Week+5+-+February+8th+-+14th,+2010

=Class Experiences - February 8th-15th, 2010=


 * My Thoughts on "Challenging Cyberbullying" and the Cyberbullying class discussion**
 * The article hit on several points that I liked, including the power (or cowardice?) of anonymity, and this form of bullying making the victim feel unsafe anywhere, even at home.
 * The Internet is a very uncensored medium, and it is our job as teachers (partly anyway) to impart good Internet manners onto the generation that will use it most.
 * Cyberbullying should obviously include punishment if its effect is serious enough, but I prefer making it a teachable moment. There should be cyberbullying components in our curriculum, because Internet use will only increase.


 * My Thoughts on Marc Prensky's "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants"**
 * I really liked this article. It finally loaded for me, by the way.
 * Marc Prensky has a good idea going: make games out of pedagogical material. To be honest, I've had similar ideas, and I love digital learning software. I even have a few examples:




 * Imagine coming into your classroom as the Japanese teacher and handing everyone a Nintendo DS and the above game cartridge instead of a textbook. Wouldn't that be cool? A bit expensive, maybe, but there's other language coaches too.


 * Hey, it's not that far-fetched after all...**

Nintendo Aims to Get Consoles in Schools


 * Digital Assessment and Evaluation Tools**
 * Assessment on different media changes little. In fact, I would be able to mark a bunch of Microsoft Word documents faster than paper-and-pencil marking. It might be an artifact of my use of keyboarding over handwriting.
 * For digital assessments with many media (in a class with a Choice Board, for instance), I would simply create one rubric for all. There might be small differences, one row, to address the different media, but all other assignment requirements would focus on assignment expectations and whether or not the student fulfilled them.


 * Smartboards and other Classroom Technology**
 * Smartboard seems like a terrible idea. It's an expensive, clunky piece of material that will take a decade to implement ubiquitously, and then it will be obsolete. See, projectors have their uses because we can plug them into laptops. Laptops evolve quickly and that can be realized in the class more quickly.
 * Using a Nintendo Wii or having a Nintendo DS or five on hand might be more useful. Of course, Microsoft and Sony might get angry at that and try to compete. A Wii and five DS's in each class would probably be cheaper than one Smartboard, too.
 * And on Fridays before breaks, we could bring in games and have some fun. Does the Smartboard have fun games? I doubt it!

include component="comments" page="Week 5 - February 8th - 14th, 2010" limit="5"
 * Did I say anything this week that you found comment-worthy? I doubt it, but discuss anyway!**