Responsible and appropriate internet use by students

WOW... this is a good question... It is very difficult to do, a never ending struggle... the best I think you can do within the school setting is to inform/educate students on the law and their responsibility and consistently monitor that this is being done. Beyond that, we are not God and aren't able to see all and know all. One bit of advice, offer a lesson beforehand to inform students of their responsibilities, what is/is not allowed, and make them sign off that you did in fact inform them of this... this should help with teacher liability...

Reflecting on learning...

How can I use the internet to support my teaching and student learning??? When working with at-risk students, often times (not always) this involves lower income home settings in which students may not have ready access to the internet. This makes it challenging to assign out of school internet assignments unless you offer a non internet/computer related option.

I believe most everyone is in agreement that the internet definitely enhances both teaching and student learning in numerous ways- peaks interest level, differentiated instruction, bringing in outside sources that normally wouldn't be available, or reasonably accessible, etc. The problem then is time consumption and guaranteeing (?sp?) the integrity and appropriateness of the assignment.

Beyond that, there are endless possibilities to utilize the internet... online surveys, chats, discussion boards, internet scavenger hunts, PPT presentations utilizing internet sourcess, research projects, online video viewing, etc.

Sometimes what we learn in college doesn't match the students we are blessed with... sometimes we are forced to step out of our comfort zones to meet the needs of our students, which is what we want to do right? This becomes a lot easier when we use projects in the classroom to enhance student learning. This approach makes the students feel as if they are part of the learning and meets their needs. For example, students that I teach (which happen to be inner city, all behavior problems, and all have been kicked out of school or just got out of jail) could care less about hurricane patterns and even less about how they work. However, it is required that we teach them about this topic. I use basketball to teach hurricane patterns- when you backspin a basketball it is similar to the pattern of a hurricane