Before beginning your exciting online collaborative adventure or whenever you use the Internet, don’t forget to do two very important things: surf safely and think critically. Today’s interactive and enormously fun online activities will help you remember them for a very long time!

1. First review these Group Participation Rules.
2. Assign roles for each member of your group. The oldest student in your group will be the Leader, the next oldest will be the Recorder, and the youngest will be the Keyboard Operator.
3. Understand your roles before linking to Disney’s CyberNetiquette Comix.
   
   •Leader: Encourages and keeps the group working together while viewing CyberNetiquette Comix. Leads the group in identifying specific Internet safety rules.
   •Recorder: Writes down the safety rules identified by the group while viewing the Comix. Give your group 5 points for every rule on the list. You’re not allowed to use the same rule twice.
   •Keyboard Operator and Mouse Controller: The only group member allowed to operate the computer.
   
   
4. Click on over to CyberNetiquette Comix!
5. How many points did your group score? Did your group have the highest number of points?

Think Critically!
What you see isn’t always what you get. You can be fooled by information on the Internet just as easily as you can by some of these optical illusions (Exploratorium’s Online Exhibits). After checking out a few illusions, move on to MUYOM and play Ten TechKnow Questions with a mystery Web site.

Homework for the Teacher
Today’s focus is "Choosing an Online Project." Last week you and your students spent an entire class session browsing example after example of online project ideas from Judi Harris’ site, Virtual Architecture. While students are reviewing Internet safety rules and critical evaluation skills, you will be selecting a project that supports curriculum-related learning goals and that blends well with their interests and abilities. Here are three great resources to help you make that choice in a snap!

Global SchoolNet’s "Harnessing the Power of the Web" delivers more great resources to help you choose a project!

Subscribe to the Hilites mailing list (in Global SchoolNet) to receive advance notice of online projects gleaned from around the world. Notices are dropped right into your email box!

Internet projects are a great way for your students to work cooperatively and collaboratively. Check out these fantastic teaching resources (printable color mini-posters and charts).

Reading Strategy Spotlight
Retelling or synthesizing requires the putting together of ideas in a new way. It pulls together the processes of recalling, ordering and recreating of information into a coherent whole. It invites students to collect an array of facts and connect them to a central theme or idea. Giving students the opportunity to synthesize generates a deeper understanding of what they read.

Student Activity Sheet
Printable pages designed to complement the current week's Reading Strategy Spotlight and to help students organize their thoughts, reflect upon reading material, and look for organizational patterns in online text.

BBs: Weekly Nuggets of "Best Practices" and "Brain Research"
Do you know when not to give up on a student and how it is related to "learned helplessness?" Link to Teachley's!

TechKnow Disaster Preparedness Page
Printable Computer Skills Mini-Posters & activity sheets for those times when the network crashes or equipment is unavailable. You can print a different page each week.

Fifth Grade Computer Skills Test Item Bank
Visit the NC 5th Grade Test Item Bank and print all the questions related to telecommunications objectives 1.3, 3.6, and 3.7. (Videoconferencing will be addressed in TechKnow Park Weeks 31-36.) Contact your local Media and/or Technology Director for the user name and password to access the item bank. Please retain the security of this test to maintain its validity.

NC WiseOwl:
Web Sites of the Month

NC DPI Web Resources

Check your progress to date with information and computer skills!

Trouble Terminator