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The Web, and educational technology in general, often seems like a self-fulfilling circular environment. Many sites are devoted to nothing more than promoting the creation of other sites. Still, there is value in this; once a school gets connected to the Internet, it has to get technological savvy and technology-infused curriculum from somewhere.
Web pages can also be used to distribute non-technology-oriented curriculum . Sites can use Web pages to give structure and an easy to use interface to their materials. Distribution of curriculum and monitoring of student work are also facilitated by the use of Web pages.
Internet based classroom activities (http://www.informns.k12.mn.us/develope/instruct.html)
A variety of interesting classroom activities which involve the Internet are listed on this page. Included are concise summaries of the various activities linked to the site.
Motion in our world: Math (http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jmargeru/novi/math/)
This page is part of a larger curriculum project developed for Novi Meadows School. On it, you'll find an activity called "Busted!" which has students collect speed data for cars passing their school site. The data is entered into a ClarisWorks spreadsheet, which can be downloaded from the Web page.
Smokescreen (http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jmargeru/smokescreen.html)
An activity I designed for English classes, this page has links to a variety of anti-smoking and pro-smokers-choice sites. There is also a ClarisWorks evaluation guid which can be downloaded from the page. Students are asked to check the sites for use of biased language.
Science education associations home page (http://science.cc.uwf.edu/)
Students and their teachers can receive curriculum through the Web. Professional information can be disseminated similarly. This page contains links to a large variety of professional associations for science educators.
One computer classrooms, or classrooms with no computer in them but with a teacher who has access to the Web, might benefit from the use of the Web as a teacher tool. Finding new activities for students and participating in professional communities are valuable uses of the teachers' time and the capacity of the Web.
Access to a lab full of Internet-connected computers allows students to use curriculum materials directly. Some of these will be self-fulfilling; students use the Web to interact with materials which teach them how to use the Web. Other curriculum, though, could relate to many aspects of any subject area. Some school sites are starting to use local Web pages to catalog and distribute curriculum created by teachers in their district for use by other teachers locally and throughout the world.
