Post #5

I think it's absolutely unavoidable for students not to use the internet while researching. I personally have rarely used an actual book for research unless 1) the book was the central topic or 2) the teacher forbade the use of internet sources. Students of the future will, sadly, not know what it is to use a real book with real paper pages. Already there are novels, poems, and encyclopedias online; when I am a teacher books will be virtually obsolete, the internet will be our only option.
I feel this is useful because it is much faster and easier to access; it takes a lot more effort to locate a single book among thousands of others in a library than it does to Google the topic. It is most definitely not useful when it becomes a way for students to be distracted and misinformed. Unfortunately, not everything on the internet is trustworthy, this may pose a problem. However, now that I am able to create web resource evaluations I am more confident about avoiding these problems.

As a teacher in a tech-savvy world, there are countless ways to use web-based resources in the classroom. Although I would love to use books as my primary references, let's face it: the internet is easier and faster. I feel that using web-based resources is the most efficient way to create lesson plans, presentations, handouts, and even a teacher website.
Some resources that I would definitely use in my classroom are:
http://www.vocabulary.com/
http://www.poets.org/
http://www.grammarbook.com/

Having stumbled upon pornographic and graphic images myself, I am very concerned about how my students will navigate the internet. I am especially concerned because of the age of my students; I hope to teach middle school level Language Arts (so 11-13 year olds). I know that I would not want my 12 year old looking at boobies and chopped off limbs at any time, especially not at school but, using the internet is unavoidable and the negative websites are as well. Not only could an absolutely innocent and well-intentioned student happen upon something completely inappropriate, problem students could easily access risky websites intentionally.