THING #24 -  Sum it Up

The 23 Things exercise was a lot of work. Due to the number of broken links, sites that have been changed since this exercise was created, and the requirement to join every site we explored, it was a lot more work than was needed. There are things in the Web 2.0 arsenal that have value for teachers, but there are also a lot that are either blocked, prohibited, or just unwise. Social media, for example, has gotten a number of teachers in trouble because they have not found a way to keep their personal lives separate from their professional activities. Many web sites that potentially have value, such as YouTube, are blocked from use in schools. It is possible to copy videos from the site and use them separately from the YouTube site, but that kind of defeats the purpose of the site.
As a technology teacher, I am torn between the need to inform students of those sites that could have value to them and the desire to protect them from those that could harm them. I try to teach how to distinguish between good and bad websites, but once students are at home, free from the parental controls that I put on school computers, there is little I can do to prevent them from browsing wherever they want. The fact that they haven't learned to chose between good and bad is pointed out by the questions I get in class, "Mr. Hirtle, what do you think about XXXXX website." Sometimes I am amazed at the things they are able to find.
Back to the course: I think the 23 Things exercise is badly in need of updating. I realize that there is no full-time faculty member currently teaching the course, but the entire course, whether at the undergraduate or graduate level, is in need of updating. I enjoyed the course, and learned a few useful things, but the course could be made much more useful by creating emphasis on the things that are actually needed by teachers.