Trends and Issues
TRENDS- Interactive Whiteboard
Interactive Whiteboards seem like a really great tool for educators. The articles provided discuss that there are a lot of teachers that are using them incorrectly, or not using them at all. Using an interactive whiteboard can be either a crutch for or a good tool. While not everyone agrees that a smartboard is important for good teaching, I think in some cases the board can be very helpful for students to stay engaged and interact.
I don't think that for my future social studies classroom that they will be very helpful to the learning. I think that a whiteboard such as this might be more beneficial in an elementary or higher level math and science classroom. I think if I had a whiteboard in my classroom that was interactive, I would do reserach in order to use it to the most of its ability. I would want it to be a tool in the classroom and not be misused or unused.
ISSUES- Idenity Theft
Idenity Theft is the idea that someone has stolen your idenity such as a social security number in order to make financial gains. This could be used to purchase a house, car, or used for a credit card. This makes it so that the person stolen is reliable for whatever damages done. In some of the articles for this issue it was discussing that attackers are stealing kids ID's as they have not yet needed their social security numbers and parents do not regularaly check thier kids idenities. According to the article, the 10% of kids are victims of idenity theft.
In my future classroom I will make students and parents aware of idenity theft by providing them with the knowledge of this crime. Knowledge is power and teens and parents should be aware. This article does a really good job of adressign the issue and making people aware of the issues and prevention.
http://www.ncpc.org/programs/teens-crime-and-the-community/publications-1/preventing-theft/adult_teen%20id%20theft.pdf
This article is not too long, and would not lose parents attention. It also provides quick definition and prevention methods as well as further information.
The article you picked works so well for young adults and parents. It's great to see that there are plenty of resources out there for everyone to access to gather information about protecting their identity.
ReplyDeleteI found an article about how the new smart watches and fitbits are a threat to leaking your pin information. The electronic devices record your movements so if someone were to wirelessly hack into your device they could run a configuration through your movements and figure out your pin number. They showed through an experiment that the people hacking got the pin right the first time 80% of the time.
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2897847
That is so interesting and scary. I have a fitbit, and that worries me. It is so scary that we live in a world where movements like that can be tracked.
DeleteJanet, thank you for passing on this information! I had no idea about the fitbit movement tracking. Even thought that is pretty concerning, it is also a very cool experiment to share with students--so thank you!
DeleteReplace fitbit with Pokemon Go, and you can see how we're willingly giving away information.
Delete"If the product is free, then YOU are the product." (that is, someone is making money by selling your data to those who want to learn about your habits.)
The interactive white boards are cool in theory. I have seen plenty that are hooked up in the classroom but I have NEVER seen any teachers use them the way that technology allows. Typically they just use them as a projector screen that can be written on with an erasable marker. One time I saw a teacher use the draw function with the actual wireless pen but she said it would malfunction so much that she stopped trying with it.
ReplyDeleteI agree that I want to use it in my classroom properly. I want to be sure to explore all of the different functions and have my students do so as well.
I was in a high school biology classroom last semester during my teacher assisting, and I think the interactive white board we had was overall beneficial to the learning in the room. The teacher I was working with taught four sections of ninth grade biology, and he often used the interactive white board to brainstorm or take notes with each class. To keep organized with what spot each section was at, he would save the screen with notes on it in separate folders for each section. I found that it was very useful. I used it in one specific lesson to record everything students knew or thought they knew heading into a lesson on sexual vs. asexual reproduction. After reading an article and doing a web-explore we pulled up the initial list they had generated and crossed items out or modified and added things they had learned through instruction.
ReplyDeleteI also really liked the feature that allowed you to slowly draw down a 'cover' for the screen to reveal more and more of the projector as you lectured. This was helpful for when the teacher had written an answer key on the homework assignment. Rather than reveal the whole screen and lose students' attention as they began to check their whole paper, he could go one item at a time.
I am not 100% sure about the cost to benefit ratio of interactive white boards, but I definitely think they can have beneficial functions in the classroom!
Erin, thank you for your insight! It is nice to know that in your case they were beneficial to the student's learning. I really like the idea of saving the information for students to reference later on, I think that is an excellent use of the board.
DeleteMy question here is "how do you know they were beneficial" vs. similar techniques without an IWB? Did the CT have evidence of improved learning? Or, was time saved with the IWB put toward additional learning opportunities?
DeleteThis is a key question we must ask ourselves regarding technology. Just like every CC standard that says, "Support your claim with evidence," unless we have something (other than our 'feeling'), we should refrain from saying that it helps.
I would say I know about as much as the average person on this topic but I had never really considered it an issue for youth as they aren’t really using credit cards online yet. I figured, yeah it’s a good thing to teach a person at a young age so these good habits become engrained in them, however to read that 10% of kids are victims of identity theft was shocking to me.
ReplyDeleteI did a quick google search and found this article (http://www.nbc-2.com/story/32681293/scammers-targeting-kids-for-identity-theft) from Lee County, Florida where authorities have already received 639 fraud calls about potential identity theft of children. It states that back to school time is a common time to target parents of children as they can easily call as a school or a fall sports team and in the conversation ask for the child’s social security number. The article also echoes your statement that it can be devastating for a child because often times they do not even find out for years later when they become an adult and apply for college, credit cards, etc.
My guess is that this is an understated problem as many do not even know that they are victims yet. Its also a two-fold issue as students need to be taught to never give out this information but parents need to be better at this as well.
Woah! I had never even thought of the potential for children to have their identity stolen! That is very scary! My question is how we are supposed to educate children and parents (if it even is a teacher's responsibility, which I'm not too sure of yet) without just freaking them out and making them feel helpless.
DeleteI agree, I think these things are worth knowing as parents, and even schools especially in the instances like Kevin mentioned when they are calling the schools. I think schools should be informed so that they can protect their students, but I agree with Erin, I am not sure that this is all up to teachers to educate parents.
DeleteWell, if we assume that most parents in our classroom read the information we as teachers send home to them, I think we could have a good venue for communicating this information about identity theft. We were all very surprised to hear the statistics about how commonly children are targeted. I wonder if a newsletter or email home from a teacher would catch parents attention enough to inform them and encourage them to look into their child's credit information.
DeleteMy friends had their ID stolen, and the fraud protection needed to be extended to their children, because often adult data has links to their child's data, too.
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