Why K-12 Schools Need the Internet

Or: If you'd like to know more about the so-called "Information Highway," click here.

(Note also that this page uses a technique where you may be advised to click on a link and then use any "find" option your browser may have to locate a certain phrase, to reach the exact point in question in a page that has no suitable anchors.)

Why should my school use computers?

There are three reasons:

1. They can bring a whole world of information to the students.
   • Here's one example of Educational Tools on the Web.
   • Also, computer skills themselves are becoming essential for the modern workplace. Visit Vice-President Gore's paper and Find "workplace."
2. That information can involve students more in learning, making them active learners (in the Piaget tradition) and involved in outreach projects with the real world.
   • To read more, click here and Find "Benefits for Students" and "Community Outreach."
   • Note that that information can be also organized in ways to encourage logical thought. one example, or click here and Find "tu tor" for another, or here for a third.
3. They can also help teachers and administrators cope with the rising pace of their professions today.
   • Click here and Find "Professional Development" and "Administrative Uses" for more about this.

How does this fit into other education reforms?

• Read about Education Reform and Computers.
• Compare to John Dewey's classic "Democracy In Education."
• Read Vice-President Gore's paper again, as a whole.
• Read how the Global Schoolhouse Project is bringing these to life. You might Find "quotes" or "goals."

Are there more examples of these?

• View the Educational Tools list again (on-line museums and other institutions).
• Look at "among the most complete" on-line museum lists around.
• Look at some special educationally-appropriate on-line exhibits (includes the Mercury Project, DNA To Dinosaurs, and many more).
• See a mailing list of NASA projects for kids.
• Find out about books available on-line.
• Read about SERC's teaching science and foreign studies.
• Read about the Computer as Learning Partner science program.

• Plugged In, a program that helps teens work with the community.
• EPGY, a special math program for gifted students.
• A paper on building K-12 Learning Communities using the World-Wide Web.

• Lloyd Internetworking's List of K-12 Net Curriculums and other net sources.
• A list of online professional groups and files.
• The AskERIC HomePage
• San Diego's Supercomputer Teacher Enhancement Program for high school teachers.
• Notes on computers and English-as-second-language students.
• A page on community computing in general, useful as a pattern or partner for classroom computing.

What place does traditional teaching have with computers?

• Click here and Find "throw away" for a discussion of this.
• Click here for how the PELICAN project dealt with this question.
• Here's another example.

How can we really get our school in on this?

• Here's a thorough FYI about connecting schools to the Internet, including Section 4: the two best ways to convince administrators to start an Internet project.
• NASA's Internet Initiative page, source of the 4-Step approach.
• Find "Barriers and" in Tracy LaQuey Parker's paper.
• Here's Web66's simple "ingrediants list" for schools and the Internet.
• Click here and Find "high expectations" for a discussion of why Creating Materials can make or break a plan.
• Extra help about funding:
  • Look at the US Department of Education Technology Initiatives plan.
  • Look here for how the PELICAN project was funded.

How many K-12 schools are already on the Internet?

What is there to help us use the Internet?

• Here's the tutorial for the World-Wide Web in general again, and for the browsers for Mosaic, Netscape, and LYNX.
• Here's the Wisconsin Dept. of Public Education's starter's and K-12 collection of frequently-used Web sites.
• Visit Web66's page of Web Information.
• Here's a set of definitions and helps from the University of Michigan.
• A larger set of general net-help papers.

How does the future look for all this?

• Find "The Future" in one University of Michigan paper for one view.
• Or look at the Consortium for School Networking's page for more details.

Are there any more helpful collections on the Web?

• Organized complexes of sites:
  • Columbia University's vast LiveText collection on the subject, for issues and other information.
  • Information from PBS: EdWeb's Table of Contents.
  • Using Technology In Education by Jack Treuhaft.
• Overall lists:
  • Netscape's Education Page, divided into different subjects.
  • Yahoo's K-12 listing; large and general.
  • Another large list partly based on Yahoo's, from Spider's Parlor.
  • Sources from The Whole Internet Catalog: Education.
  • A small but handy collection of K-12 sites.
• Interesting projects and exhibits:
  • Instructional Technology Hot Links.
  • The WWW VirtualLibrary for Education.
  • NASA "Additional Resources".
• Large, last-ditch efforts to dig through:
  • The so-called "Ultimate HomePage"
  • Find the "K-12 education" section in this long miscellaneous list.
  • Find "Education" on CMC's list of important credits.
  • The longest list of all: John December's huge collection of general Internet sources