Trends:
Interactive White Boards
The use of Interactive White Boards, also known as SmartBoards have been increasing significantly in classrooms over the last couple years and are becoming a new efficient trend for teachers and students. These have replaced (although some still exist) ordinary white boards and offer a lot more features as well as providing more interaction between students, and between students and teachers.
Interactive White Boards are primarily utilized for whole class lessons and discussions rather than being more "student centered". Even though this is a great technological way to teach lessons to a whole class, this can be detrimental to some. As teachers, we still need to make sure every single one of our students is getting the academic help they need, therefore if IWB doesn't cooperate with certain students academic needs, then an alternative route should be available.
This learning tool tends to make students constructivist rather than objectivist, which can be a good thing and a bad thing. It is positive because students are being more interactive with themselves and with their peers. The teacher can provide activities on the IWB for each lesson they are focused on. On the other hand, it could put objectives to standards on the back burner which may cause them not to be met. We have to make sure when using IWB, that students are making both ends meet.
Issues:
ID Theft
Child ID theft is something everyone must be aware of because it is common for people to steal children's social security numbers and have it go unnoticed for years. If a child's identity is stolen and is overlooked, this could cause major issues for the child as they grow older. Some issues could consist of having difficultly approving for student loans, finding a job, or finding a place to live due to someone else's bad credit. This is why in elementary schools (and all other schools), teachers need to crack down and be aware of their students by being cautious of what information they give out about their students.
The Study: 10% of Children Are Identity Theft Victims says, "The primary drivers for such attacks, the report says, include illegal immigration, organized crime, and friends and family attempting to circumvent bad credit ratings."
http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/preview.cgi?LPid=28963
^ This website has a great lesson plan attached for students to do with their peers to learn more about identity theft and how to avoid it. At the beginning of each year, teacher should make ID theft one of her main discussions to her students so they are aware it can happen and they need to be mindful at all times.
