When searching for educational sites on the internet, I was amazed at the amount of material that popped when I simply typed in "educational websites" on Google. The problem with this is that one has to check on the items that pop up in order to make sure that they are legitimate educational sites. When I first started using the internet as a source, my instructors told me the only sites you could rely on at the time were the ones that ended with either .net, .gov or .edu. Yet as time progressed the internet grew exponentially, so it was inevitable that websites ending in .com could become reliable sources. This can be a challenge for a teacher, because they don't want to use material that is incorrect. Textbooks are known for having inaccurate and inconsistent information, so it's a certainty that the internet will have information that is erroneous. Therefore it's easy to find educational sites, but it can be difficult to find ones that are reliable. For example, Wikipedia.com is a great website to find sources, but it is not to be used as a source itself. I did find some websites that claimed to be educational only to end up being a retail site for educational products. When I was researching products to assist children with special needs, I found more websites to sell the products as opposed to ones that offered any serious information on the items. I believe the Web 2.0 sites are great, because before these websites were created, Microsoft pretty much had a monopoly over word processing and presentational programs through Microsoft Office. The disadvantage to their programs is the cost, it's outrageous. So the Web 2.0 sites such as Prezi, Piazza, and Googledocs are great for people who don't have the money to purchase the software. There is one catch to those websites though, one does need to have a reliable internet connection, because if the web goes down, then they can't access those websites. The sites I picked weren't listed on anyone else's Delicious page, probably because I was looking for educational websites that were relevant to my topic of study, social studies. So the CNN Student News page is important for this subject, because it deals with current events. What I liked about the websites I picked is that they encompass everything, I know Youtube may not be the best one, but it's great for finding tutorials and documentaries on certain topics. There are many different history and science documentaries listed on that website, that's why it's a valuable tool. Also when it comes to finding primary sources the internet is invaluable, because there are many websites that contain public documents for people to freely view. These can be notes from a government meeting or a Civil War soldier's letter to his mother. I would never entirely rely on the internet to be the educational focus of my classroom, but it will definately be an invaluable tool. It can help students become more engaged in the current topic, especially in a student centred classroom.
Bibliography:
Mitra, Sugata "The internet can harm, but can also be a child's best tool for learning." The Observer Saturday November 2, 2013. retrieved from: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/03/child-safety-internet-web-access
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