New Tools-New Schools Web 2.0 Chapter 7

This chapter is important because the biggest fear of educators, parents and bloggers deals with the issue of "Safety and Security"! With the changing way information is received nearly everyone uses the web. To protect our young people schools, parents and providers of social networking have to work together to insure the safety and privacy of users of some excellent programs on WEB 2.0.

The reading mentions how quickly things are changing regarding the Web and as the book was written new programs and uses are being created. The nature of the web fascinates our young people and often they are more knowledgeable then teachers or parents.

Monitoring and educating our young to the dangers of predators, porno and false information helps some along with teaching our kids about plagiarism and using words, articles and research that doesn't belong to you is like telling a lie.

One of the great advantages of the Web 2.0 is the ability to have things published and teachers and students be able to edit and add comments on line to help perfect one's writing. Schools that are worried about Security can set up social text programs from their own Servers and only reach within that school community.

An example of using the Web for research in a history class that can easily cause problems would be research on the Renaissance Artists. I had this experience although I had several parent volunteers in our lab one student managed to get photos that were inappropriate for 7th graders. We were suppose to have firewalls and limited access but it still happened. It is mentioned later on in the book that teachers need to be trained to handle the new schools but how can you have the time to do this if it isn't provided?