google video chat

I just finished talking to an obliging fellow night owl friend in Washington using Google video chat.  Very few of my gmail contacts have video capability and he is one of them.  It took a few tries to get connected, but as it turned out, all the kinks were on his end - kept crashing his browser.  It's good to have another technology thing-y I can do.  Thanks, Steve!  I don't know how often I'll actually use this function, or how often I would use it in the classroom, especially since chat is often disabled when I'm in the classroom, but options are good things.  Next time I'll remember to put my computer on a level surface instead of on my lap so as not to make anyone seasick. (sorry about that ;))

Internet Safety-part 2

The second part of my assignment was to take what I've learned and teach it to someone.  Since I already have a captive audience at work, I chose to talk about it during Social Skills.  We discussed what information to share and under what circumstances it would be okay.  I was surprised at how savvy my students already were.  In their current situation, they are in a restricted environment and aren't allowed to share any information online - they can't even use their email.  But their time here is limited and I was pleased to see how much they understood.  What I said in the last post still applies though - just because a person knows what to do doesn't mean that they will.  I think the teaching session was pretty fruitful, and I hope that my students will make good use about what they have learned.

Internet Safety - part 1

For my reading assignment on internet safety, I chose the ensign article by Mario Hipol in 2005.  I really didn't get anything new out of it, but I think that's because I'm already fairly aware of what is necessary in internet safety.  Since I work in a self-contained classroom, I've had the opportunity to teach internet safety as a part of TLC (aka 'the new home-ec), so I've looked into this stuff before.  I searched for a few videos.  I thought this one from TeacherTube was cute, because it was produced by 7th graders.  I liked the ongaurdonline.gov site, which has several videos that are very entertaining as well as convincing.  The best source I found was www.netsmartz.org.  I've used it in the past, but it has been updated and is vastly better than it used to be.  There are several videos there now on internet safety.  I enjoyed the one called "Tracking Teresa."  (Scroll down the page until you find it.) The video tracks simulated research on "Teresa," chosen at random.  Initially it appears that she has been wise about what she posts online, but within 20 minutes real time (less time in the video, which is only 5 minutes long) a tremendous and scary amount of information is found about her, including her name, age, phone, address, and family members.  I actually found this video to be the most useful to me personally - I realized that as guarded as I tend to be, there is still a lot of information about myself out there, including information posted by others.  I also found several other sites that looked promising but whose videos would not load - alas.  There are so many resources available to teach internet safety.  I think most people know what is or isn't safe, in theory.  In practice, however, there seems to be a gap.  I saw a facebook post the other night that a friend left about a party.  She included not only her own contact information, but that of her friend as well.  We need to be careful not only with our own data, but we need to be considerate of others too.

My New Wiki!

Well, this exciting for at least one person - I have a wiki!  You can find it at https://grahamclass.wikispaces.comhttps://grahamclass.wikispaces.com
It's basically a class website and has some of my class' assignments on it.  While I created it for a IPT project, I'm excited to get to experiment with it in the real world and to decide what works best for me.  The calendar is essentially acting as my planbook for English.  I'm grateful that I was required to plan 2 months of assignments as it definitely is causing me to be more organized.  I can only plan so far ahead though, because our class makeup changes so frequently.  By mid-November, I could have several new students of who-knows-what academic level!  But it's good to have a plan, however tentative.  This assignment was extra challenging because I've been having troubles connecting to the internet through my airport when away from work, and when I'm at work some of the sites I would otherwise use are blocked (e.g., Picnik.)  The current theory is that my airport card may be going out.  The computer may have to go in to the D.O. for a while.  I'm actually glad I had to use only what was available at work though - I'm sure whatever district I end up in as a certified teacher will have similar limitations, and it's good to know that I can work around things.  Please check the wiki out and then comment here and let me know what you think.  I'm definitely open to suggestions!