Internet Workshop Reflection

Since the Internet Workshop was the first lesson plan I have created, it was especially helpful to get feedback from my group. The feedback I received was truly in light with how I reflected on my workshop after its completion. My group was helpful in pointing out the need for comprehensive assessment tools. I believe I needed to concentrate a bit more on the content of my assessment since at the end of the day, the real purpose of any lesson is to ascertain what your students took away from it. In this same light, I need to remember that although a lesson plan might be modified to differentiate learning, it is still important to assess it in a meaningful way. I think I did not give enough thought as to how my special education students could accomplish this as well. As my own reflection goes, I feel I concentrated too much on the technical/web side of this project at the sacrifice of robust content for my lesson plan. I hope to to take this into consideration on my next attempt.

I would certainly use the Internet Workshop I created in my own classroom some day. I think the interactive nature of the website I selected, as well as the nature of the message, was engaging and meaningful to students. What I really liked about the Internet Workshop model was it hits kids where they live. Jeff Duncan-Andrade talks about bringing the popular culture of our students into the classroom and the opportunities it creates for critical reflection and positive discourse. This is a perfect example of relating content material to the realities of our students' lives. Exploring the Internet together with our students gives us, as educators, real world opportunities to model safe and effective information literacy.

Our group thought that young people are especially vulnerable to the dark side of the Web. The needs of acceptance and conformity work against the discovery of one's own identity, and the result is a "consumer" who is impressionable and eager to take at face value what's being offered. It's really a matter of critical literacy... reading the world instead of just reading the word. We teach our students to ask questions, interpret plot, look for author purpose, and analyze character in the books they read. We must teach information literacy in the same way. We believe that we must guide our students through the vast quantities of information available online and provide them with the skills to identify, analyze and evaluate intent and content on the web. We need to teach to them ask the right questions, think critically, and then make smart decisions. As educators, we need to keep the dialog going about what they're seeing out there and what meaning they are making of it. Hopefully, with our guidance, they will eventually be able to independently and safely navigate the Internet.