A Web-Quest Request for "Cyber Smarts"

Once again, I have learned about new technology that I was once unfamiliar with. Web Quest is a very interesting concept that I plan to implement within my classroom once the opportunity arises for me to have my own class. I can understand how the implementation of Web Quest could either go very poorly or extremely well. I think that unless the use of Web Quest is implemented efficiently and with a clear and direct purpose in mind, it could become a waste of precious learning time for students. I like the overall idea of Web Quest and I think that it is important to note that a efficient and effective Web Quest assignment would include a well-timed focus on the use of information and it's function rather than how to find information. As well, I think that an effective Web Quest assignment would encourage students to analyze, integrate, and evaluate information instead of just gathering it.
I think that Web Quests could be incorporated in many ways in the classroom, with both short-term and long-term Web Quests being very effective. Web Quest really allows for a teacher to expand her student’s minds and really explore their true creative potential through offering assignments such as interviews, time capsules, biographies, play writing and so forth. I love the idea that a K. Wilson used for her class in encouraging her students to explore what life was like in the year in which they were born through the Billy Joel song "We Didn't Start the Fire". There are so many different topics that can be explored through the use of Web Quests that the possibilities really are endless.
In response to the need to ensure internet safety in the classroom, I believe that this is a big issue that parents, teachers, and even students alike are facing ion a continual basis with the rising use of the internet in our daily lives. We are exposed to safe as well as unsafe sites for kids quite frequently as we do things as simple as checking our email and unloading our spam, to surfing the web for cool deals. It is imperative that we as teachers and mentors encourage and ensure that our children are practicing safe Internet practice. Although there is no way to entirely filter our children aware from the evils of the world, such things as parental controls and filters help to keep our children safe. It is important that we teach our children about the dangers of the Internet and how imperative it is that they do not give out personal information over the web. Even more so, we should be practicing these traits in front of our children to ensure that they are getting the right message. We need to teach our children the different between fact and opinion, help them to decipher what is real and what isn’t, and recognize cons of the world not just for internet safety use, but as a general skill of life. It is important to teach our children how beneficial the internet can be when used properly, and show them how, like most things, there is both a good and bad side to this “new” form of technology.