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Sometime during my time in
EDUC632, maybe even the first day, I became overwhelmed with the amount
of ways that the internet could be used as a classroom supplement.
I've been at Middletown High School for five years now, and I have two
computers in my classroom and access to a lab in the library. Other
than for simple research, and email, I can't honestly say that I've utilized
the Internet for much more in relation to teaching my curriculum.
After completing this two week course, I came away, almost literally, flooded
with ideas on how to integrate the Internet into my students classroom
experience. I really would like to say "Thank You" for the inspirations
and for the ideas. The following essay hopefully will reflect some
of my thoughts on the Internet and its uses in the classroom, as well as
present some of my preliminary ideas on how I hope to integrate the Internet
into my classes.
Obviously, the web can provides
many more opportunities for my students to find information on many more
topics than a typical high school library can provide resources for.
"As an educational...tool, users can learn about virtually any topic..."
( Child Safety on the
Information Highway, pg. 2 ) The web has quite literally condensed
a world of knowledge into our computers, and access to that information
is only a phone line, a computer, and a few keystrokes away. If they
look hard enough, they can find information on just about any topic that
they could ever imagine. Though they may have to wade through bogus,
ambiguous, and inaccurate misinformation sometimes, the web provides access
to the greatest libraries, the finest academic minds, and a wealth of ideas
that could never be housed in a single building at any one time.
With the web, my students will have the ability to read through the journals
of the worlds greatest minds, visit any city of the world (virtually),
and discover the sights and sounds of every culture on the planet.
My students now will have the opportunity to talk to experts on topics
that we study, such as WWII, share and discuss ideas with peers, and gain
insights that they normally wouldn't have available to them in any modern
library. Access to any piece of information is instantaneous.
To help lmy students along in the process of keeping up with researching
topics related to our course on the web,I'm in the process of creating
a Homepage for my class (Social
Studies Homepage). Simple research activites for my students
could include basic biographies of historical personalities and current
events. With the ease of research, my students will have the opportunity
to complete more difficult tasks, and to create more educated and thought
provoking work.
One of the drawbacks to
having access to so much information, though, is that it can be quite overwhelming
for some students. Depending on how they search the net for information,
there is the possibility that with any keyword that they enter, they could
get thousands of sites listed that may or may not have pertinent information
on their topic. Knowing how to weed through the garbage takes a trained
eye and a little practice. "Information on the net has an aura of
credibility that it may not warrant". ( Teaching
Healthy Skepticism About Information on the Internet, pg.1) That
is why learning how to spot a reputable site is very important for my students,
a skill that thankfully was taught in this course. Hopefully knowing
what constitutes a good site versus a bad site will help to alleviate the
frustration that some searches may cause. The Web Site Critique that
I created will definitely come in handy when it comes time for my students
to evaluate web sites. (Web
Site Evaluation Form)
Another alarming drawback
for me is the increased opportunity for student plagiarism. Since
students have access to so much information, a student’s ability to borrow,
steal, and copy material from the net and cut and paste it into their own
work is a very real possibility. I really need to pay attention to
the personal style of each student to spot the sometimes subtle differences
caused by plagiarism in their assignments.
Another excellent application
of the web in my classroom is the ability create new and exciting projects
and assignments for my students. With web access, my students will
now have the ability to create web pages as an assignment. Instead
of the old poster board presentation, computers may allow the students
the opportunity to create fascinating pages with graphics, music, text,
and animation. An example of this may come during my unit on the
American Civil War, in which i may have students create a page that gives
an overview of the causes of the American Civil War (which would integrate
the research skills as well). Knowledgeable students can create full
web page productions. A second application of the web in relation
to assignments is WebQuests. "The instructional goal of a short-term
WebQuest is knowledge acquisition and integration." ( Some
Thoughts About WebQuests, pg.1 ) These online research assignments
will enable my students to navigate the web to find facts, analyze primary
and secondary documents, and come up with opinions and conclusions.
WebQuests are a great way to have my students do more than just sit and
read a packet of information and answer ten questions about it. The
WebQuest that I reviewed had it's faults, but it did include some fantastic
primary sources on lifestyles of the pioneers. Other WebQuests that
looked good ranged in topic from "The Vikings", to "Native American Cultures",
both of which I cover. The effect in regards to the state standards
on analyzing primary and secondary documents is the same, but the addition
of a computer makes the assignment much more enjoyable.
As with any activity involving
the internet, student’s access to a computer can be a problem. Although
a growing majority of schools, and to a lesser extent most homes, are becoming
internet linked, some students (at or home or at school, or both) may not
have access to computers. This may be based on personal finances,
the students school district, or simple geography. Although it should
be the goal of every teacher to include every student in every computer
based activity, unfortunately those students without access still need
to have alternate assignments created. I have to make sure that I
don't exclude any student from any activity; it is my responsibility to
create meaningful assignments for everyone.
A second drawback to web-based
activities and assignments is group work and scoring rubrics. I
need to use caution when creating group work assignments for computer-based
activities. Kids are likely to choose a very computer savvy student
to be in their group to complete the assignment single-handedly.
Therefore, rubrics need to be created that require every student in a group
to produce some type of end product when the assignment is over.
"A rubric gives students clear targets of proficiency to aim for." (Harnessing
the Web - Assessment of Project-Based Learning, pg. 4) This may require
a lot of time and work on my part, time I may not have. Secondly,
if creating a web page is a choice for an assignment, I need to create
rubrics that allow both the novice and the expert to both achieve a good
mark. It’s a simple fact that some students are above and beyond
their peers when it comes to computing knowledge. I need to make
sure that the interested novices know that they can still get a good grade,
otherwise they'll never take the first step to trying something new.
Again, the drawback here is the time involved that it takes to create the
rubrics to allow for a wide variety of projects.
The internet can also provide
a fantastic way for myself, students, and parents to communicate with one
another, namely through email and listservs. "Collaborative online
learning activities can offer many educational benefits to their participants."
( An
Illusory Dilemma, pg.2 ) In fact, I already have set up a listserv
for my History class, and for my wrestling team (Middletown
Wrestling, Social
Studies Class News) Although email and listserv notices should never
replace important phone calls and group conferences, both communication
devices can add another way for myself, my students, and their parents
to communicate ideas, assignments, and other information. Email is
an excellent way for us (parents and I) to talk about their student’s performance
in the classroom, whether it be updates about upcoming assignments (or
missed ones), projects, behavior (good or bad), or parent’s inquiries about
the course, behavior, or work. Email can also be an effective way
for my students and I to communicate as well. Electronic mail
could allow me to inform absent students about class assignments and missed
work, and allow students to submit work while absent, on vacation, or homebound.
Students could also forward questions about an evening’s assignment if
the option is available. Listservs give me an opportunity to post
pertinent class information to a mass of people at one time, with the option
of allowing feedback or not. Again, this is a great way to keep everyone
involved in the education process, and up to date on important events and
other class information.
There is the possibility
with the advent of the technology that allows for long-distance communication
that some teacher’s may use it to replace all communication between school
and home. Some notices, especially regarding behavior and grades,
need to be spoken about over the phone, with more of an inter-personal
touch. Sensitive issues like these need to be expressed either in
person, or over the phone at least. Email and listservs take away
all of the emotion from a message, and may be interpreted in many ways.
There is no room for ambiguity when it comes to sensitive issues.
Secondly, not all parents and students have email access. This is
another reason why it is important that phone calls and meetings not be
done away with entirely.
I have spoken mostly about
the advantages and drawbacks of internet use in regards to students, but
there are some significant ways that the internet can benefit the me as
a professional as well. Already mentioned were using the internet
to allow for more creative student projects and assignments, and using
the internet as a way to communicate with parents and students. There
are a few other ways that the internet can benefit me in the classroom
also. First, as with students, the internet can provide me with an
enormous amount of materials and information that I can use to research
units and create assignments. If I can find more and better information
on the topics that I am teaching, it is only reasonable to predict that
my lessons will be that much more informative and engaging. It is
also reasonable to think that with access to more primary and secondary
materials, and exposure to many examples of projects and assignments, I
will create more interesting and exciting units for their own students
(ie. WebQuest). Secondly, the internet can provide me with an avenue
to contact other teachers, professionals, and experts that can provide
me with information and support. Creating an effective support team
is one of the keys to any teacher’s performance.
As with students doing research
on the internet, I need to be constantly aware of what constitutes a good
site, and what defines a poor site. I need to remember that the information
that passes from a teacher to a student is generally taken as fact by the
student, with no questions asked. When students are required to take
standards based exams in order to graduate from public high schools in
the state of Delaware, I need to make sure that the information that I
am passing along is valid and reliable. Encouraging, though, is the
fact that according to recent studies "have found a statistically significant
difference between students performance on standardized test scores.....when
teachers were implementing technology in the classroom." ( Assessing
Current Technology Use in the Classroom, pg. 41 ). Lastly, I
need to make sure that the support system that I build is solid.
The experts and professionals that I contact need to be checked for accuracy.
With education as high stakes as it is, it is very important that the people
I trust to help are worthy of that trust.
Depending on what school
you go to, some classrooms have computers in them, other schools rely on
central computer labs, and others don’t have computers at all. When
I create lessons that utilize computers, I need to be sure to think about
managing students who use them. It is very important to make sure
that while students are on the computers they are on task. It is
very tempting for students to surf the net, chat, play games, and generally
play. This course taught me to make sure that I am aware of these
temptations and move about the room to watch students. I need to
make sure that there are proper "Acceptable Use Forms" used, and that I
am always aware that as the classroom teacher "acceptable use of the stand-alone
workstation is the responsibility of the individual......"
(State of Delaware - SITN
Acceptable Use Policy, pg.1) There needs to be a significant amount
of time taken prior to students using the computers to discuss proper and
improper usage of the computers, repercussions for improper behaviors,
computer care (food/drink, etc.), to hopefully avoid most problems.
As alluded to previously,
although technology is a fantastic tool for classroom use, I need
to be sensitive to the fact that not every student is going to perform
at the same level. Every student has a different background on computers,
with some students having been on them for years, and others maybe not
at all. This is why extensive rubrics need to be created prior to
any activities utilizing the internet so as to accommodate all types of
students.
Overall, I hope to integrate computers and the Internet
into my curriculum this upcoming school year in a variety of ways.
Some may work, some may not, but the goal is to make a serious attempt
to include webbed activities in my curriculum. I hope to have students
do a lot more supervised research on sites that are reputable and accurate,
create web presentations, work through WebQuests, and create a network
of communication outlets for my parents, my students, and me. It
sounds quite daunting, but I hope with just this past two week course,
I can at least get started.
Bibliography
Delaware Office of Telecommunications Management. (2000).
SITN Acceptable USe Policy [Online].
Avaliable http://www.otm.state.de.us/sitnlaw.htm
Dodge, Bernie. (1996) Some Thoughts About WebQuests. San Diego State University. [Online.] Available http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec596/about_webquests.html
Global School Net Foundation. (1999). Harnessing the Web. [Online]. Available http://gsh.lightspan.com/web/
Goldsborough, Reid. (1998) Teaching Healthy Skepticism About Information on the Internet. Technology and Learning. January, 1998, 32. Available on electronic reserve.
Harris, J. (2000). Online to Learn or In Line with Standards? An Illusory Dilemma. Leading and Learning with Technology, 28(3), 10-15.
Magid, Lawrence J. (1998). Child Safety on the Information Highway, The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. [Online]. Available http://www.safekids.com/child_safety.htm
Moersch , Christopher. (1999). Levels of Technology Implementation:
A Framework for Measuring Classroom Technology Use. Learning and Leading
with Technology, 26(8), 59-63. Available on electronic reserve