insults or threats
• Spreading hateful comments or rumors about a person through email, messages, or posting on social networking or blogs
• Stealing passwords and sending out threatening emails or messages using the assumed identity
• Building websites to target students
• Posting embarrassing pictures of video footage of someone
• Posting obscene messages on online message boards or creating slanderous websites

I'd wager that the most prominent way would be of people posting rude or offensive comments, videos or even websites that will harm children emotionally.  I'm seeing that cyberbullying brings about the same kinds of consequences in the lives of the children.  

*I put the "" because if I am to be honest, I almost owe those junior high bullies a favor.  I grew to be able to stand up for myself and to learn what real friends were.  After all, "all [they]'re ever gunna be is mean".

Starting "Education: the Internet and Education" (Education² ...?)

YAHOO!!  I'm so excited to have another regular reminder to blog!  I love being able to get my thoughts out... and I feel like I can better understand them myself, and by default then be more able to express them to others, when I write them down.

The next few months I'll be in an education class exploring the internet and its relationship with education.  It's already brought me out of my bubble, ironically enough (I didn't think an online class could do that to me!), by having me connect on twitter.  Not sure I'll be very good at tweeting, but that'll be fun to explore.

Anyways!  The point of this first post is to respond to an article: The Positive Impact of eLearning

A very interesting article indeed!  My only concern: will we eliminate the classroom altogether?  I will attempt to explain myself.  If students learn at home overnight using the information given to them via the internet, for example, then they just come to school to problem solve or do projects, they don't really need us as teachers.  I suppose this would make for a different view on teaching, perhaps one I'm maybe even more excited about.  I see a future where specialized folk gather for the good of our youth... or perhaps there's simply a listing of all those willing to help our youth to understand or further expand their understanding of the universe, especially of their passions.  We'd simply be using teachers the way I think they're supposed to be used!  See, now that I've reflected... I'm not so sure this is a concern after all...