Technology & Student Safety

I knew that the internet could potentially be a dangerous place for children, but after our class discussion last Thursday I was surprised to find out that we, as teachers, can be held responsible for internet and technological misuses. Our students will have so much exposure to technology that by the time that they reach high school they should be well aware of technological rights and wrongs. As a future high school teacher I believe that the best way to protect yourself as a teacher is to talk to your students. Remind them of things that they should not be doing at school (and at home for that matter) on their computers. I think that students should be told that if something were to go wrong, that the teacher would be personally responsible for the incident. This way the student should feel more pressure and more of a responsibility to use technology responsibly.

Assessments

Assessments
Assessments are crucial to both students and teachers. Students view assessments as a means of showing their knowledge in the content area for points or a grade. To educators, student assessments are reflections of their teaching. It is a quick way to tell whether or not students are grasping the material and to see if your teaching methods apply to a specific class or a specific student. I think that formative assessments can help educators track their own teaching effectiveness, and in turn will track the abilities of a student. Summative assessments seem important only for grading purposes, but the truth is that if a student is not doing well on formative assessments, something needs to be changed because they will not do well on the summative assessment.

Do students need access to technology in the 21st century. If so why? If not why not?
I think that students do need access to technology in the 21st century. If the purpose of education is to prepare young people for a life after leaving school, then technology needs to be a big part of that education. After leaving school students will need to make decisions on whether to go college or into the working world, both of which ( in today's technology reliant society) require AT LEAST a minimal knowledge of technology. Technology is not something that most people can readily master, and access is key to understanding technology. Without practice or an introduction to technology (both demand access), students seem to be at a severe disadvantage in terms of the amount of resources available to them, a lack of working knowledge of technology which can lead to academic consequences as well as becoming an undesirable future employee.