Summarizations

__Access to Internet and Online Tools Discussion Summary__

It sounds to me that many of us are facing the same hurdles to using these internet tools. How unfortunate that there are so many ways we could expose our students to good, useful, and educational technological experiences, but we are denied access due to, possibly, the lack of communication between staff and administration. I realize that some of the issues of access denial can not be avoided. I agree with other class participants that teachers should be entrusted with the capability of knowing whether a website's content would be appropriate for classroom use. I think that the idea of teachers being an intricate part of a technology committee in a school district may be the best way to inform administrator and tech specialists about the needs of using internet tools in classrooms. If we have a chance to share with other committee members the numerous ways in which our students would learn and benefit from using internet tools, there would be definite points in our favor to be granted access to them. It may be to our advantage as teachers to discuss these issues at a School Board meeting or other such forum. We could approach it as an informational presentation about the things we have learned from this class perhaps. The NETS for teachers that were addressed were: 1. Facilitate and Insprire student learning and creativity; 2. Design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments ; 3. Model Digital-Age work and learning; 4. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship & Responsibility; 5. Engage in Professional growth and Leadership

__Librarian Interview__

I really enjoy visiting with our former school librarian. She just retired at the end of the school year. We have been good friends for years, so this interview was easy to do. She is always eager to share useful information with anyone. She told me the types of digital resources available to our district teachers and students are the automated card catalogue and the computerized library circulation system. She also mentioned the Power library, United Streaming, and Access PA which are good resources for databases for any content area. She also mentioned that through the Improving Literacy Through Libraries Grant we are able to use Tanberg, Video Conferencing, and the Smartboard. We can access POWER library through our networked computers anywhere in the building. The Video Conferencing system is mobile so we can use it in any classroom. Also digital cameras were provided by the grant to document students' and teachers' use of the resources provided. Access PA,which was available before the grant, can only be used through the Library's computer as far as I know and I didn't think to ask her about that. She has been teaching a unit to the eighth grade for years about determining the validity of website information. She said: "I do this in conjunction with the works cited formats. We discuss things such as domain endings, presentation of the website. author or source of the site and the credentials. We discuss whether the advertising is minimal or more important than the content. We discuss accuracy of the information and whether it is documented and whether they can contact the website provider to ask questions, plus other ways to tell the quality of the site and then I have them look at a website and using a form, rate it. These criteria forms are given to all the students to use whenever they need to. I also talk about hate sites and other sites that are not meant to be taken seriously, but sound real". This is how she teaches the students to locate and evaluate information. This also covers teaching reliability, accuracy, and appropriateness of information.

NETS addressed: 2a,c,d; 3a-d; 4a,c,d; 5a,b,