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- On January 22nd, 2008, PBS Frontline aired Growing Up Online, a special on how the Internet is affecting the lives
and education of today’s youth. The full program is available for viewing at the PBS Frontline Site. A teacher's guide is also available to aid teachers in lesson planning and supplement student learning.
- A recent YouTube video entitled Pay Attention outlines suggestions for teachers to engage students by using technology
in their classrooms. It can be viewed here.
- Online Lesson Plans – As mentioned in the Technology: Friend or Foe? section of this website, the Internet
can be used as a lesson planning resource.
- The site that has been the greatest resource for me this year is www.readwritethink.org, which offers free access to materials that will enrich reading and language arts instruction. Materials found on this site
include but are not limited to: lesson plans, graphic organizers, book lists, and printable and online student activities.
- PBS Teachers also offers lesson plans sorted by topic and grade level.
Note: For a larger list of web resources, see the Web Links to Learning page, where you will find many websites
that offer support to teachers and students wishing to use the Internet to complement classroom learning.
Strategies
→ Before introducing web-based learning activities to students, plan a activity to warn students about sources on the
Internet that lack credibility. For example, one teacher explained a strategy he used to caution students on trusting www.wikipedia.org as a reliable source.
“Sometimes with students, to show them the power of Wikipedia and the fact that it can be edited, because
they don't really realize that, I'll set up an assignment that involves some arcane piece of history and then create a Wikipedia
article that refers to it and have the students go out and use that Wikipedia article, because I know they're looking for
it. I'll put an article up at 8:00 and have them do a homework assignment, and then around 9:30 or 10:00 at night I'll change
the article. You'll see the students who did it later in the evening come up with an entirely different answer. Then the next
day in class I'll bring them up and say, "OK, let's see what your answers are," and show them I can tell what time you did
your homework by what your answer is, and then introduce the idea that Wikipedia is something that changes all the time. ”
-Steve Maher, From PBS Frontline's Growing Up Online
→ Ensure that you talk with students about privacy issues on the internet.
- For Junior students, the Media Awareness Network offers educational games, including The Adventures of the Cyber-Pigs, which explains to students to the importance of protecting their privacy on the Internet, and raises the issue of cyber-bullying.
- For Intermediate students, Jo Cool OR Jo Fool tests students’ savvy Internet surfing skills.
- All of the educational games offered by the Media Awareness Network include Teacher Resource Guides.
→ As often as possible, use media to enrich your lessons and get students engaged in classroom discussion. For example:
- Use video to show students what life would have been like for the characters in a novel being studied.
- Bring commercials or clips from television shows into your classroom to encourage students to think critically about the
media in their lives.
→ If sending students to use a website, consider using the Toronto District School Board's Checklist for Evaluating a Website
Recommended Reading
Cart, M. (2007). Teens and the future of reading. American Libraries, 38(9), 52-54.
Kara-Soteriou, J., Zawilinski, L., & Henry, L. (2007). Children's books and technology in the classroom: A dynamic combo for
supporting the writing workshop. The Reading Teacher, 60(7), 698-707.
Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (2003). New literacies: Changing knowledge and classroom learning. Buckingham, England: Open University
Press.
Leu, D.J., Jr., Kinzer, C.K., Coiro, J.L., & Cammack, D.W. (2004). Toward a theory of new literacies emerging from the Internet
and other Information and Communication Technologies.
Lewis, T. (1999). Research in Technology Education – Some Areas of Need. Journal of Technology Education, 10(2), 41-56.
Monke, L. (2004). The human touch: In the rush to place a computer on every desk, schools are neglecting intellectual creativity
and personal growth. Education Next, 4(4), 10-14.
Monke, L. W. (2006). The overdominance of computers. Educational Leadership, 63(4), 20-23.
O'Hanlon, C. (2007). If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. T.H.E. Journal, 34(8), 39-44.
PBS Frontline (2008). Growing Up Online. Originally aired January 22nd, 2008. Full program and transcripts available from
PBS Frontline.
Witte, S. (2007). "That's online writing, not boring school writing": Writing with blogs and the talkback project. Journal
of Adolescent Adult Literacy, 51(2), 92-96.
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