Week+1

**Week #1 - Web Basic Vocabulary and Grammar of the Internet**

P lease respond to __two__ of the topics listed below. Place your initials after your response. Feel free to change the font style and color of your text. #1 - If you believe that all students should be Web literate, what is the best strategy for your school or district to prepare students with this skill?   **Respond below **:
 * Students in the world today need to be web literate because there are so many things that can be done on the web. Because of how far the web has come it is easier to do many things on the web than by phone or any other way also. The best way for our district to prepare students with this skill is to make one of their required classes be a web literacy class. This class could be a place where they will learn some of the basic tools they need to be comfortable with the web. SP **

I believe all students should be web literate in order to function in the world after high school. Our school district needs to start preparing students with basic internet skills starting in the elementary school. Focusing more on basic internet skills and researching skills could be a start. For the classroom teacher, possibly getting more time in the computer labs to incorporate the internet into some lessons would be a good step in helping the kids become comfortable with computers. JVD

 Have students do web based projects with the curriculum. Incorporate using the internet with Math, Reading, Etc. Do not just do paper/pencil work. DR

**I believe all students should be Web literate and the best strategy is to incorporate learning it into their core subjects starting at the elementary level. There should be an on-going learning process throughout the grades that incorporates a progress learning program at each level. SC** All students should be provided with a thorough course in internet literacy. After graduation, students may not use word processing, but they will more likely surf the net. More of life's processes are done online. It is important to protect our graduates by giving them knowledge to protect themselves online. VC

I believe all students need to be skillfully web literate, especially in our day and age. Web literacy should be thoroughly incorporated into our curriculum, as early as at the elementary level and embedded within all core subject areas. JM Students should be given the opportunity to learn about web resources to improve their writing an literacy skills. This can be done by students competing web quests or other web based projects. This also gives them a way to locate and organize information independently. Classroom teachers should incorporate the internet into the curriculum as much as possible. TB **Students should have the opportunity to work with computers more often. As an elementary teacher, I don't think students are receiving enough Internet literacy. When these students reach the middle school/high school level, they aren't as prepared as they should be. I think an Internet aspect needs to be added to the elementary level computer class. EJ** I think learning any skill in life should be implemented at an early age. The program should provide a level of difficulty that is age appropriate, and focus on keeping a high success rate to keep students interested. Teaching at the elementary level, I found that it is essential for students to develop skills early on and improve on them throughout their years of schooling. Technology is the future of education, so our curriculum should be designed to meet the standards and advance with the times to keep students up to date and fluent in their skills. Our school administration and our curriculum coordinator should research and implement a technology program for the district and apply for grants to keep implementing new machines and up to date data. SZ

School districts should start teaching students how to be web literate at an early age. There is a lot of information on the internet, but students need to know how to find their way around efficiently. Other than teaching at the elementary level, another strategy of preparing our students would be to incorporate it into the research portion of the required research paper at the secondary level. SM <span style="color: #ae1b19; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif;">The best strategy to prepare all students to be web literate is to have a district wide plan that begins to introduce technology to students at early ages to build a level of interest-as well as a comfort level. Then consistently throughout many years, the plan should be flexible to improve along with the exponentially growing possibilities of technology. It would be most cost effective if the software and hardware were passed down (Outdated teacher machines to HS students, HS machines to the MS, and MS machines to the elementary). This may sound harsh, but the most pressing need is for those students entering the real world in the shortest amount of time. es

<span style="font-size: 130%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">#2 - What skills should all teachers have to be Web literate? <span style="font-size: 130%; color: rgb(121,0,255); font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"><span style="font-size: 80%; color: rgb(165,12,6); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">** <span style="color: rgb(53,67,172); font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Respond below: <span style="color: #44175e; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">The skills that all teachers should have to be web literate is the ability to search the internet to find information and resources to suppliment their lessons. I know as a kindergarten teacher the internet is a resource that is used a great deal by my other colleagues and me. Being able to access the proper information on the internet either to answer questions which children ask that you can't answer, or as I said just being able to find information which can suppliment lessons. SP //Teachers need to know basic skills such as searching the web to find resources to use in the classroom. Simply by knowing how to reach information that they are looking for, they can then apply that information to their lessons. JVD// As an elementary teacher - able to search and find additional resources/answers. (terminogy, search engines) DR** <span style="color: rgb(67,17,176);">**I think there should be a progressive Web literacy program used throughout K-12. Each grade level would have additional skills taught and used throughout the year. As for the teachers, all teachers would be required to take and complete the program the students would use in K-12.** **SC** <span style="color: rgb(246,64,247); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Teachers do not need to be experts in computer use but they should have general knowledge of how to incorporate the internet into the classroom. I think that teachers should have to complete a program in the district that builds computer skills into each grade level. This could be done on in service days or Act 80 days. TB


 * <span style="color: rgb(222,129,69); font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Teachers should know what resources are out on the web and how to use them in the most effective manner. This will help teachers to get the most out of their students. The best thing about Internet is the vast amount of information. You could personalize a plan for each individual student's needs. EJ **

All teachers should have the skills to be able to efficiently research for information and then be able to filter that information. Teachers should also have the skills to incorporate the internet into their teaching. SM <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(10,7,171); font-family: Georgia, serif;">To be web literate, a teacher should have a strong set of rules for researching with the students. Teachers do need a fair grasp on the current web trends and technology to keep us ahead of the students. Information is constantly changing and evolving on the internet. Inaccurate and bias information is prevalent with the growing number of websites and it is becoming increasingly harder to stay current as educators. I do believe that it is a good idea to have a district wide computer/ Web literacy program. I also agree Act 80 days would be optimal for these programs. S.M.

<span style="font-size: 130%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">#3 - What role should school filtering play in your school district? Who should make this decision? <span style="font-size: 130%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="color: rgb(37,6,165);">**Respond below** : <span style="font-size: 80%; color: rgb(65,119,55);"><span style="color: rgb(80,126,68);">  <span style="font-size: 80%; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Filtering should occur from a central position. It should be uniform for all students. The content to be filtered should be decided upon in a committee of administrators and faculty. Flexibility needs to be addressed for teachers mining for content to include in instruction. VC <span style="color: rgb(0,0,0);"><span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(145,61,158);">School filtering should be based off of grade level and parent permission. It would be great, until the first time the 9th grade Jimbo was showed something that was deemed inappropriate to his level and filtering profile by 12th grade Bob. This would then result in administration involvement and student internet policy contracts. That will never happen. S.M.      <span style="color: rgb(0,0,0);"><span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(145,61,158);">

<span style="font-size: 130%; color: rgb(242,54,54); font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">School filtering should play a crucial role in preparing students to be web literate. Deciding upon school filtered content should be the task of administration as well as educators. School filtering should be based upon grade levels and involve a strict contract between parents, students, educators and administartion. JM School filtering should be decided by administration and be notified to the parents as to how and why students will be monitored on their computers. The filtering process should be the same across the board for all students. I like the idea of having a contract that holds students and parents responsible for any inappropriate use of the computers. The technology in shcool is used for learning and to help kids advance their skills. Students who do not follow policies should not be allowed to use the technology that the school is providing. This is not their right, it is a privlage to be able to use computers in school. SZ <span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(242,54,54); font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> **There is an academic, as well as a moral obligation, for school filtering of internet material. I believe a council of cross-curricular professionals should decide appropriate content for the students-without limiting the education of the student. A few members from the school board, administration, and teachers from each level of schooling (elementary, middle and high school) should make the necessary decisions. These decisions should be based on age/grade level, maturity and having an educational purpose. A contract should be made, websites could be blocked & unblocked based on need, and the public should be informed as needed. es**