Internet Safety for Students (CyberNetiquette)

When it comes to safety on the internet we can't be to careful we need to teach our students the importance of internet safety so that they don't make critical errors in judgment. We hear on the news frequently about predators who have posted false profiles on web sites and chat rooms to reach children and lure them into a dangerous and sometimes deadly situation. The police are doing what they can do by using the same methods the predators use to lure kids in, yet they can only stop and catch a small percentage of these predators. The best method of preventing this is to teach our children proper internet use and safety. Education is a powerful tool.

Over the next few weeks I will take a day to review a internet safety site so that you will have some resources available to teach your students. The first site is called CyberNetiquette which is produced by Disney it can be found at: http://disney.go.com/cybersafety/

CyberNetiquette is a fun website with very attractive flash animations that kids can go though to learn about internet safety. The activities feature familiar characters such as the Three Little Pigs, Mr. Toad, and the ever famous dwarf Grumpy. These sites are good for students 3rd grade up to about 6th grade. They are not effective for lower grades because there is a fair amount of reading involved and it takes a basic knowledge of computing to figure out the navigation. The animations themselves are fun and visually appealing. The content is good but not real in depth. It covers basic rules, which would work good for a first introduction. The downside of the site is the obtrusive advertising. I even got a popup. I understand the need for advertising, but I do not agree on putting a popup for a credit card on a public service site intended for children.

I have used this site with my students and overall they have enjoyed it. Look for another safety site review next week.

ISTE has added edtechreview.net to their listings

We would like to thank ISTE ( The International Society for Technology in Education) for adding us to their listing of Websites beneficial to technology educators. If you have not already visited ISTE yet click on the like above. The quality and vast amount of resources available through their site is truly amazing. Of particular interest to me is the links of grant sources available in their resources section. I'm always looking for ways to keep up to date in my classroom. The links provide information and advise on writing grants, as well as links to actual grant sources. Best of all it's free.

Inspiration 8 is available

The already powerful Inspiration has released it new version 8, and my first impression is WOW. I often wonder how companies that have a very solid product can release new versions that essentially do the same thing, and get people to upgrade. Although the people at Inspiration may disagree with me the jump from version 6 to 7 was not worth the upgrade. There were simply not enough improvements to justify the upgrade price. But this version appears to be worth it. One of my big concerns with previous versions was the limited graphics that came with the program. Now you have access via the internet to over 1 million graphics. The online templates and projects are also a big help. I just got my copy and am just beginning to use it's powerful features. A full review will come in about a week when I get more of an opportunity to use it with my students. Product previews are availible from Inspiration. or get it at Amazon.com

IE 7 Vs. Firefox

A beta version of the new Internet Explorer is out dubbed IE7. The interface is clean and nice looking and it has several enhancements over the previous version released many years ago. I liked the tabbed browsing, which allows users to open multiple pages in the same browser and easily switch through them. The favorites are available from the file menu and by a handy little tab that drops down as a side bar. But many of the most important advances are under the hood. Aside from a slightly noticeable increase in speed it is significantly better when it comes to security.

This tool will be very beneficial for education for a few reasons. Obviously when our darling little students browse the net the improved security reduces the amount of spy ware that is downloaded on to our systems. It’s funny how a kid can be on a computer for 5 minutes and get more spy ware and ad ware that I get on my personal computer in a year. Second the Tabbed browsing is excellent for cyber hunts and other web activities they can quickly switch between web sites while keeping the original instruction page handy. With one click they can view thumbnails of all tabbed pages to easily navigate between pages. IE 7 also integrates an RSS reader, which I use on student computers to link to a few of my favorite news sites. Students can then click on the ling to quickly view the most recent news without having to browse through multiple sites.

Does IE 7 blow FireFox out of the water? Well No FireFox has most of the tools we have discussed in IE 7. In addition to the features mentioned it has book marks on the tool bar that are perfect for putting the most common student used sites. You also have the ability to ad fun skins to make the look a little more appealing. I began using FireFox a little more than a year ago, and have been very happy with the results. I have run into some snags with some websites that require filling out forms, they just don’t work at all. A few web pages appear funny to. But aside from the snags FireFox is a very capable browser that is well worth consideration.

Who Wins? Well recently I have been primarily using IE 7. I love the clean and easy to use interface, and I like many of the new features. I have not abandoned FireFox though. My bank will not work with IE7 because it is in beta testing at this stage. I also use FireFox on all of my student computers, primarily for the favorites tool bar. The best thing about FireFox is that it spurred the browser wars again. When there is competition it spurs innovation, and that can only benefit the users.

If you can wait for the final version of IE7 it is available from Microsoft. Please be aware that installing IE7 overwrites Internet Explorer 6.
You can download FireFox from Mozilla

TeachersMedia.com is now edtechreview.net

Teachersmedia.com was developed to provide a forum for me to share my thoughts about the best technologies available for teachers, educators, and parents. We strive to provide quality reviews of educational products that provide great value to teachers. In order to lessen confusion the teachersmedia.com url will be transferred to Teachers Media Company and my reviews will be hosted here at http://www.edtechreview.net. They are one of the top distributors of educational videos to the school market, and recently changed there name from Teachers Video Company to Teachers Media Company. There site can be found at http:http://www.teachersmediacompany.com/ .
Please click on the following link and bookmark this page http://www.edtechreview.net so you can return often to see our reviews.

Tux Paint "A Great Tool at a Great Price"

Tux Paint is a free program that enables creative youngsters with fun easy to use tools to create amazing works of art. Tux paint is available to download for free, or it can be purchased on a CD-Rom for a very low price. The download is available at http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/tuxpaint/download/

The interface of this application is very appealing for kids. The screen is a fixed size with a palate of basic tools and a few special tools that make drawing and creating fun. You have your basic brush tool that you can easily change the size and color of. It also has a wide array of typical paint application tools. In addition to the basics is has magic tools that allow a child to paint with stars, rainbows, and many other unique things. It also has a set of stamps that have many animals, cars, and other pictures that you can simply stamp into your picture. I recommend that also download the stamp pack which greatly increases the amount of stamps available.

This application is good for schools because it is open source and can be installed on all computers in a lab or school free of charge. The downside to this is that he file management is poor, and becomes problematic when you get many students who have created many pictures. Tux paint will run on Windows, Mac OS X (Currently no Classic is available) and Linux.