I read the article after I completed the internet workshop, and as I was looking at the websites and writing down my information, I realized that the workshop did not seem like “work”. It was fun and engaging looking at various websites and searching for my information. Each website was different, which made the search even more interesting. Then as I read the article, it hit home that teachers are able to provide their students with an internet workshop like this not just for pirates but for anything. Students will enjoy researching and looking at different websites. Allowing them to use computers, and blogs allows them to see that we know and understand that the majority of their world is based around technology. The article gives valuable information on how to start you internet workshop and what the teacher needs to be aware of. In addition, it serves as an easy tool that can be used and perhaps modified to suit other subject areas.
Though searching and navigating through the websites may be tedious for the teacher, in the end it will give them a new way to introduce a topic, and to assess the students at the end of the unit, he or she can easily look and evaluate what their students have posted on their blog, instead of grading 20 papers. I enjoyed navigating through the sites and look forward to learning more about pirates and how to incorporate them into my classroom!
