blog#8

In chapter 8 there is discussions pertaining towards security, ethics and the emergence of techonology in education. This is a very important subject since it is essential for teachers to have good ethics, be a good example for students and to have good security for his/herself and his/her students. There are many computer crimes and the chapter discusses the possibilities of being affected by some of them. One that can seriously affect the technology in a classroom are computer viruses (boot sector, file, macro, worm, trojan horse, logic bomb, time bombm and michelangelo). Chapter 8 gives effective tips in how to detect, avoid, and remove such viruses from school computers. It is important to have antivirus protection on a computer as well as a rescue disc. Another computer fear are those presented by hackers or unauthorized users. Thus it is critical for preventing this to obtain access controls, particularly user identification and password verification in order to enter into a school controlled computer. Other hacker preventions are possessed objects (an item that must be carried to gain access), firewalls, and proxy server. Another thing to worry about is theft and vandalism. There are methods to lower these chances of occurence as well, including alarm systems, deadbolt locks, and cable locks. The best safety measure for a computer is a backup in case of theft, damage, or destruction. There are also ethics to consider and of which students should be aware. Some of these are copyright laws, privacy laws, internet laws, and child protection laws. Ways to minimize the breaking of such rules is having filtering software, teacher observance, user policy, and websites by the teachers themselves.
The last class I gained useful information pertaining to wikis. These would be beneficial to my educational career by allowing me, as a teacher, to give my students, their parents, and the school access to a web page developed by me. This would be helpful in allowing me to discern which websites are appropriate for specific topics in my class that my students may visit and putting them on the wiki for them to view. This would save the students and myself a lot of unneccessary stress and concern over the appropriateness of a certain website that the student wishes to cite. It would also give the parents and the school administration ease in knowing that I have already screened what is to be viewed by the students. I can ensure that the rest of the public does not view the classroom wiki and can allow access to it for the parents and faculty so that they may view it and give their approval over it.