Using the Internet for Curriculum Applications

This course will explore uses of the Internet to support, enhance and deliver curriculum in grades K-12. Participants will use a variety of tools including the World Wide Web, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Listservs, Newsgroups, and Email to access and utilize Internet resources in education and related disciplines. Individuals or small groups will create units of instruction appropriate to their teaching level which utilize Internet tools and resources.

Students are expected to be able to send and receive email and to navigate the World Wide Web.

This course on using the Internet in the curriculum is both guided by and serves the University of Delaware's conceptual framework for teacher education. The overarching goal of our teacher education program is to assist you in becoming a reflective practitioner who will be able to serve diverse communities of learners as a scholar, problem-solver, and partner. Aspects of this framework are integrated throughout this course -- in class content, assignments, and evaluation of your work. For example:
• Reflective practice: In this course, you will learn not just the tools and resources of the Internet, but also how these can be used to further curricular goals throughout the K-16 curriculum. In particular, you will be asked to bring your own classroom experiences and challenges to class and look at them in new ways based on the tools and resources that are available.

• Diverse communities of learners: The Internet provides a new and expanding opportunity to work closely with people of all ages, from vastly different cultural backgrounds, and from any place on the globe. We will explore ways to bring all of these resources to bear within the curriculum. In addition, projects will focus on providing students with opportunities to take advantage of both physical and human resources to achieve their goals.

• Scholar: Among the dispositions that you will adopt are the scholarly ones of wanting to know how other professionals have addressed the challenges that your students display, critical reading of their written accounts, and adaptation of their methods to suit your needs. Your required readings include articles both from classroom practitioners and scholars who have critically reviewed the field. In addition, you will locate and read articles on topics of specific relevance to shape your own curriculum projects.

• Problem solver: The primary focus of this course is on applying the tools and resources of the Internet to K-12 classrooms. The Internet is both growing and changing rapidly and strongly focused on commercial endeavors. You will need to develop strategies to stay current with tools and resources; to develop management practices for your classroom to deal with limited technology resources and time for your students, virtually unlimited resources on the Internet, and potentially harmful encounters or information; and develop a critical eye to apply these tools and resources to the content standards across the curriculum.

• Partner: The Internet provides greatly expanded opportunities for teachers and students to develop partnerships. Within the class, we will emphasize the need to draw on each other to meet the goals of the course. Beyond the class, we will explore ways to use Internet tools to tap into the network of individuals around the globe who are willing to help either by personal involvement with classes or individulals or by the resources they regularly make available. The required curriculum project should reflect this same kind of partnership to achieve a common goal.

• Internet Literacy, Fred T. Hofstetter, 1998. The web site to support this book is available at http://www.udel.edu/interlit
• Additional readings on electronic reserve at the Morris Library. You will need to have your browser configured for files of type PDF and install the Adobe Acrobat reader. For those inside the DEN firewall, use this link.
• Additional readings are listed with each day's entry and are generally available on the Web.
• Supplementary readings are available via a Virtual Reserved Reading List which is also linked to articles on the Internet.

Each participant will be required to produce three types of assignments for this course. All of your assignments will be submitted via the Web using a tool called Serf. Every student in the class has a unique space within Serf. Your "ticket" to log on is your Social Security Number. Click here to go to the Serf logon page at http://testbed.itc.udel.edu/.

 

1. Portfolio Submissions: As you progress through the class, you'll be visiting lots of sites and trying new techniques to help in your classrooms. The portfolio will consist of a number of short assignments to explore the various topics covered in each class. (30% of grade)
2. Web Page: Each student will produce a web page to be used as a resource for students in their own classes.   (10% of grade)
3. Curriculum Project: Working singly or in pairs, create a series of lesson plans, curriculum materials, or a unit plan which use Internet resources as an integral part. Remember this course is about using Internet materials and tools to further your curricular goals. That means that the project is not about teaching people about how to use the Internet but can be about anything else in your curriculum. (60% of grade)

Here are the 1997 projects.

Because the Internet is changing so rapidly, this course will be based on organized exploration and sharing. In general each day will be structured as follows:
• Lecture/demonstration on topics of the day. Class time will be divided between discussion of the current topic, exploration of specific implementation issues, and an outline of the expected accomplishments to be prepared for the next session.
• Participants should expect to spend 3-4 hours each day in the lab or on home computers to prepare for the next day's class. Final projects are due one week after the class ends.

Since one objective of the class is for all participants to return to their schools ready to help others use the Internet effectively, each participant should take an active role in helping other class members to use the tools effectively and find new resources.

1. Discussion of projects and course requirements and an introduction to Serf.

 
2. Conceptual framework of the Internet: Tools, Resource and Access

 
3. Exploring the World Wide Web using Netscape Navigator, a graphical browser.
• Review a general overview of the Web
 
4. E-mail
• As a prerequisite to this class, it is assumed that you can send a mail message (to one or several correspondents), respond to a mail message, forward a message, copy a message to a file, and set up an address book. For a review of those skills, check one of these depending what client you are using.

Netscape Messenger Mailbox or Microsoft Outlook Express	Internet Literacy, chapter 6 and the Interlit website.
Pine on the University of Delaware Unix systems	The email section of Demystifying the Internet
Eudora and others.	Check the users' manual

• E-mail services:  POP3 vs. IMAP protocols
• Account providers

 
5. Netiquette and Responsible Computing
• Take the University of Delaware ECCE test to gauge your awareness of responsible and polite computing.
6. Spam and Email Hoaxes
7. Acceptable Use Policies

• Internet Literacy, Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6
• Willard, Nancy. (1996) A Legal and Educational Analysis of K-12 Internet Acceptable Use Policies. [Online]. Available http://www.erehwon.com/k12aup/legal_analysis.html
• Carter, Kim. (1998). How to Teach Students the Rules of the Online Road. Technology and Learning. March, 1998, 18-23. Available on electronic reserve.

1. Searching the Web and Evaluating Materials
• Searching the Web: Why, How and ... Look What I Found! There are numerous links and references contained in this site.
2. Evaluating Materials
• Make sure to review the evaluation forms linked to the page on Searching for Accuracy.
3. Rating and Filtering Internet Content
4. Organizing Bookmarks
5. Guest: Erin Daix, UDLib/SEARCH Training Coordinator of the University of Delaware Library, will introduce the online databases available to UD students and the UDLib/SEARCH project.

• Internet Literacy, Chapter 11
• Quesada, Arli and Summers, Sue Lockwood. (1998)  Literacy in the CyberAge:  Teaching Kids to Be Media Savvy. Technology and Learning. January, 1998, 30-36. Available on electronic reserve.
• Goldsborough, Reid. (1998)  Teaching Healthy Skepticism About Information on the InternetTechnology and Learning. January, 1998, 32. Available on electronic reserve.
• McKenzie, Jamieson. (1995) Beforenet And Afternet. Multimedia Schools. 2(3), 6-8. Available on electronic reserve.

1. Listservs    Internet Literacy: Chapter 7
• Using the Web to Explore Listservs links you to several sites with indexes of listservs.
• Discussion Lists: Mailing List Manager Commands includes a review of the commands needed for all of the different listserv software.
 
2. Newsgroups    Internet Literacy: Chapter 8
• Generally, you'll want to read newsgroups using the tools of your browser.  However, if you choose to read newsgroups on Unix, the instructions for using trn, the Threaded News Reader are contained in this tip sheet.
 
3. Web-based Threaded Messaging and Forums
• For an example of this, try the forums maintained by the University of Delaware Education Research and Development Center.
4. Class Projects using E-mail only
• Judi Harris' Network-Based Educational Activity Structures contains many examples of e-mail only projects that anyone can join.

• Internet Literacy, Chapters 7 and 8
• Magid, Lawrence J. (1994). Child Safety on the Information Highway, The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. [Online]. Available http://www.larrysworld.com/child_safety.html
• Sumner, Mary R. (1997) Ethics Online. Educom Review. 31(4), 32-35. [Online]. Available http://www.educom.edu/web/pubs/review/reviewArticles/31432.html
• Fuller, H. L. (1996) Computer-Mediated Communications Networks and the Organizational Life of Schools. Computer-Mediated Communication Magazine. 3 (9). [Online]. Available http://www.december.com/cmc/mag/1996/sep/fuller.html
• Harris, J. (1995). Organizing and Facilitating Telecollaborative Projects. The Computing Teacher, 22(5), 66-69. [Online.] Available http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/Mining/February95-TCT.html

1. Authoring a Web Page
• Internet Literacy, Chapters 16 to 20 contain a complete walk-through to create a web page
• Creating a Web Page provides some other methods and some links to supporting materials.
2. File Transfer Protocol for publishing a Web Page
• Internet Literacy, Chapter 22
• Complete directions for publishing web pages to your UD space.
• Other places to publish student and teacher pages
 
3. Copyright and the Internet

• Internet Literacy, chapters 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22
• Global School Net Foundation. (1997). Harnessing the Power of the Web for Classroom Use: A Tutorial. [Online]. Available http://www.gsn.org/web/index.html
• Rothman, David H. (1996). Copyright and K-12: Who Pays in the Network Era? [Online]. Available http://www.ed.gov/Technology/Futures/rothman.html

• Curriculum Materials and the Internet. This topic will include a discussion of what materials are available on the Net and how they can best be used to facilitate learning. This discussion will continue over the next three days of the class.

Today's topics include Lesson Plans, Scavenger Hunts, and WebQuests.

• Harris, J. (1997). Content and Intent Shape Function: Designs for Web-Based Educational Telecomputing Activities. Learning and Leading with Technology, 24(5), 59-63. Available on electronic reserve. Supplements to the page appear at http://curry.edschool.Virginia.EDU/go/mining/97/feb/

1. Continuation of the discussion of curriculum uses and the Internet.
• A number of sites for students incorporate special tools for completing the assigned task. This class will be devoted to reviewing these discussing the technical, pedagogical, and management challenges involved in using these in the classroom.
• The new standards in mathematics and science emphasize the aquisition and manipulation of real-world data. We'll take a look at several such projects and discuss their merits.

• Friedman, Edward, Baron, Joshua D., and Addison, Cynthia J. (1996) Universal Access to Science Study via Internet. T.H.E. Journal. 23(11), 83-86. Available on electronic reserve.
• Slater, Timothy F. and Beaudrie, Brian. (1997).  Doing Real Science on the Web:  Bringing Authentic Scientific Investigations to Your Classroom.  Learning and Leading with Technology, 25(5), 28-31.  Available on electronic reserve.
• Dixon, Juli K., and Falba, Christy J. (1997). Graphing in the Information Age: Using Data from the World Wide Web. Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 2(5), 298-304. [Online.] Available http://www.nctm.org/mtms/1997/03/vol2-no5-dixon.htm

1. Continuation of the discussion of curriculum uses and the Internet.
• Asynchronous Tools
• RealVideo
• Synchronous Tools
• Internet Relay Chat
• NetMeeting
• CUSeeMe

• Harris, J. (1995). Educational Telecomputing Projects: Interpersonal Exchanges. The Computing Teacher, 22(6),60-64. [Online.] Available http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/Mining/March95-TCT.html
• Harris, J. (1995). Educational Telecomputing Projects: Information Collections. Learning and Leading with Technology, 22(7). [Online.] Available http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/Mining/April95-TCT.html
• Harris, J. (1995). Educational Telecomputing Activities: Problem-Solving Projects. Learning and Leading with Technology, 22(8), 59-63. [Online.] Available http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/Mining/May95-TCT.html
• Judi Harris' Network-Based Educational Activity Collection  This site contains links to the types of activities that Ms. Harris describes in each of these articles.  Notice how the collection has been updated in succeding years.

1. Curriculum Indexes and Search facilities
2. Guest speaker (Newark and Georgetown): Helen Foss, Sr. Associate for Program Development, University of Delaware Education Research & Development Center
3. Guest speaker (Milford): Wesley Stack, Supervisor Educational Technology, Milford School District

Topic:  Delaware's Progress with Instructional Management Systems
4. Other topics as submitted by class members via email.

• Moersch , Christopher. (1995). Levels of Technology Implementation (LoTi): A Framework for Measuring Classroom Technology Use. Learning and Leading with Technology, 23(3), 59-63. [Online.] Available http://www.iste.org/Resources/Projects/21Century/moersch.htm

On this day, each student should be prepared to describe and show samples the curriculum project they have developed. Presentations should be no longer than five (5) minutes. Class members will offer constructive criticism which can be applied to the final version.

Bibliography:

Kehoe, Brendan and Mixon, Victoria. (1997) Children and the Internet: A Zen Guide for Parents and Educators. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall PTR.