Chapter 1 - Web Literacy for Educators

Chapter 1 - Web Basics for Critical Thinking

Before we send our students to the Web for research, they should be prepared to understand the basic rules of how the content is organized, referenced, and validated. When we were growing up our range of content was controlled - go to the library and do your research. With digital technology, the old controls are gone.

As teachers it is our responsibility to teach our students how to make meaning from a very complex and constantly shifting global warehouse of information and communication. To protect our students from the wealth of misinformation on the Internet we need to teach the students the grammar of the Internet and how to read a Web address which is often essential to establishing the authenticity of a Web site.

We need to teach our students the meaning of the following:

IP Address - Web browsers call up addresses (IP - Internet protocol)
Domain name - ex. - cnn.com
URL - another name for a Web address (URL - Uniform Resource Locator)
www - World Wide Web
Web browser - a computer program that lets you browse the Internet
Home page - acts like an index or the front cover of a book or magazine
Link - lets you surf the Web and navigate through related sources with split-second connections
Truncating a URL - deleting all characters up to the previous left slash which moves you up a level in the organization of the site

Assessment for students on pages 14, 15 and 16. Thirteen questions that could be put on your Promethean Board to check understanding. Could be used as a pretest and then a post test after teaching a unit on Web literacy.

Questions to think about and discuss from Chapter 1:

1. If you believe that all students should be Web literate, what is the best strategy for our district to prepare students with this skill?

2. What skills should all teachers have to be Web literate?

3. What role should school filtering play in our district? Who should make this decision?

Chapter 5 - Empowering Students With Technology

Chapter 5 - Building Knowledge Without Boundaries: Online Learning

It is possible in the near future that online learning will become the predominant way in which students learn. One fear of naysayers is that the quality of education will be sacrificed with online learning. There are many pros and cons of online learning.

Some students feel safer expressing themselves online. No one can tell by your online engagement that you are overweight, have sits, or wear braces. It is hard to exclude each other when you are learning online. To be successful, you cannot be a hermit.

Students who have failed courses while they were sitting in classrooms can be very successful learning online. Students who enjoy computers are usually motivated to do well because they like the visuals and kinesthetic experiences of using computers. Students have to be self-disciplined and be responsible when engaging in online learning. As in most cases, not all students in your classroom will be a good online learner. Differentiated learning will still be expected.

Chapter 4 - Empowering Students With Technology

Chapter 4 - Accessing Primary Sources to Enhance Critical Thinking

Using primary sources is essential to learning in the classroom. With technology, primary sources have come alive with authentic feedback which can be managed in every classroom. Not all students come prepared with being able to successfully research a subject using primary resources. The role of the teacher is to provide structure and direction to a student's ability to make meaning of their primary source discoveries.

Teaching students to be diligent in evaluating primary resources before using them is the classroom teacher's responsibility. Teachers need to have students question the authenticity of the resource, raise questions to probe students' thinking skills, help students excess experts to correspond or converse with and finding authentic audiences for students. In doing so, students will become less vulnerable to misinformation on the Internet.

Chapter 3 - Empowering Students With Technology

Chapter 3 - Emerging Roles Within the Knowledge Community

The role of the teacher in the classroom has shifted from being the center of the classroom to facilitating on the side. In the past, the teacher was in control of when and how learning was taking place in the classroom. The role of the student was to follow the rules and regulations when completing assisnments.

The role of the teacher in a technology rich classroom has shifted to challenging students to exceed their own expectations. Students that are in technology rich classrooms have the sense of owning their learning instead of seeing it as an assignment from the teacher. As teachers we need to step aside and let the students manage more of their own learning. Students will excel if we let them go above and beyond our expectations or restrictions.

Chapter 2 - Empowering Students With Technology

Chapter 2 - Expanding Relationships

Today's students must learn how to work with people all over the world. Teaching students how to use technology tools is the easy part. As teachers we need to focus more on teaching students to be more information literate and communications literate. We need to teach students to develop global communications skills.

To prepare our students for future learning we need to go outside of our classrooms by using fax machines, video conferencing, e-mails to other cultures, using web cams, and creating websites. As we connect our students to other cultures with real world communications through technology we must teach our students to be sensitive to various components of the different cultures.