Blog Post 5

I think the Internet is definitely a good source for student information! I'm guilty of having Google Books up on a particular book I'm trying to quote, but forgot the pages, and using ctrl-F to find the page number, and exact quote. I'm still using the source material, but just in a more creative way. I do think that the Internet can provide a whole host of misinformation, but assuming that students have some idea of which websites are credible most hazards can be avoided.

I would use web-based content in addition to books to add additional information to my teaching. For example, if I were to use the same lesson plan as in Blog Post 3, I'd encourage my students to look up information about their assigned President and use that in their Powerpoint presentations. I looked into this lesson plan (because I've also decided I'm going to use it when I am a third grade teacher (: ) and found a few websites that I think would be really useful and fun for a third grader!
http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/subjects/uspresidentsdropdown.htm -- this website had links about each individual President
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Stories/PeoplePlaces/Georgewashingtonicecream -- this website gave fun facts about U.S. Presidents!

I'm a little worried about the Internet in general. I think there is a lot of bad information out there, and most third graders do not know how to discriminate between useful resources. The Internet should be used for facts, but unfortunately there is a lot out there that isn't factual. I hope to teach my students to cross-check information before relying on it as fact-- hopefully that can help avoid getting the wrong information.