The Internet in Instruction

1
The Internet in Instruction
2
In Education, is the WWW

• The worlds biggest encyclopedia?
• An information superhighway?
• Full of useless junk?

3
Biggest Encyclopedia?
WWW
Encyclopedia
Lots of
Static
Lively
Organized
Amorphous/chaotic
Cross-referenced
Passionately compiled
Careful research
information
Full of opinions
Bias-free (effort)
Written by anyone
Professionally written
4
An information superhighway?

• Sophisticated network with interdependent parts
• Transports facts/good services

CommunicationSharingLearningBuilding
5
Full of useless junk?

• Viewed through the eyes of traditional
  education, who would want a learning resource
  that presents the world in all its chaos, offers
  more opinion than facts and requires a subtle
  intelligence to sort the gems from the junk?
  Viewed from a more student-centered,
  active-learning perspective, what better resource
  could you imagine!
• Web-and-Flow

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So what is it?

• Rich
• Immediate
• Passionate
• Clever
• Funny
• Interactive
• Authentic

7
So what is it?

• A unique opportunity to reach students with
  varying intelligences
• Multiple intelligences technology

8
Multiple intelligences

• Civil War
• Linguistic
• Logical Mathematical
• Spatial
• Bodily-Kinesthetic
• Musical
• Interpersonal
• Intrapersonal
• Naturalist
• Existential

9
So what is it?

• An embarrassment of riches that is next to
  worthless without an educator (You!) to
  facilitate learning and integration in your
  classrooms.
• Working the Web

10
Successful teaching learning

• A positive learning environment
• Aligned with mandated curriculum standards
• Appropriate objectives (including objectives at
  the upper end of Blooms taxonomy)
• Assessments that match objectives
• Links to students prior knowledge
• Attention to individual learning styles
• Multiple ways for students to study and work with
  the content
• Teacher with a thorough understanding of the
  content
• Enthusiasm in the classroom (it is contagious)

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Content first

• It is a fallacy to think that technology will
  make traditional content outdated The corollary
  to this thinking is that traditional content is
  less important than learning to learn... Is a
  dangerous doctrine.
• (Tinker,1998, p.2)

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Where does the Internet fit?
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Is it worth it?

• Does the Internet enable you to do something you
  couldnt do before?
• Does the Internet enable you to do something you
  could do before, only better?
• (Harris, 1998)

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9 Good Reasons to Teach with the Web

• Access Information
• Complementary Lesson Materials
• Practice Information Seeking Skills
• Use Real Data
• Discover Differences
• Build Mental Schemas and Connect to the Subject
  Matter

15
9 Good Reasons to Teach with the Web (cont.)

• Add Background Information
• Use Multimedia
• Engage in Higher Order Thinking
• Quebec English Schools Network

16
Reference

• Tinker, R. (1998). Teaching and learning in the
  knowledge society Putting technology at the
  service of content. The Concord Consortium
  Newsletter, Winter 1998, p. 1-2, 14-15.

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Your assignment

• Go back to slide 8
• Create your own (or with a partner) slide on a
  new PowerPoint
• Pick your own topic
• Find Internet sites that support 5 different
  Multiple Intelligences
• Upload to your Plaza account
• Write the URL on the sign-in sheet next to your
  name