Teaching with the Internet
Siva
Kumari
Center for Technology in
Teaching and Learning,
Rice University
In training a child
to activity of thought,
above all things we must beware of what I call "inert ideas" - that is to
say, ideas that are merely received into the
mind without being utilised, or tested or thrown into fresh
combinations.
- Alfred North Whitehead in the
Aims of Education
(1929)
The Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) in particular have become
increasingly common household terms as evidenced by the wealth of
references to them in the popular media and on television programs in the
US. The popularity of the
WWW has spread to the educational community as well. The Internet is
increasingly being used as an
educational tool in K-12 schools with access. There is a sharp increase
in the number of schools
connected to the Internet.
Professional development opportunities for teachers to learn to use the
Internet are ever increasing and the number
of books that specialize in educational resources on the Internet are
filling bookshelves. Recently Cyberschools are coming online
under the auspices of public
school districts. Online courses are being conducted for K-12 students.
One can safely predict that in the short
term larger number of teachers are going to grapple with effective ways
of integrating the Internet into the
classroom. " The Internet and the countless possibilities associated
with the Internet are quickly reshaping the
way we conduct business, and redefining the way we relate to one another"
( Nielsen
Media). We
can extend this statement to relate to K-12 education as well.
Literature reviews reveal a growing number of case studies, project
reports and experiences related to the use of
the Internet in K-12 education. Practitioner journals are replete with
how-to articles about the use of the Internet
in the classroom, participation in online projects and creation of web
materials. A multitude of online and paper-based resources reference
online materials for almost every subject in the K-12 curriculum. The
potential of the Web is emphasized, explored and sold repeatedly to the
educator. There is an overwhelming
amount of practical literature available to the teacher interested in
using the Internet in the classroom. However,
there is very little that emphasizes effective instructional strategies
needed in creating or using Internet materials
in the classroom.
In this paper, I will analyze lesson plans created by teachers
primarily to integrate the Internet into
their classroom activities. These lesson plans are a result of two
projects that focused intensely on training K-12
teachers to integrate the Internet into their curriculum and create
online lesson activities. The paper starts with a
brief description of the two projects followed by a discussion of the
instructional strategies used in the lesson plans.
Brief Description of the Projects
The
OWLink Project:
Initiated in June of 1994, this project links five diverse Texas K-12
schools to each other and to Rice
University via an ATM
based fiber-optic network. Each of the classrooms is equipped with
twelve multimedia computers as well as two-
way interactive video equipment. Teachers participated in training during the
summer in the use of multimedia
computers, the Internet and the teledistance equipment. They were also
instructed in creating
online lesson plans.
The two-week training program resulted in teacher produced Internet based
curricular units. The teachers from
the diverse Texas sites collaborated to produce inter-disciplinary units
that allow students to extend their
everyday educational experiences and engage in learning activities that
include:
- simultaneous exploration of the Internet,
- exchange of thoughts, ideas and data,
- presentations to peers and teachers,
- collaboration and peer-review.
The
GirlTECH Project: Funded by the NSF, the project started in the
summer of 1995. Twenty teachers
were provided with an IBM Thinkpad ® computer and Internet access
through Rice University. In a four-
week training program, teachers learned to use the Internet and create
online lesson plans. In contrast to the
OWLink project in which teachers returned to classrooms with
Internet-ready multimedia computers for students
use, GirlTECH teachers were returning to classrooms where their project
computer was the only one available for
students. As a result of this constraint, lesson plans created by these
teachers were distinctly different from those created by the OWLink
teachers. They were created with a single student in mind rather than
groups of
students with simultaneous access.
Integrating the Internet into classroom activities
When introduced to the Internet, teachers were overwhelmed and excited by
the tremendous educational potential
of the Web. Once they moved beyond the initial intimidation of
navigating the Web, they focused on their specific
teaching needs and were concerned with customizing the Web to answer the
learning needs of their students.
Teachers chose fundamental concepts or proven problem learning areas as a
basis for exploration and
experimentation with the Internet.
Oliva (1992) defines an instructional strategy as "methods,
procedures, and techniques the teacher uses to
present the subject matter to students and to bring about effective
outcomes" (p. 403). Teachers chose
instructional strategies that were best suited to the Internet. They
were focused on the needs of their students, the
school and state mandated curriculum and instructional problems
associated with some fundamental concepts. In
addition to these traditional techniques, however, they focused on the
educational opportunities of the Internet
to rethink their instructional strategies. Teachers focused on the
following characteristics of the Internet in
creating their lesson plans:
- electronic information source with access to worldwide databases of
information;
- interactive and easy to use information exchange medium;
- source for meaningful learning experiences through application of
real world problems and data;
- an avenue to electronic portfolios of their teaching activities; and
- as a means of communication and collaboration with colleagues beyond
the walls of their individual classroom.
Teachers re-evaluated their roles as content providers and gravitated
toward becoming facilitators in these electronic
environments. They viewed the Internet as a dynamic teaching and
learning medium with which to facilitate
learning, enhance comprehension and provide rich contextual learning
environments for their students. Teachers
immediately recognized that students are more familiar and adept with
these technologies than they themselves are
and sought to take advantage of these student skills to rethink teaching
as a collaborative journey. Teachers started to
think of themselves as directors of student learning, providing
guidelines and pathways for students to attempt.
Students were now expected to take an active part in exploring these
pathways, venturing on new ones and taking
responsibility for their learning. The constructivistic philosophies of
the teachers took precedence over the more
traditional approaches when integrating the Internet. Teachers with more
essentialistic philosophies used this
medium quite differently than those with interdisciplinary and
student-centered approaches. Those teachers with
constructivistic or student-centered philosophies adapt easily to the
Internet and are able to immediately identify
enriching learning opportunities. Those with more traditional approaches
found it more difficult to create lessons and
adapt to this new hyperlinked environment.
Interdisciplinary Learning Approaches
Teachers in the OWLink project, whose lessons are discussed in this
section, collaborated with their colleagues
to teach across distances, subject areas and grade levels. This
experimental teledistance project, which has as a primary goal to cause
rethinking traditional teaching and learning approaches, has produced
some interesting interdisciplinary projects
and change processes. The projects link high school students with
students from the third through eighth grade
in exploration of concepts via the Internet.
- The Golden
Ratio is a model example of information exchange and
collaborative learning across the Internet .
Students accessed teacher-researched Internet sites that were linked to
online lesson plans to research the Golden
Ratio. Students from three different schools then calculated their body
measurements; exchanged cumulative data
from each site and compared the school means to the golden ratio.
Interesting discoveries were made which led to
discussion and dialogue among the students at the different sites. The
golden ratio concept was explored across
the disciplines of architecture, mathematics and science. Students from
the different age levels were able to learn,
explore and investigate the application of the concept simultaneously.
- Golden Rabbit Stew with Honey,
Flowers, and Music takes advantage of the mathematical resources
on the web. The teacher asks
students to explore the interdisciplinary relationships of the Fibonacci
numbers, traditionally taught in
mathematics, to not only geometry but nature, art, and music as well.
The teacher asks the students to explore the concept across the
disciplines by linking relevant sites and then apply the knowledge gained
by creating personal examples based
on these concepts.
- Mandalas: Geometric Link
between Medicine and History is a lesson plan that asks students
in high school geometry courses to
relate the mathematical concept of symmetry and to ancient cultures and
modern medicine. The teacher creatively
links together resources on the Internet to allow high school students
and younger students to explore the
properties of mandalas across disciplines. Students use paint programs
to create their own mandalas, use the internet
to access mandala resources, learn about symmetry and the ancient Aztec
cultures. This lesson serves as a good
example of intellectual broadening of the concept in the students' minds,
allowing learners to make connections
among subject areas and actively leading the learner to form these
connections through guided exploration.
Problem Based Learning Approaches
Problem-based learning approaches emphasize connections between school
content and its application to
life outside of school. They provide the learner with opportunities to
explore concepts and study examples of
the concept available in the world around us. The internet provides a
wealth of information for teachers and
students to use in this way. Teachers and students can access data to
explore a concept in real life, download data,
modify and process it for different contexts.
Following are a few examples of lesson plans that use the problem -based
approach in mathematics. These have been further
subdivided into three curricular perspectives outlined by McNeil. ( 1995)
- The Utilitarian Perspective holds that student learning
should be related to real-life and challenges
students to answer real-world problems using resources on the internet.
- A
Functional Housing Market asks students to gather data from local
real-estate sites to explore linear
equations. Students are required to gather, manipulate and process data
to predict the housing market prices
using the "line of best fit" method.
- Pop
Clock asks students to download current data from the U.S. Census
Bureau and use it as a base to
predict future population trends. Students compare their predictions to
those of the experts.
- The Academic Perspective aspires to present the students with
an authentic view of the subject matter as
held by experts in the field. Lesson plans discussed below use this
perspective in using integrating the Internet.
- Hysterical Math links
history of mathematics resources and combines them with creative lesson
ideas to give the students the
perspective of famous mathematicians. The lesson provides students with
opportunities to foster a deep
understanding of a mathematician of their choice. Following exploration,
students are asked to make
presentations to their peers that convey the perspective of the
mathematician.
- Eratosthenes
Finds Diameter of Earth! takes an academic perspective by asking
students to perform Erosthenes's
original experiment, research the concept and complete e-mail based
activities.
- Earthquaked!! teaches
students to calculate the Richter Scale by linking to resources in higher
education. Students are asked to gather
information about earthquakes and study the methodology for measuring
earthquakes.
- The Student Centered Perspective holds that the teacher has to
activate student interest in the topic to
be learned and then lead them into further exploration. The following
lesson plans use activities that have high
relevancy to students. These innovative mathematics and science lessons
use entertainment sites for educational
exploration.
- I feel the need for
speed allows students to explore the concepts of speed,
velocity, acceleration, and inertia of moving
objects by linking to sites with roller coasters.
- Calculating a Car
Payment uses a highly relevant topic for teenagers as an
opportunity to explore formulas containing
complex fractions and large exponents. Students are linked to used car
sites on the Web and are asked to calculate car
payments.
The Instructional Systems Approach
This traditional approach where the teacher is in control and is
responsible for
student learning uses objective driven instruction. The teacher is the
knowledge giver and the students are the recipients.
This traditional approach requires less creativity on the part of the
teacher in using the web. However this
approach lends itself less to rethinking teaching on the part of the
teacher. They are certain traditional content
oriented objectives that could make use of the wealth of information the
web as seen in the following examples.
-
Using Standard Deviation asks
the students to download weather data to explore the concepts of Standard
Deviation.
- A Bit of
Computer
History connects students to sites that host computer history. The
students answer questions as
directed by the teacher. This lesson plan can be expanded to encompass a
broader educational objective by
including activities that require the learner to interact with the
information.
- Those Amazing
Seaworld Animals!! uses a databases on animals to have students
explore mathematical equations.
Conclusion
"Computerized electronic technology makes possible not only the wide and
rapid distribution of information, but
its manipulation, analysis, synthesis, and recombination as well.
Through these operations, new knowledge is
created that helps us understand ourselves and our world in new ways"
(Gibbon, 1987, p.2). Lesson plans discussed above take advantage of the
Internet to provide students with learning environments to do just this.
Students in the process of interacting with this medium learn valuable
skills needed
in the information age. They learn how to read visual images and
information, judge the value of data,
download information and process it to suit their needs. Teachers whose
lesson plans are represented above
are truly re-envisioning the way they teach. Exposure to the Internet
causes a paradigm shift in teachers. No longer are they bound by
textbooks, no longer do they have to distribute information to their
students in previously standard formats (paper and worksheets), instead
they can open up a world of electronic learning opportunities for their
students and prepare them for learning in information rich contexts.
Although wide spread implementation of the
Internet in the classroom is not a common occurrence in today's schools,
knowing that this change is inevitable, it is very interesting to watch
these pockets of successful
experimentation. Training the teachers in the use of the Internet is
important but it is equally critical to challenge them to rethink and
re-envision teaching and learning. Inter-disciplinary curriculum,
collaborative learning and the production of knowledge are central themes
of the lesson plans discussed here. These processes require students to
acquire important skills: evaluating, processing, discussing and
presenting electronic information. Changes in instruction, changes in
curriculum and changes in teaching technologies are all evident in these
classrooms (Gibbon, 1996).
"The most obvious benefit of the electronic classroom is that it
achieves what progressive educators could
only dream of: a union of work and play......There is no certainty that
the electronic classroom will actually fulfill
this promise, but it is this hope that makes the realization so
attractive" (Ravitch, 1987, p. 28). Teachers whose lesson plans
were discussed here engage students in meaningful learning activities
that are of high relevance to students. The Internet is serving as a
solution to engage students and teachers as equal partners in an
educational journey in these electronic settings.
References
Gibbon, S. (1987). Learning and instruction in the information age. In
White, M.A. (Ed.), What curriculum in the information age. New Jersey:
Lawrence Elbaum Associates.
McNeil, J. (1995). Curriculum: The teacher's initiative. New Jersey:
Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Nielsen Media Research. (1996). Recontact study March/April 1996:
Executive summary {On-Line}. Available:
http://www.nielsenmedia.com/commercenet/exec.html
Oliva, P.F. (1992) . Developing the curriculum. New York:
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
Ravitch, D. (1987). Technology and the curricukum: Promise and peril. In
White, M.A. (Ed.), What curriculum in the information age. New Jersey:
Lawrence Elbaum Associates.
Whitehead, A. N. 1929. Aims of Education. New York: Macmillan
Publishing Co., Inc.
Siva Kumari
Center for Technology in Teaching and Learning
Rice University
Houston, Texas
skumari@rice.edu
Siva Kumari manages Project OWLink, a tele-distance research project in
Houston, Texas. She is an Instructional Technology Consultant in the
Center for Technology in Teaching and Learning at Rice University.
COPYRIGHT
Siva Kumari © 1996. The author assigns to the University of New Brunswick
and other
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N.A.WEB 96 - The Second International North America World Wide Web
Conference
http://www.unb.ca/web/wwwdev/
University of New Brunswick.