Middle School Science for the Future!

This week I am beginning to write lessons and tutorials for my next year students in Web 2.0. In searching for a beginning point I am thinking about students who may or may not already have a web presence. My next year students will be in 7th or 8th grade, old enough to use the internet for learning, but not yet old enough to be unsupervised on the web. Because of this I have decided to use a Google Apps web page with associated gmail. I will also teach them to use an avatar instead of including their pictures in their profiles. I feel that this is very important for students to protect themselves online and will spend time in class educating them about the dangers that can be found on the web. I will also impose strict guidelines on their gmail accounts which I will be able to check if needed.

What other safety practice do you think are needed for middle school students when interacting on the web?

So sorry about not posting for a while…just in case anyone actually reads this. I have been playing with a new internet application. Google will, for ten dollars a year, allow you to set up your own internet domain with 200 gmail accounts hosted at your domain. You can customize the start page they see, create a group calendar, share/collaborate on Google Docs and Spreadsheets, and even write web pages to link to your start page. Its called Google Apps and while it is only in beta testing (translate to not yet perfect), it has many advantages to paying to host your own web site somewhere else on the web. You don’t even have to know how to write HTML or XML code to do it. You just alter the template they give you. I had lots of fun. You can get a look at my home page ziggysclass.com here. I have also begun writing web pages for next year. Check out my home page for my 7th grade and 8th grade students. I think it will be a great tool for teachers but the education version requires some commitment on the school’s part. I am starting with the Family/Group version as I do not currently know if my students will have much internet access or how much my school will support student internet usage.