Journal Entry 2: ITSE article 1

Social Networking for the K-12 Set
By: Jim Klein

This article details the resources created by the SUSD Teacher and Student Community sites. These sites provide tools and resources to help students and teachers better communicate, collaborate, learn, share, and grow with the community at large. The goals of the sites are to be approachable, easy to use, efficient and technology rich. They will create tech driven workgroups; opportunities to discuss social, ethical, and legal issues; and create effective leaning environments. The sites are closed and closely monitored by employee- and teacher-defined access controls. The sites offer employee and student profiles with sophisticated access controls, blogging tools, secure file storage and sharing, podcasting abilities as well as flash-based players. This technology allows for a massive amount of information to be accessed and shared. It has potential to not only provide current and cutting edge resources but allows for broader communication and closer ties to the community.

Why are technology resources so important for education?
Technology is the future of our global society. It is what makes us a truely global society. If are students are going to remain competative on a global level it is imperative they be familiar with technology advancements in our society. In many ways our nation is on the forefront of technology but is also in many ways lacking. Other nations provide much more access to technology for their youth than we do. I have experienced first hand how other societies are implimenting compulsary technology and educating their children.

What are some potential drawbacks to using technology in education?Some drawbacks to technology are the vulnerability of the online community. It becomes a major issue whether or not children are at risk of being exposed to something lewd or inappropriate when using technology. I think this is a major issue not only with education but also in the home.