Random+Thoughts

=...on the Internet's potential for use in education.=

1. The internet has already grown to show the big potential it can offer in terms of education. Instead of having to go to school, I can take my full course load through online web tools from my home. They have developed it to where we can leave audible comments for one another, along with collaborating collectively on documents in teams. Eventually we will find ways to be able to do group video chats so we are all able to see each other and not just see what one another is writing. 2. The internet is going to eventually come to where teacher's, if sick or something, can deliver their class over a projector where there students will sit and watch their teacher. Obviously students will not be paying as much attention this way, but if done correctly it could be effective. As well as making it possible for students in med school to do more with learning online (since right now much of it is needed to be in a classroom setting). 3. The internet's portential for use in education is at a high level. The internet makes education as convient as it's ever been as people are now able if they chose to get a degree fully online. The internet also allows students to communicate and cordinate projects like the ones in class completely online allowing students to navigate through a busy schedule.-Jonathan 4. Internet's use in education can be positive. The positive sides including communicating better between teachers and students (ex. email, moodle), expanding knowledge through easy-access articles online (ex. research), and providing convenient tools for teachers to keep track of students' performances (ex. onliine quizzes, assignemtns). -Yameng 5. Internet's use in education can also be negative. The increasing reliance on Internet research is a growing concern for the society. According to the article, "The Importance of Critical Thinking For Student Use of the Internet", it addressed the issue of students use "summaries of summaries" to write their research paper and students are not using the Internet carefully enough. Eventually students will not develop critical thinking skills through writing research paper if they simply use conclusions from others' paper. -Yameng 6. It is also possible that Internet learning could be difficult in some situations. I know in the past, I have had teachers who tried to use Wikispaces but experienced some technical difficulties. This caused some people's grades to suffer in the confusion. In other cases, the teachers do not fully understand how to use the technology or the website. This lead to many delays in our class, and as a result, our class was behind schedule, and we learned less. I am wondering if classes are needed to show these teachers how to use the websites. This way there can be less focus on the technical difficulties and more focus on the learning. -Erica 7. The internet and education almost go hand in hand with each other. Being able to listen to lectures online has become a great tool if your sick that day and missed class or if you're reviewing material for a test. By having course materials posted online to a course website (like Moodle) it makes things easier incase you lost or forgot a course handout. The internet also makes it possible for busy parents and older adults to take classes and get an education online. The internet is also a great place to get help when your too scared to ask for it in class. If you don't know how to do a math problem you can look up youtube videos that show you exactly how to solve every math problem and equation possible. -Katie G 8. Whether it is to communicate via email, or do researches on a project, the Internet no doubt has made education better in our lives. The Internet's potential use in education has now evolved to online classes, online library, online digital content and etc., making education much more convenient and a lot more easier to access for those that works or lives in rural areas. 9. One wonderful thing is the number of resources that are available on the Internet through which you can learn, even if you are not seeking to learn for a particular class. Sites such as TED: Talks. Along those same lines, student forums exist that connect students across the world that have a common goal, for example medical school on the Student Doctor Network. On these sites you can discuss helpful study hints for the MCAT or GRE, or interview techniques to help you get accepted. 10. It is arguable that the Internet's potential use in education has more positives than negatives if used moderately. But it seems like it's mission impossible to use the Internet just "moderately" as it has become an essential tool in students' academic life for almsot everything. And as digital content and e-book becomes more widely available, laptops will soon own all the prints/textbooks in the bookstore. 11. The future and current generations are very lucky to have the internet at our fingertips allowing it to go hand in hand in education. It has made it possible for some people to attend higher education where they couldn't otherwise. It also allows students to have accessible information with the touch of a mouse, whereas it used to only be accessible in the libraries. 12. Teachers are able to use course websites to put their lessons, assignments, and grades online. This allows students more freedom to do assignments and readings ahead of schedule and to also have no excuse to not know how they are doing in the class. If the student misses the class it is also easier to know what they missed, make up the work, and possibly watch the lecture or lesson for that day. 13. The Internet clearly has great potential for education today, and I can't imagine the possibilities in the future. I believe that my education is completely intertwined with the Internet. Every college class I've been in, at some point, requires using the Internet. Whether its for participating in an online discussion, completely homework, doing research for a paper, or taking an exam online. I think the Internet makes education easier for everyone, including professors, students, and parents. --Caitlin 14. For those of you who have been on Facebook or Twitter in the past few days, I think the PERFECT example of the Internets potential for education has been presented: KONY2012. A youtube video has be posted all over my newsfeed in the past 2 days about the leader of the Rebel army in Africa. This video is simply amazing. The guy that created it is trying to educate people around the world about who Kony is and how we can stop him. He is using the Internet to stop a war. This is probably the best way someone could utilize the Internet to educate people and to also save lives. Last night when I watched the video there were about 116,000 shares. Right now there are 4,285,557 shares. That is incredible! Please watch the half hour video of [|KONY2012] --Caitlin media type="custom" key="12903378"I thought I would put the video in here for you all to easily access, it is incredible. - Kelsey 15. The Internet can be a very helpful tool to students learning another language. First, videos on the Internet could be a great helping tool in helping students with pronunciation or videos helping students learn about the culture of the countries the language is spoken in. Secondly, I think the opportunity to video chat with students across the world who speak the language you are learning and they could possibly even be learning English. There is no better tool in learning a language than actually being forced to speak it, I think this is an amazing opportunity students have now that our parents did not have. -Ashley 16. I think one very negative aspect of education on the Internet is the ability of anyone being able to add anything they want onto spaces like this and even Wikipedia. Students, including myself, are over dependent on sites like Wikipedia, I believe, and most will believe anything that is posted on a well-known website like Wikipedia, which could cause very serious problems is there is bogus information on that site. -Ashley 17. A negative effect that scares me about the Internet that we have already covered in this class is younger students and the threat of child predators. Younger students, who may not know how to browse the web as well as a high school or college aged student, are at a greater risk to possibly enter chatrooms or some sort of blog they think will educate them about what they are looking to learn about, but in reality is just a trap set up by adults. 18. One negative effect that comes to mind when thinking about technology as a whole is our generation losing basic social skills or face to face interaction. I think the Internet is an amazing thing and I do not know what I would do without it, reading the posts about people not knowing how to use a library and find books and such really made me think about what it was like when my parents were in college. Since they had to go find hard copies of everything they were forced to go out and seek more information, paging through a book, not having the website take you right to the sentence you are interested in. While we still have group projects in school today, we do not have as much face to face contact. In my group for the paper that is due today, we never had to meet in person once, this concerns me with all the social skills we are missing out that the generation above us, that will hire us, had and we are missing out on. -Ashley **26. The internet is a growing crazy now days, just looking back on to even a few years ago, we didn't know or have the connections of facebook, skype and etc. Let alone now we can take online classes, and get our diploma online. Its crazy to me to think that you can actually sit at home in your bed all day and still get a diploma in high school and get your degree all by online education. *Kayla Hirt** **27. I would say that our generation is very lucky to have the technology we do now days. I know relating to my personal life, I am very thankful for online classes just for the fact that I'm gone all the time with basketball. Its easy to stay on top of my work this way and learn when I have the free time to understand what I'm learning. Kayla Hirt*** **28. A great reason for us to use the internet for education is that fact of research, you can learn so much by googling and yahooing information on certain topics. This has helped expand my information on certain topics we discuss in school. The internet is a great way to help make understanding of different topics and is also a great way to get opinions of all people as well. :) Kayla Hirt***
 * 19. The internet's use in education has grown greatly over the years. Students now don't have to leave their homes to go to school. One of my teammates took online classes all throughout high school, which allowed her to move through school at her own pace whether it be slower, faster, or normal. **
 * 20. Also, the internet has allowed for students to connect with teachers, professors, and other students without having to leave the comfort of their rooms through the use of Skype (video chat). I had my paper revision meeting over Skype with my literature professor first semester, which turned out to work perfectly. It allowed us to meet at a time that fit both out schedules, which ended up being at night when she was not in her office but at home and when I was not busy with class or practice. Skype also made my paper revision a lot easier because trying to ask and answer questions over email can get pretty difficult so interacting face to face really helped me understand my paper a whole lot better. **
 * 21. Skype and other video-chat tools like it present a huge potential for expanding the horizons of students at all grade levels. For example a classroom of American primary school kids having group discussions with children from a different part of the world that they are studying seems like an amazing way to 'make real' people that previous generations had to learn about from textbooks and pictures. **
 * 22. Considering how the internet has changed the way developed countries communicate and learn, it will most likely change the way the entire world operates once it becomes available to citizens in developing nations. Right now we have a wealth of information from individuals who live in developed countries, but in the future when everyone in the world has access to add information and use it online, the very fundamentals of learning and education might change. -Katie B. **
 * 23. Because the internet is such a valuable learning tool, will it overshadow the importance of socialization as a part of education? Today there are so many benefits of learning online, but as students who learn online get younger and younger it may become a challenge to learn secondary social skills many children pick up learning from a traditional setting- Katie B.**
 * 24. One of the Internet's greatest contributions to education is the availability of a large amount of information from many different scholars and individuals all over the world. As a society, or information is no longer limited to what information or opinions we have access to locally or nationally, and I believe this is how the internet will shape the future of all education and learning in general. -Katie B.**
 * 25. More and more universities and professors are considering the option of posting learning materials online for free, which is a huge advantage to those with a thirst for knowledge whom are unable to pay for a formal education setting. I was, a few months ago, browsing Reddit.com when I stumbled across this thread, which compiles an amazing list of free online learning resources. [|http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/cktxy/reddit_lets_compile_a_list_of_the_best_online/]**