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March 1, 2000
Technology Tidbits #4
by Helen DeWitt
The Internet can bring learning to life. It can give students the abilities to access vast amounts of information and interact with experts in any field. Students can communicate with classrooms around the world. They can learn to gather information, synthesize it, and publish collected information back on the Internet. Students and teachers are using the Internet as
- an additional information source and educational resource for broad, deep, and current information (historical documents, newspapers, encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, topic-related sites, etc.)
- a way to go on virtual field trips to destinations such as the White House, museums, zoos, and the rainforest
- a communication tool to e-mail experts on any subject, e-mail students and classrooms around the world, or e-mail peers or colleagues
- a tool to work on projects with other schools around the world
- a tool to see and hear multimedia that can enhance learning, such as movie clips, songs, and photographs
- a way to contribute data or original work (school or classroom Web sites)
- a way to access information from free databases worldwide that have lesson plans, thematic units, professional development ideas, and so on
- a way to interact with people around the world via live video and audio, such as through The Global Schoolhouse's CU-SeeMe Schools Web site
Technology and Internet Lesson Plan Types
Many types of educational software and/or online sites can be used to enhance or reinforce classroom lessons in all subject areas.
- Software (Many companies have software that can be used as tutorials that will reinforce the lessons being taught in the classroom. Some educational software is in the form of an adventure scenario. While solving the adventure, students are using skills in a related subject area. Carmon Word Detective and Carmon Math Detective by Broderbund are good examples of this type of software.)
- Word processors (These should be used at all grade levels. There are some excellent word processors for use from K to 12.)
- On-line reading activity combined with a virtual field trip on the Internet (The students are taken to one field trip site and are asked a series of questions about each page of the site.)
- Scavenger Hunt (The students are taken to many Internet sites and are asked to answer questions about each site. The questions should be designed to help the students gain deeper knowledge about a subject. For example, see Math Hunt on the Scholastic Teachers' home page.
- Hotlist (The teacher makes a list of bookmarks on a specific topic. It can be done in print, on a disk, or on a Web page developed for this purpose. For example, see PageOne from Lightspan. Sometimes, students can develop the hotlist for a given topic. Students use the hotlist to gather information about a given topic.)
- Multimedia presentations (Using a multimedia program such as HyperStudio or PowerPoint, students make a multimedia presentation after studying a given topic. The information comes from the Internet and other resources.)
- Scrapbook (Students develop an ongoing multimedia scrapbook of images, sounds, movies, and text on a given topic. This will be housed on a disk. They use the Internet to gather the needed information. Using the scrapbook and other resources, the students make a multimedia presentation with HyperStudio or PowerPoint.)
- WebQuests presents a challenging task or a problem for the students to solve. The resources needed to complete the task are included, with a description of the process used and some guidance. The students must synthesize the information to complete the task. WebQuests can last from several class periods to several weeks.
Online project sites:
Lesson plans and teacher resources:
Thematic units on the Web:
For subject-related sites, see King Middle Grade School's home page. A good online site for all subjects is the Scholastic Teachers' Home Page. It is free for all schools.
Search Engines
Search engines are used to find information about a certain topic. There are many safe search engines that can be used by young children. Even though the sites are safe, as a teacher you need to know what all of the students are searching for at all times.
Safe searching for kids (these have built-in filters):
For a list of search engines for teachers and other adults, see the directory of popular search engines, compiled by The Global Schoolhouse.
When doing a search,
- try putting the words in quotes, for instance, "heart disease"
- try using a hyphen to exclude a term, for instance, "heart disease -stroke"
- try using a plus sign to include a term, for instance, "heart disease +stroke"
- try multiple searches. It usually takes a series of searches to find what you are looking for, each revealing new clues, new avenues, and ultimately, the best information for your needs.
How do I know what search engine I should use?
- When you need a broad topic that needs to be narrowed, use Yahoo or Northern Light
- If you need a summary about the topic before going to the page, use Excite
- If you want the advantage of using multiple search engines in one, use Dogpile
- If you need a very specific search on a specific topic, use AltaVista
- If scientific information is needed, use AltaVista
- If you want to ask a question as a sentence, use Ask Jeeves or Infoseek
- If the information you need is a proper name, use AltaVista or Infoseek
- If the web pages you need has a certain domain (for example, .edu), use HotBot
Search engines can access a broad range of material on the Web, depending on the search phrases used. Thus, unsupervised use of search engines by students can lead to access of inappropriate material. It is advisable to consider this if you intend to use search engines directly in your classes (as opposed to using them to find material that you intend to use later in class), check the topic search before you have students do the search. For more information, see an article about Internet safety from the webTeacher site.
Evaluating Information on the Internet
The evaluation of a Web site falls into two categories: design and content. Teachers need to be able to determine if a site is worth using in the classroom. A badly designed site might cause unneeded frustration for the user.
Questions to ask for design evaluation:
- Does the site take a long time to load?
- Do the graphics on the pages take a long time to load?
- Do the graphics/sound/video serve a clear purpose?
- Is the home page appealing to the eye?
- If the site is more than one page, can you easily get from one page to another without getting lost?
- Are the spelling and grammar correct?
- Does the site include related links?
- Are the links useful, and do they work?
- Can you get back to the index or home page easily from a linked page?
- Is the author's name/e-mail address included?
- Is a date available to determine the last time that information was changed? If so, is it current?
- Is the entire page readable with the browser you are using?
Content evaluation is important if the site is being used for research purposes. Students need to know that there are many sites on the Internet that are not research worthy.
Questions to ask for content evaluation:
- Is the author's name on first page?
- Does the author have credentials listed on the page?
- Is there a bibliography that states from where information was taken?
- Is the information current? Has it been updated lately?
- Does the page have other sources that can be used to validate the information?
- Does the information appear biased?
- Why was the information put on the Internet? For education, scholarly publication, or entertainment?
- Is the same information available from an encyclopedia or other reference books?
- Are there links to other useful Internet sites?
- Are you sure that the information is true?
- Does the site where the information is housed influence your opinion about the validity of the information?
- Are charts and graphs included that support the claims or conclusions?
The following are useful links to information about evaluating Web resources:
You can join a list serve and receive one e-mail per week about good sites on the Web (K-12).
- Learning Company Classroom Flyer List Serve:
You can subscribe [join-classroom-flyer-digest@gt.sodamail.com], change your address, or unsubscribe [leave-classroom-flyer@gt.sodamail.com].
- Blue Web'n weekly updates:
Send an e-mail message [listserver@pacbell.com] with "SUBSCRIBE bluewebn" in the body of the message. To unsubscribe, send an e-mail message [listserver@pacbell.com] with "UNSUBSCRIBE bluewebn" in the body of the message.
- Surfing the Net with Kids:
Subscribe [mailto:join-surfnetkids@s1.net]
Unsubscribe [mailto:remove-surfnetkids@s1.net]
Copyright Issues, Permission, and Citations
It is important that young children, as well as older ones, are taught how to cite information from the Internet correctly.
Thanks for sharing your time with me. I do hope that a few of these technology tidbits have helped you feel more comfortable with technology and the Internet.
Email: Helen DeWitt
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