10/25/09 - EdTechTalk Discussion

Well I FINALLY (lol) figured out how to join in these discussions. There was no Classroom 2.0 to join today, so hopefully this week I will, so I joined an EdTechTalk discussion. The main theme for this morning was focused on the internet and children. I believe the theme started as trust, students and the internet, but we all discussed numerous aspects of all three. I gave an example of how my goddaughter looked up porn, because last year in 4th grade (YES, 4th grade), some girl told her to "Google sex tapes and see what happens." So, she came home and went on her mother's computer that was on (they only have blocks on the kids' computers). She googled it and was fairly mortified. Just as I did with my cousin (My goddaughter's mom), we talked about how far is far enough and whether or not we should just allow them to see it all. We all go far to protect kids from the internet and EVERY single time, they still figure out how to see everything anyways!! As for the classroom, we spoke on the importance of proper use. One of the speakers even stated that one parent had told her that her child was to NEVER use the internet! I also heard her discussing that a parent complaining about her song being played in the class was offensive, due to the 'swearing/profanity' in the song. That parent told her the word 'ain't' is in the song and that she classified that as a swear! So, it is like we as teachers get scrutinized no matter what, but how far should we go? There seemed to be a general consensus in the room that SOME sort of blocking needs to be in place through schools and into the classroom. However no matter what we do, unfortunately someone will always seem to be displeased.

We also discussed the issue of trust and children. How much do we trust our students? Is it appropriate to befriend them on social networking sites? We had all generally agreed that befriending them is not okay (especially today), and that some children can be trusted to police themselves, while others simply can not.

Also, I was speaking with another student from our class. That was interesting because I did not expect another student from our class to be there! We had a few people in there from SNHU!! The speakers are two nice, soft-spoken women and I enjoyed how they were pulling some thoughts from the chat room and discussing it verbally. They gave their own life examples from whatever we were discussing as well. I will participate in another discussion there! Very nice, welcoming and informative!!

Next week we will be discussing; 'Why do we educate children?' And that was said to be literally, as why do we literally educate children.