The Blue Nowhere

I was amazed when I read the end of this novel that most of the technology exists that was portrayed in the book. I don't search the web very often and barely knew hackers existed except what I read in the newspaper. I am dismayed that what is potentially such a good thing (the internet) can be used for so much bad. I don't mean to take a cynical view but I think that the very real threat of hacking scares me.

reply to Stacy's blog regarding the Blue Nowhere

The woman who left with the killer trusted him because he had her believing they had met. After reading that book I realized how vulnerable we are and especially our children because they are not as suspicious. I, also, thought how easy it has become to stalk people. Though most people are not killers there are a good amount of people who could become stalkers because of the anonymity of the internet.

EIA-Chapter 6

Fortunately I have not experienced a worm or virus. Of course I have software to protect me somewhat but I believe I'm not on the computer a lot and I do not open e-mail that I don't recognize. I understand people being curious and interested in where they can go in cyberspace. However, I don't understand the malicious idea of a virus or worm that is done intentionally. They should be held responsible for their actions if they can be caught!
I would not be in favor of on-line voting. It discriminates against people who do not own a computer. It could be responsible for all types of fraud as well aswidespread abuse. The internet is at such a young age and we certainly cannot handle the illegal activity that occurs. Until it becomes manageable(will it ever?) online voting should be put on the backburner.

EIA-chapter 5

I grew up on military bases where there was not much privacy. Families lived in close quarters where space was limited. I remember all our neighbors knew one another and knew where the children were and what they were up to. The children were never inside and so a "neighborhood watch" was set up. So most people knew your business. Privacy was not a big issue but sometimes your neighbors could be annoying. Now we do not know many of our neighbors and that can be a bad thing. I know some of my neighbors will check out the sexual offenders list to keep their children from harm. I certainly don't allow my children the freedom that my mother gave us. The neighbors keep too much to themselves to watch what's happening in their neighborhood.
People do not want to know your business yet I believe we have less privacy than ever because of the internet. The Patriot Act has taken liberties with our privacy, also. Our government and those who want to know have access to too much information. Yet Congress has passed a lot of laws regarding privacy. I found the information on wiretapping and bugs quite interesting. I did not realize the history behind wiretapping and how prevalent it was a while ago.
I do not believe we should have a National ID Card. There are too many cons. We've had to work out a lot of bugs with the SSN and it's not perfect. Why have another number?

Filtering Software; The Educators Speak Out

I have always been a proponent of filtering software. I am quite careful of what my own children have access to on the web. I think as a teacher you have to be diligent with children's exposure for families have their own requirements.
I thought the different teachers' experieinces with their use of the different filtering devices was interesting. For teachers that teach older students and want them to be able to have access to a wide variety of web sites for their research I understand the frustration but on the other hand it is so easy to type a word and that word give you access to inappropriate web sites. Children are curious. There are too many students in a classroom to monitor all the time so without blocking devices a teacher could inadvertantly not catch something.
It does sound like different school districts are trying new things so that teachers have more control in their classrooms. I believe more training is necessary so teachers become more technologically savvy.

Is Technology Just for Boys

The article interviews Sherry Turkle who is a co-chair of the American Association of Uninversity Women 15-member Commission on Technology, Gender and Teacher Education. She shares her thoughts on issues arising from the commission's report "Tech Savvy: Educating Girls in the New Computer Age." The reason the commission was sanctioned was because girls were alarmingly underrepesented in computer science and and technology fields. One reason is girls see careers in computing as isolating. The commission suggests introducing computing across the curriculum and developing tecnology fluency-an ability to be a lifelong learner of new and emerging technolgy.
An interesting note was that schools are not teaching teachers to be educational software critics and that tech-savvy teachers are the most critical of educational software. My daughter just took a computer technology course. The teacher has such a diverse group of students in that class that my daughter who easily picked up the subject was bored because the teacher had to focus on the rudimentary elements. My daghter should have had more of a challenge but I did not know what to ask for since I am not technologically savvy.

Author Says Technology BringsFalse Promises to Schools

The article interviews Todd Oppenheimer who wrote "The Flickering Mind; The False Promise of Technology in the Classroom and How Learning Can Be Saved." He maintains that schools have adopted the premise; the more the better, the sooner the better based on technology in the classroom. He believes that technology drains resources from other subjects and prevents students from deveolping critical and creative thinking skills. He thinks computers should be supplemental and shifts thinking from quality to quantity. Technology should focus on how to computers operate and students should use computers to compute.
The author stated that computers should be used primarily for older students which I was totally in agreement with. He, also, noted that computers will be used in poor schools where teachers are undertrained and overwhelmed and wealthy schools will use teachers to teach!