Web66: A K-12 World Wide Web Project
Chris Collins, Hillside Elementary School
Steve Collins, University of Minnesota
A new tool, already revolutionizing teaching and learning, is available
to classrooms around the country. The tool: the Internet.
For many years computers have been used as a separate part of the curriculum.
We taught Lego Logo, keyboarding, and simulated real life using our computers.
Now, in the age of graduation standards and curriculum compacting, educators
are beginning to use computers and the Internet as a teaching tool...a means
to an end instead of an end in itself.
Through use of the World Wide Web, teachers share lessons, curriculum
and ideas without ever leaving their own classrooms. Having access to the
Internet gives educators a powerful tool to conduct research in teaching
practices from their desktop. They use this tool to access information and
conduct research on current educational trends that effect their classroom.
The opportunity to learn from each other improves what happens for learners
and strengthens each teacher's ability to meet individual student needs.
The World Wide Web is a wonderful vehicle to publish student work. Currently,
more than 2,000 K-12 schools publish student work on the Web providing a
global audience for their students. It may be as simple as a page describing
a student's goals, interests, and family. One such sixth grader, Erica,
wrote about her family, her school activities and her love for music and
reading. Through the web, Erica was able to create a global presence for
herself and to begin communicating to people around the world with similar
interests. Erica received mail from musicians and even a famous author who
asked for her help in creating a home page.
After creating a home page, Hillside students were able to publish their
poetry, stories, and research projects online. The children created a "Choose
Your Own Adventure" for the Internet. After learning about story structure,
characterization, and use of descriptive phrases, the students collaborated
as a class to create The Buzz Rod Story.
Knowing they were publishing a story for a global audience, students
felt it was important to use facts. Using an atlas, the students chose the
city of Grand Rapids, Michigan to begin their story. They put Buzz Rod in
a candy apple red Dodge Viper with black interior and sent him cruising
down 1-69. The students ended their class story at an exciting point and
then each student created an individual ending. To make their endings interactive,
the students created the Random Space Time Warp button. Just click on the
but ton and readers are randomly sent to one of the individual student endings.
Once the students published their stories on the World Wide Web, they
received mail from pre-service teachers, students and other adults from
around the world. The mail motivates them to improve their writing skills.
The Internet is a powerful research tool. Through the World Wide Web,
students can access the most current information on the topics being studied.
Students can discuss topics with experts and access research models created
by those experts. Hillside Elementary students researched topics such as
dinosaurs, comets, World War II, natural disasters, and the human heart.
Because the students used the Internet as a tool while doing their research,
they were able to communicate with anthropologists, astronomers, World War
II survivors, meteorologists and heart surgeons.
Students learned to evaluate the information they were accessing. They
learned to ask good questions to gather the information needed. They drew
their own conclusions based on the first hand information. They experienced
the research process and moved far beyond summarizing the research of others.
Using the Internet encourages communication and collaboration. Collaborative
projects have enabled Hillside Elementary students to develop a global understanding
of community, work, economics, government and culture. In cooperation with
businesses, students participate in on-line apprenticeships and mentorships.
While Hillside students share their experiences about living in Minnesota
with Hawaiian students, they learn about the culture of Hawaii. By collaborating
with the Monterey Academy of Oceanographic Science in Monterey, California,
a third grade class at Hillside has learned about the ocean and has come
to understand our economic dependency on the oceans of the world. Teachers
who use the Internet to communicate and collaborate with each other benefit
from sharing teaching strengths. They form discussion groups in which they
create on-line forums to discuss current educational trends.
The Mustang portion of Web66 is an exciting vehicle for educators to
cruise the web with their students. Using the analogy of the Internet as
a highway, Mustang takes teachers through three stages of project design:
Preparing to Travel, Taking the Trip, and Returning to Home.
While preparing to travel, the educator visits the travel agent. The
travel agent offers examples of how to use the Internet for learning.
It is equally important for the teacher to service the vehicle. Servicing
the vehicle helps educators find examples of acceptable-use policies, permission-to-publish
forms, and the Minnesota State Graduation Standards.
To take the trip on the Internet, travelers need to select some destinations.
The Mustang "select your destinations link" provides a menu of jump pages
divided by subject areas, giving a guided tour of the Internet in the K
12 setting.
Planning the route involves designing a project that incorporates state
graduation standards and district outcomes. Mustang provides an example
of an Internet project design.
With the plan in hand, the teacher and class hit the road. The "hit the
road" link on Mustang gives travel tips for the implementation of the Internet
into the classroom.
Once the class has taken the Internet trip, travelers need to return
home and unpack their loot. In this section of Mustang, teachers will find
an example of how to evaluate their Internet project.
Upon returning home, teachers can view the published results of other
student projects to possibly implement in their own classrooms. This link
is what Mustang terms the "slide show."
The goals of the Web66 project are:
- To help K-12 educators learn how to set up their own Internet servers.
- To link K-12 WWW servers and the educators and students at those
schools.
- To help K-12 educators find and use K-12 appropriate resources on
the WWW.
Without access to an Internet server in the classroom, it is much more
difficult to conduct meaningful collaborative projects. Students and teachers
are limited to looking at resources others have provided.
Web66 provides technical information and resources that allow almost
anyone to quickly set up their own Internet server. By setting up their
own classroom server, students and teachers can create and publish their
own work on the web, set up and use their own personal e-mail accounts,
and easily share resources on the Internet.
The great potential of the Internet in education is the power to collaborate
and communicate with others throughout the world. Any school with a home
page can register its location in the Web66 Registry of School Web Sites,
which provides links to thousands of school home pages throughout the world.
The Web66 server also provides links to technical information and other
resources from the Internet appropriate for classroom use.
Go to Web66!
The authors wish to thank the University of Minnesota and the College
of Education and Human Development for the continued support of the Web66
project. We welcome your comments and questions regarding Web66.
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