Teaching Using the Internet

Dr.Aniekan Ebiefung
University of Chattanooga Foundation Associate Professor
Department of Mathematics
University of Tenneessee at Chattanooga

Table of Contents

1. How we Assimilate New Information
2. How the Internet Enhances the Teaching Process
3. Advantages of Students Using the Internet for Learning
4. Disadvantages of Using the Internet for Education
5. Key to a Successful Use of the Internet for Teaching
6. Internet Activities Appropriate for Education
7. Controversies over the use of Technology in the Classroom

1. How We Assimilate New Information

The answer to the first question can be represented by the oversimplified illustration in Figure 1. As the diagram explains, information received in the senses first go to the short-term memory. The short-term memory does not store information for a long time. If conditions are conducive, the information goes to the long-term memory through the sphincters. Otherwise, the information is flushed out.

We now use an example to demonstrate the consequences of this assimilation process. Suppose a teacher gives an examination to a class of twenty students and ten students got Bs. If she gives the same exam again after two weeks to the ten students who got the Bs, how many of them will get Bs for the second time? There is no definite answer to this question. It depends on how each student was able to transfer the skills needed for the exam from the short-term memory to the long-term memory. Students, who moved all the facts from the short-term memory to the long-term memory, where there is understanding, should be able to get Bs or even As on the second examination. On the other hand, students who were not able to move all the facts tested from the short-term memory to the long-term memory should be expected to get less than Bs.

An ideal learning process, as the above example suggests, should enable all students to transfer all the information learned from the short-term memory to the long-term memory. As you probably guess, this is not an easy task nor is it the duty of the teacher alone. Both the student and teacher have roles to play in the transfer process.

The student's responsibility is to find the template and hooks that fasten the information to the long-term memory. To do this, the student should be able to discover and own the knowledge. How can a student do that? The following example shows it is possible and the best way to learn. In my trigonometry class in high school, we learned that the values of all the trigonometry functions are positive in the first quadrant. Moreover, that the values of the sine and its reciprocal, the values of the tangent and its reciprocal, and the values of the cosine and its reciprocal are positive in the second, third, and forth quadrants, respectively. Some of us came up with the mnemonic CAST, where C means the cosine and its reciprocal are positive in the forth quadrant, and so on, as explained in Figure 2.

Any time I say or hear the word cast I remember the lesson and the facts. This is only one example of how to discover and own knowledge. There are other ways. In fact, many students in the class had different ways of remembering the facts from the lesson. Have you in the past used a process similar to this? This is a good skill you should teach your students. In the next section, we summarize how the Internet can assist the student in the assimilation process.

Your responsibility, as a teacher, is to facilitate, promote, and expedite the transfer of information from the short-term memory to the long-term memory. To accomplish this task, you must provide avenues and an environment in which your students can create, discover, and own their knowledge. The Internet can assists you to accomplish this task as described in the next section.

2. How the Internet Enhances the Teaching Process

1. Providing Students with Motivation: You want to teach using the Internet because you want to change, improve, add a new dimension to your teaching, or vary the types and increase the quality of activities assigned to your students. This is your motivation, the driving force behind your buying this book or attending Internet and computer seminars.

   In a similar vein, your students need some motivation. Allowing your students to use the Internet in their learning is a motivational push to students who are bored by the traditional ways of information delivery, and thereby expedite the transfer of information from the short-term memory to the long-term memory. I believe that one of the attributes of a good teacher is the ability to motivate the "lost" student, the ability to reach out to the unreachable in his/her class. The Internet allows you to motivate some of the lost students in your classes, and thereby accelerate the assimilation process.

2. Questioning and Discovery: According to an African proverb, A person who asks questions understands a new language faster. Some subjects, such as mathematics, are like new languages to many of our students. You should encourage and provide your students with avenues to ask questions. Good questions by you can excite interest in a rather boring subject. Using the Internet for educational activities provides a different avenue for discovery through questioning, and for critical evaluation of information.

   It is also important that you answer students' questions properly and timely. This is why you must constantly retrain according to the needs of the time. For this information age, you must be vexed with the personal and educational uses of the Internet. If not, you stand to be embarrassed by some of your students.

3. Communicating and Using Knowledge: The constant use of knowledge enhances understanding and long-term memory. Using knowledge in different settings give you a better understanding of the different shades of meaning of the concepts involved in a giving learning situation. Communication is a way of using knowledge. It is a source for re-enforcement. The Internet promotes fast communication across geographical barriers, and therefore gives students an opportunity to communicate early in life with a broad range of people not imagined possible before.
4. Well Designed Lesson Plans: The resources and communication capabilities of the Internet provide an opportunity for you to creatively design integrated lesson plans and assignments that combine problem solving, writing, critical thinking, discovery, and exploration. Properly designed, such lessons allow and encourage your students to ask questions and be involved in the learning process, and be the creators of their own knowledge. For an example, in Teaching Mathematics with the Internet Workshop (http://www.utc.edu/~thecmath) participants were coached to develop such integrated lesson plans. Moreover, there are numerous quality lesson plans on the Internet, which you can download free and modify to suit your particular classroom needs.
5. Professional Development: Professional development is a key to updating skills and for career advancement. Among others, you can use the Internet to join a discussion group, subscribe to a news group, take classes, and keep in touch with professional colleagues.
6. Class Management: You can post class lessons, homework problems, and practice exams on the Net for students to access from home, from the library, or from any place that has access to the Net. Parents can access the Web pages to confirm the homework problems their children are required to do. Moreover, the homework could be structured in such a way that the student can progress from simpler to more challenging activities by means of hyperlinks. In addition to posting class lessons and homework, you can have a class bulletin board on your Web site. In this way, or by a mailing list, students can get involved in class discussions in a manner not possible in the classroom. This medium can also be used to resolve problems between class periods. For example, suppose there is no class before an exam in two days time. If one of the students e-mail a question to you that may be of interest to other students in the class before the exam, then you could post such a question and the answer on the bulletin board or send it to all students through the mailing list.

   In conclusion, the Internet allows you to add content to your lessons and to disseminate useful information to students and parents without waste of valuable class time.

7. Ease of Lesson Presentation: If you publish your lesson on the Internet, it allows you to color code or graphically present key concepts. As I mentioned before, you can also use hyperlinks to direct students to related materials. Thus the Internet will enhance the quality of your classroom's presentation, if done through the Internet.
8. Examination Administration: There are many software, such as Web Course in a Box, which allows you to give and grade exams on the Internet. This provides some degree of flexibility that could be used to accommodate students who have genuine reasons not to take the exam at a given time.

   A major problem with online testing is security. To prevent cheating, the exam could be given in a laboratory setting whereby a student has to identify himself or herself before taking the exam. Moreover, consider making it possible for each student or so to take different version of the same examination.

3. Advantages of Students Using the Internet for Learning

1. Motivating Factor: The Internet can act as a motivating tool for many students. Young people are very captivated with technology. Educators must capitalize on this interest, excitement, and enthusiasm about the Internet for the purpose of enhancing learning. For already enthusiastic learners, the Internet allows you to provide them with additional learning activities not readily available in the classroom.
2. Fast Communication: The Internet promotes fast communication across geographical barriers. Your students can join collaborative projects that involve students from different states, countries or continents. This type of learning experience was not possible before the Internet. I consider this unique learning experience very essential for each of our students, as the world is becoming one big community.
3. Access to Information: The Net allows easy access to information all over the world. It complements the library. If all schools are linked to the Internet and all teachers are trained on how to use the Internet for teaching, the gaps between students in poor and rich schools would be narrowed.
4. Interactive Activities: There are many interactive activities on the Internet for students of all ages. What could be better than students playing games and learning at the same time? While it is true that interactive activities are available through other media, unlike other media, those from the Internet are often free.
5. Cooperative Learning: The Internet facilitates cooperative learning, encourages dialogue, and creates a more engaging classroom. For example, a LISTSERV for your class will allow your students to get involved in class discussions through e-mails in a way not possible within the four walls of the classroom.
6. Locating Research Materials: Apart from communication, research is what takes many people to the Internet. There are many more resources on the Internet than the school library can provide. Please encourage your students to take advantage of this wealth of resources on the Internet for their research.
7. Acquiring Varied Writing Skills: If students are required to publish their work on the Internet, they have to develop hypertext skills. These skills help students gain experience in non-sequential writings. Moreover, and since the Internet is open to all with access, students publishing their work on the Internet are forced to be mindful of their language and to write to non-expert audience.
8. The Work Environment: Many businesses have Web sites and some require computer skills for employment. Using the Internet in the classroom makes it possible for students to easily adapt to the work environment, during school time or after graduation. Many employers post job listings on the Internet and some even seek preliminary information through the Internet. There are also Internet sites that help students in their job search. If your students are familiar with the Internet, they are likely to take advantage of these jobs opportunities on the Internet.

   For an example, student can use a service like America's JobBank to look for a job.

4. Disadvantages of Using the Internet for Education

1. Plagiarism: Apart from Web sites that claim to help students write term papers, there are numerous cases of students downloading information from the Net and turning them in for grades. You can minimize this problem by requiring students to cite research sources. There is an online service, Plagiarism.org at http://www.plagiarism.org/, which can assist you in minimizing cases of plagiarism in your class. This service claims to prevent plagiarism by determining if a term paper has been copied from the Internet or not.
2. Inappropriate Site: It is very easy for students to accidentally, and sometimes deliberately, visit inappropriate sites. There are reported cases in which a search for taxes, NASA, or the White House resulted in pornographic sites. By specifying the Web sites students should use for research, or by allowing them to use only students' friendly search tools, you can minimize visits to inappropriate sites. The appendix in Chapter 2 gives some of the students' friendly Internet tools and sites you may consider using in your classes.
3. Student Privacy: Criminals, marketers, and other persons can easily get information from students when they are online. These could post danger to students' lives or may even lead to litigation against the school. To avoid this problem, students should be educated on the dangers of giving information to people online. Parents and teachers need to supervise students' online activities.
4. Age Appropriate Information: Anybody with a Web server can put any information on the Internet. The levels of some write-ups are beyond the education level of most students, and are therefore subject to misinterpretation. Moreover, some of the information on the Internet is wrong, adulterated, instigating, or misleading at best. Students who cannot discriminate against information may become influenced in an inappropriate manner.
5. Low Income Groups: According to the US Department of Education, over 50% of public schools with a high minority enrollment had a lower rate of Internet access than public schools with a low minority enrollment in 1997. The same was true of instructional rooms in those schools. In addition, students from low-income families may not have computers at home or may have computers at home with no access to the Internet. Consequently, students in low-income communities may be disadvantaged. To reduce the effect that social or economic status may have, you should give Internet assignments that students can easily complete while in school. If necessary, schools may need to keep computer labs open for longer and/or odd hours. The use of computers at public libraries should also be encouraged.
6. Preparation Time: It takes a lot of preparation time to effectively use the Net for education. In addition to designing Internet based lesson plans, you may have to surf the Internet to download lesson plans and adapt them to support your curriculum objectives or visit sites to select those appropriate for your class. You have no choice but prepare in order to help your students become responsible user of the Internet.
7. Lack of Student-Teacher Interaction: If you stand in front of a class, then you can easily recognize students who don't understanding certain aspects of the lesson by their facial expressions. When this happens, you can go back and re-explain the points to the students. Similarly, students can, through your body language or the tone of your voice, guess the main points of the lesson. Unfortunately, this personal touch is not available if the course if 100% online.
8. New Administrative Responsibilities: Teaching using the Internet brings to bear a new set of administrative demands on the teacher and the school administration. These include development and implementation of acceptable use policy, training, developing new evaluation criteria as needed, and addressing parents' concerns.

5. Key to Successfull Use of the Internet for Teaching

1. Knowledge and Usage of the Internet and its services: Many of the Internet projects require students to communicate with students from different states or countries via electronic mail or mailing lists or other news groups. According to the Chattanooga Times of December 12, 1996, most teachers cannot navigate the Internet effectively. To successfully use the Internet for teaching, you must know how to access the various services available through the Internet. Apart from assisting you in class preparation, a good knowledge of the Internet allows you to assist your students in their class activities involving the Internet.

   Moreover, it has been reported that the majority of teachers who use the Internet in teaching are those who believe that the Internet is a new way for doing things. These teachers also use the Internet for shopping, banking, looking for mortgage rates, and et cetera. I encourage you to do so.

2. Training on a continual basis: You have to know the subject matter in order to teach your students and others. Since the Internet is a dynamic medium, you must train on a continual basis to effectively meet your students' needs regarding their Internet activities. A study commissioned by the American Association of School Administrators in 1997 found that computer training is essential for effective use of technology in the classroom. Moreover, do not be surprised if some of your students know more about the Internet than you do. You should not shy away from learning from others, even from your students.
3. Availability of equipment and technical assistance: During the different Internet workshops I have conducted, teachers told stories of computer boxes in their classrooms that have not been opened after six months or more. Some lamented about having to make Internet wiring of their classrooms by themselves, and of having to wait for six months or more before hardware problem request is addressed. These are not environments for effective use of technology in the classroom. In addition to buying the equipment, the school or school system should employ a computer teacher who can answer questions on curricular issues and software usage, and a technical assistant who can address hardware or software hitches.
4. . Supportive administration: The administration should be willing to provide time and money for in-service training, employment of a computer teacher, and for the purchasing of equipment. The administration should help in a positive way in solving some of the problems that may arise as a result of your using the Internet as a tool in your classroom.
5. Collaboration with other teachers: You should collaborate with other teachers in the school and in the system. Cooperation and mutual understanding is very important especially when the school has few Internet accounts.
6. Advanced planning: A teacher who does not plan on how to teach a given lesson is planning to fail, to paraphrase a popular statement. You should visit the Internet to look for sites, evaluate materials, and choose the appropriate sites for your class. This way you can be sure that the resources from the site support your curriculum goals.
7. Efficient use of technology: Students should be trained to use the available technology efficiently. For example, if you require your students to join a mailing list, then they must be trained to use e-mail efficiently and ethically.
8. Using the Internet as a Tool: The Internet should be a part of an integrated teaching system. It should be seen as a tool that supports and enhances learning, and not as a means by itself. A poll result conducted by Global Strategy in April 1997 shows that this is the only way that the Internet adds value to the learning process.
9. Responsible use of the Internet: You should help your students become responsible users of the Net. Information obtained from the Net should be critically evaluated and compared with other sources. In searching the Net the student should always have in mind the objectives and goals of the project and avoid unnecessary deviations to irrelevant sites.
10. . Provision of Web sites and Search Tools: You should provide your students, if necessary, with search engines to use for their searches. For example, you can restrict the students to only search engines especially designed for educational use, you could restrict the number of search engines to be used, or you can restrict the sites to be visited to only educational and government sites.
11. . Adoption of an acceptable use policy: You should abide strictly to the letter of the acceptable use policy you have for your class. Some schools or school systems have developed acceptable use policies for teachers in their jurisdictions. If your school or system has one, please use it. If it has not, it is imperative that you develop one for your class. Chapter 6 of this book is devoted to issues of fair use and acceptable use policy. There is also a sample acceptable use policy statement that you can customize for your class.
12. . Appropriate and exciting projects: Internet assignments or projects should not be over complicated, boring or too demanding. They should be creative and exciting.
13. Genuine Interest in the Process: It is my opinion that nobody, including you, should be forced to use the Internet, or any technology for teaching. If a teacher has no genuine interested in the process; it is very likely that the teacher will not use the Internet effectively in her/his teaching. In the long run, the students are going to be the victims. We should not allow this to happen.
14. Good Reward System: As we pointed out before, it takes a lot of time to effectively use the Internet for teaching. There should be evidence that the teacher's activities will be rewarded.
15. Evaluation Method: If you use the Internet for teaching, how would you access students' progress? You should develop an appropriate evaluation method for your class. This is particularly important if you get your students involved in collaborative projects that you have no direct supervision over.

6. Internet Activities Appropriate for Education

Communication and Collaboration

Visualization and Animation

There are also many interactive programs on the Internet that could be used to re-enforce lessons from the classroom. For example, the interactive math program on the site Math Cove could be used for such a purpose.

Current Data and Data Analysis

Publishing

Research Resources

7. Controversies Over the Use of Technology in the Classroom

Supporters' Views:

1. There are places where computers are making a difference in the classroom. These exemplary programs can be adapted with success to the benefit of most students.
2. Most of the studies that show computers are not making a difference are flawed in design.
3. Well-designed researches show that if computers are properly used, student's performances are equal to or greater than those of students in the traditional classrooms.
4. . It is not the computer by itself but how they are used that makes the difference. They emphasize teacher training as a key to effective use of computer technology in the classroom.

Non-Supporters' Views:

1. The nature of teaching involves human process that cannot be automated as in manufacturing. The human 'touch' is very important in learning and computers cannot replace that. They assert that this needed human touch is lacking when computers replace teachers.
2. There is no hard evidence that computers improve student's performances. The examples of successes are isolated cases.
3. The current use of computers is very uninspired and cannot facilitate the learning process. Teachers lack the time needed to develop good applications. Most of the educational software is flawed. Moreover, they cannot be expected to meet the needs of all students or teachers.
4. The training of the future workforce is not an excuse since most employers have to train employees for specific job assignment.
5. The money diverted to computers stifles other programs such as music, arts, and physical education which are essential for the rounded development of the student.
6. Even if the Internet improves learning, no one is yet to prove that the advantages of teaching using the Internet significantly outweigh the advantages of using other cheaper information media.
7. Every new technology brings with it positive and negative impact. Nobody has taken time to analyze the negative impact of exposing children to the Internet may have on their social development.