Managing Use of the Internet in the Classroom

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What is your situation?

What are your options?

Some general strategies

Writing a plan

Teaching Guide

Homeroom Module: Managing use of the Internet in the Classroom

What are your options?

Now, use the questionnaire you completed during the last phase of this module (What is your situation) to consider the options you face in utilizing and managing the Internet in your classroom.

Each of the questions represents on factor influencing how you will utilize the Internet in your classroom. They cannot really be discussed separately, for it is the combination of all these factors that determines how you can use the Internet.

Classroom

Your classroom puts limitations on how you can use the Internet. Its size, furniture, occupants, electrical power, and connectivity play a role.

Look at the table labeled "Levels of Use Affected by Levels of Access." Then return here.

Depending on your access level, the activites you do with your students will be less or more.

If you have no Internet access, you cannot do any activities involving classroom use of the Internet. But even limited access, such as in a teacher prep area, at your public library, or at home, can be used to support classroom learning, by downloading images or data or other information relevant to classroom topics and then sharing these with the students using tradiitonal media.

Even with No Internet use by students, the Internet can be useful for:

• teachers to access resources to support instruction or
• teachers to use home-based e-mail to communicate with colleagues and participate in mailing lists (requires email)

With Internet available in the school but in the computer lab only,

• Students can participate in Internet-based educational projects such as Middle Passage, MayaQuest, GlobaLearn (may require e-mail)
• Classes of students can use Internet on "Lab days" to access resources and conduct research (enhanced with student e-mail)
• Teachers can create paper-based guides for student Internet use
• TEACHERS can CREATE WEB PAGES TO GUIDE STUDENT INTERNET USE, to be published on the school server or some other server (such as the CUIP server)
• STUDENT WORK can be PUBLISHED ON the WEB FOR WORLD TO SEE, whether on the school server or some other server (such as the CUIP server)

With One Internet-linked PC or Mac in classroom:

• Teachers can regularly download lesson plans and other resources
• Teachers and students can access Internet as small part of instruction

• comment: It is usually possible to find oom for one computer, even if it has to sit on the teacher's desk or against the back wall. If it is linked to the Internet, one computer may be quite useful as a classroom resource (much like the globe or a large dictionary might be used), by one or two students at a time, as part of a whole class project, or as an instructor's station (if linked to a projector).

With Cluster of Internet-linked PC or Mac in classroom:

• Teachers build regular Internet access into curriculum and instruction
• Students regularly access Internet resources as part of instruction (electronic texts begin to replace paper texts)
• Students communicate with students at other schools as part of instruction (requires email)

• comment: If two or three computers can be placed in the room, management becomes more difficult. Who gets to use the computer, and at what time, and in what groups? One common strategy is to use the computers as one or more "centers" in a classroom with a variety of activities going on at once. Each computer can have a separate activity, and groups of two or three can easily work together at one computer. Teaming students into pairs or trios works well if the task at hand requires several roles: keyboardist, recorder, navigator. A group will be more difficult to manage if the task only really requires one person to "run the computer," such as typing up a report or creating an image file. The other students in the group will be getting in the way or itching to have their turn. Better to give them something to do while they assist the keyboardist, take paper-based notes, or plan the next step in the search or project.

With One Internet-linked, projected instructor station in classroom:

• Teachers can regularly build Internet-based resources (text, images, multimedia) into lessons
• TEACHERS can PREPARE NOTES AND LESSON PLANS ON WEB FOR PROJECTING IN CLASS, publishing them to the school server or some other server (such as the CUIP server)
• STUDENTS can PREPARE PRESENTATIONS TO PRESENT TO CLASS, and can publish them to the school server or some other server (such as the CUIP server)

• Comment: Having an internet-linked computer with a projector is almost as good as ,and in some ways better than, having a whole bunch of computers linked to the Internet. Both teachers and students should be involved in using the so-called, "instructor" station to demonstrate techniques, show resources, give instructions, and display work products (web pages, images, data, etc.)

With an Internet-linked computer for every student:

• Email can become a major means of communication among parents, teachers, and students.
• Students can submit their assignments via email or putting them on the server.
• Teachers can send assignments and assessments to students via email or the server.
• Eventually, texts can all be electronic.

Teacher(s)

Having more than one teacher (or assistant) in the room can greatly improve classroom management. If the teachers are all technology-savvy, things are even better. But it is possible to involve students in Internet use even with only one teacher or with teachers who are less familiar with the Internet than the students. Proper planning is the key. But even better is for the teacher to get the training she needs to become familiar with the tools and resources of the Internet. WIT 2000 is one resource for this training.

(Please send Craig Cunningham comments about whether WIT is actually meeting YOUR training needs. If there is something you feel is missing from the program, mention it to your mentor or email Craig.)

The best way to learn how to manage the Internet in the classroom is to work with an experienced teacher who has done this before. See if your principal will arrange for you to get a substitute one day so you can assist in the classroom of a teacher who has been doing this for a while. Watch how to teacher assigns the students to tasks, groups them, provides support and guidance, and assesses progress.

CUIP has a number of resources that can assist you. If you need more assistance with basic computer skills or with web searching, contact your CUIP TRA or, if you don't know who your TRA is (or you're not in CUIP), ask your principal if she can arrange for a student-teacher, Neighborhood Schools Program, or graduate student to assist you.

Computer labs

If your Internet access is only in the computer lab, and the computer teacher is the most Internet-savvy teacher in the school, then see if you can serve as her assistant next time your class in scheduled into the computer lab. (Your principal might be willing to give you some other time for class preparation if that's what you usually do when you drop off your class in the lab.)

Or, you might see if the computer lab teacher is willing to serve as YOUR assistant for a lesson that is subject-centered or otherwise related to your classroom curriculum but uses the Internet as a tool. Having both you and the computer teacher working with the students should work well, provided there aren't any "status" or competition issues between you. If there are, you might want to work these out before you team up in the lab.

Activity structures (instructional models)

There are a number of relatively easy-to-manage "activity structures," or general techniques for using the Internet in your teaching. The text for WIT 2000, Teaching with the Internet: Lessons from the Classroom, by Leu and Leu, offers several instructional models, including:

• Internet Workshop: Teacher sets a bookmark on student computers (or creates simple web page with link), and develops a short assignment for students to work on for about 30 minutes (making notes on a paper Journal), followed by a reporting activity at the end of the work time. (The reporting time is referred to as the "workshop.")
• Internet Project: Teachers create a collaborative project with teachers in other classrooms or schools, in which each classroom reports on its own situation or research and makes comparisons with the situation or research of another classroom.
• Internet Inquiry: Develops independent research skills in students as they pursue a question of special interest. Consists of Question, Search, Analyze, Compose, and Share phases.
• WebQuests: similar to WIT's "curriculum web." Often include a web page with Introduction, Task Definition, Description of the Process, Information Resources, Guidance in Organizatio Information, and a Concluding Activity. You may wish to follow this model in developing your Web-based lesson plan for WIT Basic.

We suggest you read or skim chapter 4 of Leu and Leu before proceeding with this module. Also review Creating Activities for the Web module.

Proceed to Some General Strategies. 

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