Students in a social studies setting could use the internet to go on virtual tours or virtual field trips to give them a more hands on, creative approach to the lesson. It also can help put things in perspective. Science classes can do virtual labs online if actual labs aren't plausible (for cost purposes, or if they're simply too dangerous).
If I were teaching high school I'd be very afraid of students abusing technology in the classroom, messing around on the internet when they aren't supposed to, not paying attention to the lesson because they are too tempted by games or facebook. Also, in my high school there was a big legal issue because a student put offensive/blatantly incorrect information on a wikipedia page using a school computer and it was a nightmare for the teacher. I'll always be worried about something like that.
You have a good point about students knowing how to avoid the dangers of trusting everything they read online. Even with the number of good sources available on the Internet, a similar number of poor quality ones exist as well.
ReplyDeleteI have similar fears as you, Katie. I'd be afraid that my students would also abuse their internet privledges. When I was in elementary school, we would all play games on the computers while we worked. It's something that I am well aware of from experience, and will be sure to monitor if I am the teacher.
ReplyDeleteReally good point about young students stumbling upon sites that are inappropriate. Also, I think that science labs on a computer would be really fun for students and I think that they would greatly benefit! Nice job :)
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