Forward

A. Welcome

As the Internet and particularly web-based uses of the Internet have become more pervasive in schools, it has become difficult to cover the range of relevant topics that interest teachers within a general book on the instructional applications of technology. We have written this book to offer a more extensive view of Internet applications in classrooms. Our priorities related to the educational uses of the Internet are very strongly related to our general view of the uses of technology and we invite you to explore some of these more general themes at our web site.

B. Using the Internet as a Tool for Meaningful Learning

B.1 The Tools Metaphor

The metaphor present in thinking of technology as a tool offers an important perspective for educators and is at the core of this book. Tool users must invest some effort in the development of skill in using each tool, but the value of developing this skill comes from the application of the tool to meaningful tasks. In most cases, the tool users we are describing are students and the meaningful tasks involve content area knowledge and skills (e.g., language arts, mathematics, history). The structure of this book identifies three broad tool categories:

B.1.a The Internet as a Tool for Communication

The Internet provides learners an efficient method for exchanging information and communicating with others. Students learn from the preparation of messages and from processing the information provided by others. Learning with Internet communication tools is considered in Chapter 3.

B.1.b The Internet as a Tool for Inquiry

The task of solving many types of problems requires the gathering and processing of information resources. The Internet provides access to information resources. Chapters 4 and 5 consider how Internet resources can promote student inquiry and serve as the basis for authentic problem-solving tasks.

B.1.b The Internet as a Tool for Construction

The Internet provides the opportunity to disseminate student created products and such products can serve to guide and motivate learning activity. Chapters 6 and 7 consider the technical and instructional components of learning from the construction of web projects.

B.2 Goals and Perspective Focused on Meaningful Learning

The emphasis of this book is on how students can use Internet tools and resources to develop knowledge and important problem-solving and critical thinking skills appropriate to the content area you teach. Specific goals include:

B.2.a Helping you develop an understanding of meaningful learning, problem-solving, and critical thinking as appropriate to K-12 curricula.

B.2.b The explanation of how Internet tools can contribute to meaningful learning, problem-solving, and critical thinking.

B.2.c The explanation of the basics of using representative Internet tools.

B.2.d Identification of categories of learning activities that can be implemented with specific Internet tools.

B.2.d Identification of factors required for the successful implementation of specific activities.

C. Our Attempt to Provide a Realistic Perspective

We rely on a diverse literature to provide you a solid theoretical foundation for the activities we advocate, but we mostly rely on teachers we know from our own immediate area to provide examples of these activities. We think the descriptive content we can provide about these teachers and their classrooms can be helpful in encouraging you to identify with these teachers and we feel our attempt to primarily rely on a specific publicly funded school district should assure you that these activities are practical rather than overly idealistic.

Mark and Cindy Grabe are both involved in educational applications of technology and the preparation of teachers, but they do have somewhat different perspectives. Mark Grabe is a university faculty member with responsibilities in the Departments of Psychology and Instructional Design and Technology. He brings to this collaboration the theoretical perspectives and research experiences more typical of someone working in a university environment. Cindy Grabe is a full-time technology facilitator (coordinator) for the Grand Forks, ND, school district. She has worked in this position for ten years. Cindy has also been recognized as an Apple Distinguished Educator and continues to be involved in the ADE program.

E-mail contacts: Mark Grabe - mark_grabe@und.nodak.edu

D. This Web Site

Web sites have become an almost expected ancillary resource for college textbooks.

There may be some unique expectations associated with a web site supporting a book about "Integrating the Internet ...". You will not experience the most advanced uses of technology by coming to this web site. However, we will on occasion link you to sites that provide such experiences. Our interest is in providing you learning opportunities utilizing the same software tools and hardware you will likely encounter in the elementary, middle school or high school in which you might work.

Within the content of this web site, you will find "asides" that comment on the software tools, hardware, and presentation techniques. For example, much of the text content you are presently experiencing was originally created using Inspiration - a tool intended for planning, outlining, developing concept maps and similar organizational or planning activities. This particular tool has the capability of saving content as HTML files (see Chapter 6 for a discussion of the common software tools that can be used to create web pages).