Sam’s Online Journal

This article by Soloway, Norris, Blumenfield, Fishman, Krajcik and Marx explores the benefits of using the interent in schools. Whilst it rasies some very interesting ideas it only briefly explores some of the negative aspects and I felt these arguements were perhaps insubstantial – empty, particlary about the safety issues the interent poses. There were a lot more arguements against the interent that could have been mentioned, or at the very least it could have covered the few in more depth.

The following points are the issues/ideas that really stood out for me:
This articles briefly mentions the safety aspect of using the internet, but it only mentions accessing inappropriate websites. What about protecting students privacy, keeping them safe from unpleasant individuals. In today’s society accessing a medical site that mentions the word ‘breast’ hardly seems like a number one priority when they can wlak down the street or out into the school yard and hear much much worse.

I do like the idea however of using librarians, or other individuals, to review sites for a school and make recommendations to teachers. This would save allot of the teachers time, prevent any student from wasting time surfing or from accessing any inappropriate websites.

One very good point raised by this article comes from the need to evaluate the necessity of the internet. It should not be used to deliver/complete an activity that can otherwise be completed just as easily using paper and pen because this is a waste of time and effort, not to mention money.