Магистр филологии, Лучкова Г.Д., магистр филологии Жаханова З.Р.

Университет «Туран», Алматы, Казахстан

Using the Internet for active teaching

Today’s classrooms must teach students to think critically; analyze and synthesize information to solve technical, social, economic, political, and scientific problems; and work productively in groups. The real power of educational technology is its ability to support the development of these skills by facilitating basic changes in the way teaching and learning occur in the classroom. The information resources and processing features of the Internet have great potential for creating active, student-centered learning environments.

In student-centered classrooms teachers, students, and instructional resources assume roles that are fundamentally different from those in teacher-directed classrooms. Today’s teacher must be a technologist, instructional designer, facilitator, evaluator, and colearner. And students must begin to manage their own learning and work in teams with other students to accomplish learning tasks.

Integrating technology into the curriculum of the classroom is becoming an inseparable part of good teaching. The use of technology should foster learning that goes beyond information retrieval to problem solving and should promote the deep processing of ideas, increase student engagement with the subject matter, promote teacher and student motivation for learning, and increase student-to-student and student-to-teacher interactions.

Many of the features of the Internet have great potential for educational and instructional use that make the Internet more than just another medium for the delivery of instruction. Internet technologies and resources can support teaching and learning through interactive communication, learner control, collaboration, authentic contexts, and access to varied expertise. Using these features in the classroom, however, may require a fundamental change in the way teaching and learning take place.

Integrating technology into the classroom is not so much about technology—it’s about teaching and it’s about learning! Before you can integrate technology into your teaching, however, you need to be proficient in using the teaching tools that computer technology makes available.

Although technology can support teachers and students in accessing, anaging, analyzing, and sharing information (Riel & Fulton, 2001), a well-developed understanding of how to fully exploit the features and resources of the Internet in an educational context has not fully emerged ( Jukes, Dosaj, & Macdonald, 2000). It is important not to decontextualize Internet technologies in the classroom by using them in isolation from the curriculum. Students must be helped to transform free-standing information into personally relevant knowledge (Hannafin, Hill, & Land, 1997).

A few models have been proposed that identify categories of learning activities supported by Web-based or Web-enhanced learning. For example, Oliver, Omari, and Herrington (2000) identified four forms that Web-based learning environments and materials can assume:

1. Information access. The Web is used only to convey information to the learner

2. Networked instruction. The Web is used to present instructional elements that engage the learner

3. Interactive learning. The Web is used as a means to communicate and exchange ideas among learners, teachers, and experts

4. Materials development. The Web is used as a means for learners to create and publish materials.

Web-enhanced learning generally includes activities to access the information resources of the Web, communicate and exchange information with experts and peers, and publish products of learning.

Internet technologies provide access to information that would have been impossible to access just a few years ago, including virtual libraries, electronic databases, and powerful search engines. This information can be manipulated to generate knowledge for solving problems or making decisions. The Internet also permits communication and interaction that facilitate information exchanges among peers and with experts outside the local classroom, allowing students to share ideas, ask questions, and discuss classroom projects.

These two salient features of the Internet, access to information and interaction, can be used as a basis for an educational approach to Web-enhanced learning. The information features of the Internet allow locating, organizing, and structuring information in ways that augment new knowledge and understandings. The interaction features support communication and exchanges of information in ways that augment new knowledge and understandings. These features can be combined and used to support Web-enhanced learning.

Although we use the term Internet to refer to a single entity or structure, the Internet is actually the infrastructure that provides access to or exchanges of information using several telecommunication services, or technologies, across numerous networks. In contrast to the Internet, an intranet is a private network that resides within an organization and is not accessible to the public. It uses networking hardware and software for communicating and storing or sharing files within the intranet. Usually a networked computer can access both an intranet and the Internet.

Internet technologies provide access to information that would have been impossible to access just a few years ago. Using the World Wide Web, students have access to virtual libraries, electronic databases, and powerful search engines. They can manipulate and generate information in artificial or exploratory learning environments. The Internet also permits interaction and communication among peers and with experts outside the local classroom, both synchronously and asynchronously. Internet technologies support interaction and collaboration that allow students to share ideas, ask questions, and discuss classroom projects.

The two salient features of the Internet—information resources and communication technologies—can support a wide range of learning activities. Harris (1998) calls these features teleresearch and telecollaboration processes. The information features of the Internet provide access to and manipulation of the vast resources available on the Internet by locating, organizing, and structuring information in ways that help students build new knowledge and understandings. The communication features of the Internet support multiple formats and contexts for interaction and exchange of information with other persons or interactive programs in ways that, again, help students build new knowledge and understandings. Both of these features of the Internet offer a number of tools and resources that can support varied instructional methodologies to address a variety of learning goals.

As the Internet has evolved, some technologies have been replaced by newer ones or have evolved with the Internet. For example, the use of the World Wide Web has, for the most part, made Gopher obsolete. Yet e-mail, one of the original Internet technologies, has grown in use and popularity as the Internet has grown. The following discussion provides summaries of most of the Internet technologies you may encounter in the classroom but is not intended to be comprehensive. Some technologies may not be appropriate for use in classroom instruction.

Today the Internet is a loosely structured network of computers that cross geographical, political, educational, and cultural boundaries. There is no centralized governing body exercising management or control over its operations, allowing it to emerge incrementally through the designs and inventions of Internet users. However, technical bodies contribute specifications, standards, and protocols to support the interoperability of the Internet among computers and networks. The seemingly infinite amount of information available on the Internet makes it a natural educational resource.

Even though the Internet has many educational uses in the classroom, it is not the ultimate solution to all the educational problems a teacher faces. By itself the Internet is only a loosely organized collection of information and technologies. However, in the hands of skillful, tech-savvy teachers guiding students through the complex processes that go into learning, the vast information and communication resources of the Internet can be exploited to create useful knowledge. When teachers employ appropriate strategies and methods to integrate those technologies into the classroom curriculum, the Internet can be a powerful tool to motivate students and engage them in learning.