Privacy is a controversial issue in the Digital Age. Schools have an obligation to ensure student safety, both physical and virtual. When using the internet or the network, this requires keeping close tabs on students' activity when they are using computers. Do you think this violates students' privacy? Justify your opinion and consider both points of view.
I personally do not feel like monitoring students in this matter is a violation of their privacy. The obligation that schools have to ensure the safety of their students is a huge priority, ESPECIALLY right now, during the Digital Age, or what some call the Information age. As long as the teacher has secured the necessary permissions from the student's parental presence, then that teacher has a right to govern his/her classroom as they see fit. As long as the teacher is operating within the parameters of what was discussed between the two interested parties everything is ok.
Having taught for a year with computers in the classroom at all times, I know full well what students are capable of when there aren't proper measures in place. Because this was new to my school, the students took advantage of it on a large scale, and it wasn't until we put proper management tools in place that we were able to get the students under control. I am in full support of monitoring students' internet usage. School is for school, not playtime. Education can be fun, but it's not to be something taken lightly.
Chapter 12, Question 3:
Of the emerging technology trends presented in the chapter or those you discovered through your research on the Web, which emerging technology or trend do you think will have the most significant impact on education?
I was going to say cloud computing; however this question made me recall a conversation I just recently had with my fraternity brother about the oncoming of augmented reality. Our subject of choice was of course, the subject of choice for everyone at this time: Pokemon. PokemonGo is the first mainstream platform of augmented reality that the US has latched onto on a large scale.
As defined in the text, augmented reality refers to a view of the physical world that has computer generated augmentation to what you see, hear, feel, and smell. The app has the ability to bring these digital creature right into your reality, where you can see and hear them. Eventually that's definitely going to evolve further, and were else would this type of technology be better suited than in education (I'm well aware that our minds probably went towards warfare though *hangs head*). The text shows how Google glass has already been implemented in science classes across the nation. I can already see how this technology could be utilized to bring the highest minds into the classroom, and allow students to interact with these things on a kinesthetic and cognitive level that has never before been achieved. The future looks bright.
Thinglink and Scoop.it
Thinglink could add to the list of hands-on activities and Scoop.it could add to the way I give additional information on a topic to my students. Below you will find a link to the two. Enjoy!