Effective Ways to Use the Web with Your Students
Susan Brooks-Young
Educational Consultant
If you've wanted to make creative use of the Internet in student instruction, but didn't know where to start, you're not alone. Education Week's annual Technology Counts report indicates that while the ratio of computers to students has increased, educators are now having difficulty finding answers to their many questions regarding how students can use technology effectively in their learning.
Technology integration is still new territory for most teachers, and eighty-two percent of the teachers surveyed for the report said that they do not have enough training or time to develop the kinds of technology-based lessons they would like to use with their students. Most technology-use staff development for teachers continues to focus on entry-level proficiencies: teachers receive little or no guidance how to design and use technology-based lessons that require students to think about concepts and demonstrate their understanding through creative projects.
Students' responses also indicate that computers and other technologies could be better used in the classroom. According to the 500 students in grades 7-12 who were surveyed for the report, computers are used by teachers to cover basics, but often these activities don't relate to what students are currently studying in class and generally are not structured to help them work with concepts in new or different ways. Students who do use application software in school report they are generally directed toward use of word processing to write papers or Internet search engines to conduct online research; but typically students are not asked to use technology tools to work with information beyond tracking it down and writing a paper.
This month's column takes a look at several paths you can take to design more effective Internet-based lessons for students, shares some helpful models, gives resources for tools you can use when writing lessons, and directs you to examples of lessons created by other teachers.
What are some of the approaches being taken?
WebQuests
One of the best known Internet instructional strategies is the WebQuest developed in 1995 by Bernie Dodge, a professor of educational technology at San Diego State University, and long-time proponent of appropriate classroom technology use. Dodge, along with colleague Tom March, created the WebQuest approach to help the teachers he worked with support student learning through Internet use.
A WebQuest is an activity based on the inquiry instructional approach where most, if not all the information used by students is Internet-based. WebQuests can be developed for any content area and are either short term, requiring 1-3 classroom sessions to complete, or long term, taking from one week to a full month to finish. The purpose of the WebQuest approach is to encourage students to do more than simply find information; they are also asked to make sense of what they find and demonstrate their understanding of material by creating some kind of product on or off-line.
The WebQuest structure consists of six elements. Briefly, these are:
- Introduction: An explanation of the purpose of the WebQuest and source of background information
- Task: A description of what is to be accomplished by completing the WebQuest
- Information Sources: A listing of resources that may include Internet sites, content area experts who are available to students via email, scheduled video conferences, print materials, and classroom resources
- Process: The steps students take to complete the activity
- Guidance: Answers to frequently asked questions students may have about the process and/or directions for completing specific elements of steps given in the process
- Conclusion: Provides closure for the activity
The WebQuest page created by Bernie Dodge and the Filamentality site sponsored by Pacific Bell both offer free tools that will walk you through the WebQuest design process.
Additional models
For teachers who want to expand their use of the Internet, but aren't sure they're ready to tackle a full-blown WebQuest, the Filamentality site offers four additional fill-in-the-blank Internet-based lesson design tools.
- Hotlists: This format is rudimentary, but helpful for those times when you want students to conduct guided Internet research. When students are simply given a topic to research and a suggested search engine to use, they often end up wasting a great deal of time simply deciding which sites to review. A Hotlist is an annotated collection of related Internet sites that you identify ahead of time, and then direct students to when they begin researching a topic. Not only is this a time saver for students, but also the Hotlist points them toward sites you have reviewed and selected for them to use in their research, ensuring that the information they find is valid and relevant.
- Multimedia Scrapbooks: This application is still at an entry level, but slightly more sophisticated in terms of student use. A Multimedia Scrapbook is a collection of sites that you have reviewed and categorized in a particular way, i.e., maps, images, video or audio clips. Students then use the scrapbook to find supporting images and documents to use in either on or off-line projects. When building a scrapbook it is very important that you include the copyright statement that is provided in the online sample. This statement reminds students that they must get permission from the owners of the sites they visit prior to downloading images or text to use in a project.
- Treasure Hunt: This activity is designed to direct students to specific sites (10-15 are recommended) to find answers to specific questions you write for them. You need to review the sites as you develop the Treasure Hunt to be certain that the answer to the question is actually available at the particular site. An activity of this type is most successful when students are working with a topic that holds high interest for them, yet they have little or no background information about the content. While you can develop simple comprehension level questions, students will benefit more from working with questions that require them to think creatively. You close the activity with a question that asks students to interpret the information they have gathered and explain what they have learned.
- Subject Sampler: A sampler works well when students already have some background information about a topic and are looking for an approach to the subject that interests them. The online tool enables you to build a list of Internet sites (six is recommended) that address a related topic. Students are asked to visit each site in the sampler and answer the questions you have written about the site from their own perspective. Once they have completed the sampler, students have a better idea where their own interests lie in relationship to the subject and can work from there to design and complete a larger project.
What are the time demands for teachers?
The amount of time required to plan and use Internet integrated lessons varies depending upon the lesson type and whether you develop your own or use an existing lesson, but it definitely takes more time to begin with. At the very least you need to spend time searching for and reviewing existing lessons. Online resources you might want to look at for existing WebQuests and other Internet-based lessons are given below.
If you decide to create your own lesson, you will need to spend the same amount of time you normally would identifying objectives, developing activities, and creating an assessment tool. In addition you will need to spend time searching for sites to use in the lesson. This takes practice at first, but is facilitated by using a good search engine such as Google.com or AltaVista.com. You need to check sites carefully prior to recommending them for student use. The library at Cornell University has a list of criteria to consider when evaluating a Web site. There is another list of criteria available from Seabury Hall, University of California Berkeley.
Once you have done your homework on researching sites, you're ready to develop your own Internet-based lessons using the templates provided at the sites mentioned earlier in this article.
Other planning considerations and classroom implementation
As you choose or write an Internet-based lesson, you need to think about what kind of Internet access you have and how you will use the lesson in the classroom. How many Internet-connected systems do you have access to? Will all work take place in the classroom or do you need to go to a computer lab? Does your school have an Intranet that allows you to store the WebQuest and linked sites on a file server on site, making an actual Internet connection unnecessary? It is possible to use Internet-based lessons under less-than-ideal conditions, but it requires thought and pre-planning.
Use of this type of lesson may change your approach to instruction because they are often written based on the expectation that students will work in small, collaborative groups where they have some degree of control over the pacing of the tasks they complete. Culminating activities generally ask students to use critical thinking skills to demonstrate that they are able to apply their new learning in some way. You may find that you assume a role with students which is oriented more toward support, with less direct instruction occurring.
What are some reliable resources?
If your interest is peaked and you want to learn more about these creative uses of the Internet with students, it's best to go straight to the source. The WebQuest Page, developed by Bernie Dodge can be accessed at http://edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest/webquest.html. You will find information and a matrix of sample WebQuests to review and use. The Filamentality site also offeres Blue Web'n, a library of award winning Internet sites for librarians and teachers that includes samples of all five types of activities you can develop using the templates at the site. Use the examples as guides to developing your own lessons, or have your students work with the existing lessons that support your curriculum.
Another reliable resource is Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators site that includes a page devoted to WebQuests. You will find more information about the development of WebQuests along with links to sites that have sample WebQuests.
Internet-based activities are both exciting and rewarding for students and teachers alike. Using the resources available to you through the WebQuest Page and Filamentality will help guide you toward successful, innovative Internet experiences for your class.
Resources
Technology Counts 2001 May 10, 2001). Education Week [Report]. Information about the report is available online: www.edweek.org. Look in the Special Reports section of the Web site.
Copyright 2002 by Peter Li, Inc. Used by permission.
Currently an educational consultant and writer, Susan Brooks-Young has twenty-three years experience as a teacher and administrator. She invites your comments at sjbrooks@aol.com.
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