Internet Tour

EDUC275:

Integrating Technology to Support Teaching and Learning

Introduction
The following web tour is designed to familiarize you with the many types of educational resources available on the Internet including email, research, virtual fieldtrips, quests, collaborative projects and publishing student work on the Internet.  Many of these categories overlap so don’t think of them as exclusive.  As you peruse these sites, think about how you could use them in your classroom to teach your grade level and subject area. 

You can find additional online examples by entering any of these topic headings into a search engine.

I.  EMAIL

A. Ask An Expert

1.  Use one of the sites below to locate an expert on a topic you will teach and answer the following questions.

Pitsco: Ask An Expert http://www.askanexpert.com/

Electronic Emissary Project http://emissary.ots.utexas.edu/emissary/index.html

Ask An Expert Source  http://www.cln.org/int_expert.html

Ask A+ Locator  http://www.vrd.org/locator/index.html

The Mad Scientist Network  http://www.madsci.org/

Readings for More Information:

A Guide for Using Electronic Experts in the Classroom www.connectedteacher.com/newsletter/sum99.asp

B.  E-Pals  -

4. Use one of the sites below to locate an email project appropriate to the grade level/subject area you will teach and answer the following questions.

 ePals Classroom Exchange – www.epals.com

Email Around the World – www.kidlink.org

Math Penpals - www.kidlink.org/KIDPROJ/math00/

Readings for More Information:

Using Email in the Language Arts Curriculum
by Carla Huck 

II.  Research

A.  Creating your own research activity:

Go to Ozline:  Working the Web for Education at - http://tommarch.com/writings/theory.php   

B.  Locating Sites to Use for Research:

Student and Education Search Engines

If you are searching for an educational topic, you will usually get better results (meaning you have to sift through less garbage) if you use a student or education related search engine. 

1) Student Search Engines
Ask Jeeves for Kids – www.ajkids.com
Yahooligans – www.yahooligans.com
KidsClick! - sunsite.berkeley.edu/KidsClick! (This site lists the reading level of web sites also.)
Youth Internet Public Library - http://www.ipl.org/youth/

Teen Internet Public Library - http://www.ipl.org/div/teen/

2) Education Search Engines and Directories

Blue Web'n – http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/

The Internet Public Library – http://www.ipl.org

Education World – http://www.education-world.com

Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators – http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/index.html

3) Online Databases

You can get to the many online databases available to all educational institutions in SC (including K-12 schools) from the Dacus website - http://www.winthrop.edu/dacus. 

C.  Examples of Subject Specific Sites 

1) SC Related Materials

SCETV’s Educational Materials – www.knowitall.org
Includes collection of over 20,000 videos and photographs in a variety of subject areas, this history of SC slide collection including, “African Americana", "S.C. Postcards" and "Yesterday's Children" from the South Caroliniana Library, view an update on the Hunley.  Also links to the SC Aquarium, Marco Polo and NotationStation (for music education).

2) Government

South Carolina:

MySCGov.com- http://www.sc.gov/

USA:

FirstGov – your first click to the US government – www.firstgov.gov

The White House - www.whitehouse.gov

The White House for Kids – www.whitehouse.gov/kids

Other Countries:

CIA World Factbook  - facts about all countries in the world http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html

Readings for More Information:

Big6 Reference Skills – a strategy for teaching students how to do research

http://www.big6.com/

The citation for the entire article is

Eisenberg, M. B. & Berkowitz, R. E. (1992). Information problem-solving: The big six skills approach. School Library Media Activities Monthly, 8(5), 27-29,37,42. (EJ 438 023)

III. Virtual Fieldtrips

Online Expeditions -http://www.globalschoolnet.org/expeditions/index.html  

Impressionists - http://www.impressionism.org/  

Museum of Modern Art Online Exibitions: http://www.moma.org/

Virtual Fieldtrips:  http://www.field-guides.com/

NASA Virtual Fieldtrips: http://quest.nasa.gov/vft/

You can also design your own virtual fieldtrip.  You can guide your students through your fieldtrip by using bookmarks, linking to sites with Word or PowerPoint or writing a web page using a program like FrontPage.

Readings for More Information:

Get Outta Class with Virtual Fieldtrips

 http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/tech071.shtml - how to use virtual fieldtrips in your classroom and links to many other virtual fieldtrip sites

IV. Quests 
 

The Jason Project - http://www.jasonproject.org/

MayaQuest,  - http://quest.nasa.gov/vft/  (There is a subscription fee for participating in these quests.)

V. Collaborative Projects/ Group Projects

The GLOBE Program (science) - http://www.globe.gov/globe_flash.html

Global Schoolhouse Net -  www.gsn.org

Global Wildlife Migration - www.learner.org/jnorth

Tooth Tally Project - wilburnes.wcpss.net/toothtally/tooth02.html

Personal Trainer - http://www.itdc.sbcss.k12.ca.us/curriculum/personaltrainer.html

Technospud Projects - http://www.technospudprojects.com/

VI. Publishing On the Internet

Many students take pride in having their work published on the Internet.  Be sure to read your school’s Acceptable Use Policy regarding posting student work online. 

Midlink Magazine - http://longwood.cs.ucf.edu/~MidLink/

ZuZu – www.zuzu.org

You can also post student work on your own class website.  Just be sure you have teh appropriate permissions.