CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
The goal of this
research was to add to the literature about schools, Internet usage, and the
impact of the Internet in southeastern private schools. While there was information available
concerning the general use of the Internet in schools across the country, there
was very little centralized data available detailing what is actually happening
in the various sectors of schools and specific geographical areas of the United
States. This lack of descriptive data was one of the reasons for the topic of
this paper. The researcher believes the impact of the Internet to be generally
the same for public, private, religious, or independent school environments.
However, the researcher also believes that there is a need for faculty in the
private sector to have data available concerning their peers in the same
geographical region. The complete raw survey data is available in Appendix
C. Chapter 4 describes the survey data
in a variety of tables, figures, and comparisons.
The Summary and Conclusions section will
discuss Internet usage and impact issues as they relate to the Internet and
private schools in the southeastern U.S.
In the
Reflections section, the researcher will offer insight into the surveyed data
and research data. These insights should give a fair understanding of the data
in both their raw form and in summary.
Summary
and Conclusions
The following
key points and observations were evident throughout the literature and survey
data:
1) Teacher training is needed and wanted.
Most surveyed
teachers said they would really like to have some training on (1) how to use
the Internet and (2) how to use the Internet in the classroom in a productive
way. Over eighty percent (80%) said
they would use the Internet in class if they could learn more about it. More
than seventy percent (70%) of the teachers surveyed said that their schools
either offered Internet training or would offer assistance. And surprisingly, over 90% of the surveyed
teachers said that their school was very supportive of their efforts to
incorporate the Internet into their lessons. So, it appears now, according to
many of the teachers that the problem is finding the time to do the training.
Schools must consider redesigning their professional development programs to
include Internet training, but to include it in such a way as not to encroach
on already hectic schedules.
In a similar context, a rising concern for new (and future)
teachers is with the programs at the University level that are preparing
university students to be certified in teaching. These programs MUST teach those aspiring teachers to be
very proficient in the use of the Internet and also proficient in how to use it
in their classrooms. Teachers must be trained to be effective teachers in
maintaining a classroom that has Internet connections for all the students.
Research for this paper has indicated that more and more states are requiring
certified teachers to be technology and Internet literate. North Carolina, as of
1999, now requires formal training on computers before graduation.
2) Many teachers use the Internet for self-improvement and
learning in their own area of expertise.
Over eighty percent (80%) of the surveyed teachers actively use
the Internet to learn more about their subject area because of search engines
(sixty-nine percent (69%)), E-mail (forty-seven percent (47%)), specific web
site address (forty-three percent (43%)), and on-line articles and journals
(thirty-four percent (34%)). Of the remaining twenty percent (20%) who were not
using the Internet, over half did not have Internet access in their classroom.
That same half also said they were eager to learn more about the Internet.
In many private schools, there may be only one or two teachers for
any specific subject area. This causes a certain degree of isolation for these
teachers from others in their subject area. Apart from the once a year
conference or seminar, many teachers do not have any opportunity to meet with
other teachers in their subject area to discuss issues, projects, activities,
evaluation methods, labs, and current events in their area. With the Internet,
one of the great benefits is the on-line meeting it allows with other teachers.
For every subject (see Appendix G), there are list-serves, discussion groups,
chat rooms, and web sites dedicated to a certain subject area. Teachers can
communicate with other experts in their fields on a regular basis. In the
private school sector, which, by nature, has few faculty, and especially in
rural areas, this aspect of the Internet will grow. Over sixty percent (60%)
felt that they were better teachers because of their use of the Internet.
3) No teachers felt threatened by the
Internet or technology.
None of the teachers felt that the Internet, in any way,
jeopardized their job or threatened to take away some of their
responsibilities. Many saw the role of
the teacher changing, as with any new media or methodology, as the Internet is
incorporated into the classroom. As opposed to feeling threatened by it, many
saw their role as even more dynamic. With such a powerful media and unregulated
source of information, it is even more of a responsibility for the using
teachers to be a strong leader and guide as the students learn to navigate in
an effective way across the 'waves' as they 'surf'. Over ninety percent (90%) of the surveyed teachers felt all the
money, time, energy, and change to connect our classrooms to the Internet was
worth it.
4) More and more teachers are using the
Internet in the classroom.
The concern for available technology in the classroom did not seem
to be a large concern for most teachers in the survey. Over ninety percent
(90%) had computers in their classrooms and over sixty-five percent (65%) had
Internet access. This is a large deviation from the percentages in research
from 1997 (Advanced Telecommunications in Private Schools, 1997), which said
seventy-five percent (75%) of the private schools in the United States were
without Internet access. Almost
three-quarters (¾) of the surveyed teachers said they used the Internet in
their classes and over half (fifty-nine percent (59%)) said that their classes
were better because of the Internet. Of
the remaining non-Internet-using teachers, almost half said they had never used
it, but would like to. Over eighty percent (80%) of the teachers felt that the
Internet offered something for their students that the textbook did not.
Rigor
(Wasley, et all, 1996) needs to be at the center of anything with which the
students are involved. In the context of project and activity work, rigor can
be defined as practical, real-life, interesting, and useful. In today's
schools, it is not uncommon for some of the textbooks to be out dated, as it is
not possible for schools to buy new textbooks each year. Because of this, some
of the activities may be about issues or topics that do not have as much
meaning to the students. Using the
Internet allows access to information that is up-to-date. Teachers can use the
basic lesson plans that they have already developed, but the students can find
and use current data from various Internet sources. Of course, in some subject areas, for example English, up-to-date
information may not be as high a priority as in others, like political science
or geography. Technology for
technology's sake is not the solution here. However, in surprising contrast, it
is ironic that one of the negative aspects of the Internet is that rigor is not always required to find
meaningful quality and quantity of data. In some cases, it can almost be too
easy to find information. Some teachers feel that part of the effort for doing
a project should be the search, trial, and error of finding good data. If
students can sit down at a computer, in the comfort of their bedroom and get all
they need, including photos, video, audio of famous speeches, etc. how much
will they really get out of that project. It may be necessary to limit the
number of resources that can be obtained from the Internet.
5) It is difficult to evaluate whether the Internet could be directly linked to better improvement in
the classroom.
However, a vast majority felt that the non-measurable improvements
(enthusiasm, confidence, attitude, etc.) were so obvious as to not be able to
ignore them. It was interesting to see
that even the teachers who saw no need for the Internet in their subject area
or were not overly supportive of the Internet, conceded that, in the best
interests of the students, it was worth our time and investment to teach our
students to use it. While surveys done
by the government seem to indicate that there is a relationship between higher
test scores and Internet usage, there is simply not enough conclusive evidence
to be absolutely sure. Almost sixty percent (60%) of the teachers said their classes
were better because of the Internet. These teachers reported increases in class
participation (thirty-six percent (36%)), enthusiasm (forty-nine percent
(49%)), and motivation (forty-one percent (41%)). Many schools cannot afford
to, or do not want to, invest in a very expensive 'tool' before they are sure
of its effectiveness. A school in Newfoundland, Canada actually saw
significantly better attendance (up by forty percent (40%)), and even saw an
increase in advanced class enrollment (up by twenty percent (20%)) which they
attribute directly to the connectivity of their school and the incorporation of
technology and the Internet into their classroom (Dwyer and Steele, 1996).
Principal Fred Durant offers his opinions on why this is true: "Why? Why is Nintendo
so successful? Kids are just fascinated with technology. That makes it a
wonderful teaching tool;so what if computer make school fun?" Ken France (Dwyer
and Steele, 1996) computer consultant in Quebec, Canada, comments on this topic
as well. In survey after survey he has
seen, in schools that actively incorporate technology and Internet into the
classroom, studies show that typically problem areas, such as absenteeism,
discipline, and motivation have tended to decrease in direct relation to their commitment
to 'connect' their classes.
6) The Internet is not a save-all. It is a tool to be used in
addition to existing technologies and methodologies.
One of the most
commonly expressed characteristics about the information found on the Internet
was the up-to-date data on most issues that are dealt with in the textbook.
With the textbook as a base, the Internet could enhance some of the lessons.
Few teachers felt it would replace existing textbooks or libraries, but should
be used in unison with them. And while we should
look upon the Internet as a useful tool, we should also not look at it as the savior of education. It is a tool of
information, just as a card catalog is to a library or a pencil to an English
teacher. One faculty member in Alabama wrote on the survey for this study,
We must not let the means (Internet) become more important than
the end (education of the student in specific subject & skills).
Most
of the teachers from the survey (eighty percent (80%)) saw the
Internet as a fundamental skill on the
same level as English, science, or math. Especially noteworthy was that
teachers with a lot of experience (15+ years) saw the value of Internet skills
(See Table 25). It is likely that these teachers have been exposed to a great
deal of research and a number of classroom tools and recognize what a powerful
resource there is in the Internet. We live in a world that is so heavily
dependent on information and access to it, and in a world which is becoming
more and more dependent on technology and the Internet (one hundred fifty-three
(153) million on-line users in the world, eighty-seven (87) million in the
U.S.A. and Canada alone). In order for us to truly prepare students for
advanced education and jobs outside of school, we must accept our responsibility
of teaching our students to use the tools needed to function in the Information
Age, in which they live. And, we need to teach them, not only how to use it,
but how to use it to solve problems:
problems as simple as anticipating the next day's weather using on-line radar
weather maps, to helping plan a trip by researching the destination, to
researching a rare disease, by communicating in real-time to a scientist
in the remote jungles of Africa.
A
North Carolina teacher, responding in the survey, had an interesting point
about the use of the Internet for researching current events. Students are
often turned off by the conservative page layouts of newspapers and, except for
the sports section, do not often read about current events. The Internet, through
youthful and stimulating sites, such as Yahoo, CNN, Discovery Channel, Alta
Vista, AOL, and MSN now offer current headlines and events right in front of
their eyes. Here is a chance to make our students much worldlier about the
happenings of our global economies and cultures.
Of course, as
many surveyed teachers communicated (and as supported in the review of the
literature), the Internet is not going to solve the existing problems that we
face in our school systems, and it is certainly not a cure-all for bad students
and bad study habits. The Internet is simply an incredibly powerful tool,
perhaps more so than any other except the pencil, that teachers must wield in
their own favor. Students are going to be 'surfers' on the WWW whether schools
incorporate it or not. We can take advantage of the desire already shown
students for the Internet. When we harness that and guide it in the directions
we need, we will have then done something teachers have been trying to do for
hundreds of years: Harness the incredible amounts of energy students have and
refocus that energy into the student's own learning.
7) School
boards and administrators seemed to be very supportive of efforts to connect
classrooms and for teachers to use those connections in their lessons.
An interesting
statistic in the survey data was that, while there is a misguided notion that
school would not be supportive of teacher's creative efforts to incorporate the
Internet into their classes, actually almost ninety percent (90%) of the
respondents said that there school was very supportive. Seventy-five percent (75%) of the
respondents said that their school offered assistance in training on the
Internet and almost seventy percent (70%) said training was already available
for the asking. Of those not using the Internet in the classroom, over eighty
percent (80%) said that they would if they could learn more about it. This seems to go hand-in-hand with the fact
that over eighty-five percent (85%) of the respondents said that the Internet
offered something for students that they were not able to offer them with
traditional methodologies.
So, in the
context of how the Internet is impacting the teachers of today, mainly what we
see is a desire for more teachers to learn more about it. Contrary to the perceived notion that
teacher would not be supported to 'experiment' in finding good Internet
lessons, there is a surprisingly high level of support by administrators in
private schools in every state surveyed for teachers to learn about, train on,
and use the Internet in their classes.
As quickly as the technology of today changes (Moore's Law), and as
quickly as today's kids catch on to the new technologies, it seems it is very
difficult for teachers to keep up. In every lesson that a teacher uses, a great
deal of time goes into preparing, finding the best materials (web site, book,
video, etc.), testing of the lesson, and determining the best way to evaluate
the lesson. Oftentimes, it takes a teacher having to teach that same lesson a
few times (over the course of a few semesters) to be able to maximize its
usefulness to the students. In some cases, by the time a teacher has a lesson
perfected for the classroom, the technology has changed so much that what she
is doing is outdated, no longer available, or there is something better 'out
there'. So, in addition to having to
just make the lessons work, teachers (who are using the Internet) have to
compete, in some sense, against technology. However, one interesting piece of
data revealed that none of the teachers who are using the Internet in their
classes, had to drastically reformat their lesson plans. Most just incorporated
the Internet to enhance certain lessons with more up-to-date data or
reinforcement activities.
8) While many
teachers saw the value of the Internet, there are some negative aspects about
which to be concerned.
One negative
point brought out in the survey was the concern for the dependability of the
sites on the Internet. One teacher, in South Carolina, had his ISP move and
they lost his Internet connection for a month. During this period, he lost
contact with the schools in which the students were working collaboratively and
disrupted the on-going project. As there is not a governing force on the
Internet (except for the hosting sites themselves), there is no uniformity of
page set up nor is their any assurance that the page will not be cancelled or
dramatically changed. So, to become dependent on someone else maintaining,
paying, for, and updating the web site that is used in a class lesson can be
risky for a teacher. This is a
characteristic of the Internet that is unavoidable, so any teacher actively
using the Internet in class must take this into consideration.
Another closely
related concern by many surveyed teachers was the reliability of the technology
itself. Many gave examples of when computers malfunctioned, or the network went
down, or the web site was too slow. Again, these are also unavoidable issues
associated with using any technology in the classroom. A teacher must regularly
recheck website availability and content to ensure continued usefulness for the
class. Teachers, or support staff, must also spend ample maintenance time on
the computers, printers, network connections, and cabling to ensure that the
technology itself does not interfere.
Many teachers
mentioned time management as problematic with the Internet. Anyone who has ever
surfed the net will vouch that it is very easy to spend hours and not have done
anything but surf. Many teachers who
had used the Internet in class in a discovery atmosphere felt that time slipped
away so fast that they were not sure that the students got their 'money's
worth'. Sometimes it takes so long to 'surf' to find reliable sources. Normal
classes are only fifty (50) minutes or at most an hour and a half. Considering
that it takes five or ten minutes to take roll and define the assignment,
oftentimes students are not able to find and analyze enough critical data they
need to complete their projects. The
most successful lessons reported were the ones that gave students recommended
sites, and guided students (somewhat) through the 'web' of information. In some
ways, it contradicts why we are using the Internet in the first place, but we
must accept that in order for the Internet to work practically in our classes, we have to find a middle ground that
balances the need to 'discover', limited class time, the chance to 'evaluate'
data for reliability, and the chance to learn the navigational tools and skills
of the Internet.
Many references
were made concerning the 'digital divide' between the 'have' and 'have-nots' we
have an opportunity to even the playing field some. While we have no control
over what students have available to them at home, we can control what they use
at school. Public school teachers can teach Internet and technological skills
to students using computers, at the taxpayer's expense, when otherwise certain
students might not have the same chance at home. This offers these same
'have-nots' students the chance to be able to compete for some of the same jobs
as their 'have' counterparts. While this would seem to have more of an effect
in public education, with a wide variety of family backgrounds, private school
graduates will enter the same work force as public school students; Internet
skills are just as important to those private education students as it is to
publicly educated students. With over a million jobs across the country related
to technology and Internet, and this number increasing exponentially, all
students are going to have to have Internet skills to get those jobs. Networking is moving towards an Internet
based medium where businesses would have their entire network linked via the
World Wide Web. Through a technology called PVN (Private Virtual Network), communication
companies, which provide us with backbone and veins of the Internet, will also
host the world's networks, both private and professional. Students who can
master the skills necessary to commandingly traverse these networks will be the
ones who get those jobs. If the job of
education is to truly prepare our students for the world after school, then,
even if we do not agree, we must not be blind to the fact that we do live in a
world that is technology driven. The Internet is not a trend that is going to
go away like bell-bottoms, it is here to stay and it is going to evolve at the
same incredible rate as it has over the last ten years, making it faster,
easier, and even more necessary that we teach the skills necessary to
understand it. The world of tomorrow
used to be far away. Technology traditionally takes many years to catch on and
to develop, but PC computers and the Internet have become so common that the world of tomorrow appears to be the
world of today! As teachers, within an educational system, given the
responsibility of preparing our students for that world, what choice do we have
but to actively incorporate the Internet into their daily educational
life? There is an ongoing argument that
the Internet is just a toy, like Nintendo or video games, and that the basic
elements of education are reading, writing, match, science, and English. But,
as in any system, the educational system has to accept that there is another
set of skills, which in today's world, is just as important.
Some of the
teachers surveyed have serious concerns about the anti-social aspects of the
Internet. The concerns stemmed around the concept that the Internet encouraged
individualism and there is less interaction with other students. While these
are valid concerns, we live in a world of electronic entertainment where the
average kid watches 3 hours of TV per day (NPR, All Things Considered, Monday,
October 17, 1999); to blame the Internet for anti-social behavior is not a fair
accusation. Some of the most popular recreational centers now for young kids
are video game arcades and video games such as Nintendo and Sega. While these
types of games may certainly help train hand-eye coordination, the Internet is
often an even mix of text and pictures, in which the user understands the site
being viewed and clicks on the link of choice. While there is a great deal of
easily accessible filth available in just the click of the mouse, there is also
a great deal of valuable, useful, interesting data that is also appealing to the
eye. Having spent 5 years in the
computer lab that had Internet connections, the researcher has found the
Internet to be a very social atmosphere both on-line and in the classroom.
Students who were 'loners' would suddenly have something in common (the Internet)
with the 'cool' kids who came into the lab at lunch to research mountain bikes
and wrestling. Very often, they would show web pages to each other and talk, at
times excessively. With so many very exciting, strange, unique web pages,
students love to show off what they have found. In the opinion of the
researcher, the Internet promotes social skills.
A North Carolina
teacher noted, on the survey for this study, that there may be some pressure
from parents, administration, and board members for them to use the Internet in
class. We must accept that there may be some classes that would not benefit
from using the Internet. It is not a save-all and it would be hard to justify
forcing it into an already successful class. A machine is only a machine. Reluctance
by a teacher to use the Internet in class most likely stems from a lack of
confidence in using it effectively (in their lessons). In these situations, it
is a must that schools administrators recognize these situations and offer
training to teachers who face this.
Using technology for technology's sake is not for the benefit of the
students. Some teachers (who do not use the Internet in class) fear that they
will have to completely redesign their curriculum and lesson plans in order to
include the Internet in their class. Sixty-five percent (65%) of the surveyed
teachers said they have actively used the Internet in class without having to
make major changes. While some surveyed teachers felt that the Internet could
replace certain elements of the text-book, most felt that it was not even to be
considered in that context: It was a tool used to enhance what was being
discussed in the textbook. Many of the
survey responses made it clear that the Internet was simply a better media in
which to expand on certain areas for which it was typically difficult to find
additional (or more up-to-date) materials. In addition to existing lessons,
they recommended to just add to the lesson using the Internet to reinforce the
concepts in a different way. A key point from the survey data (See Table 21)
was while Ph.D/Ed.D. degree holders were very active in using the Internet,
there was a very low thirty-three percent (33%)) percentage of use of the
Internet in their classrooms. It may be the case that these teachers have
already found other teaching methodologies that work.
Even in the
Information Age of today, there are a surprisingly large number of people who
are still not comfortable using the technology that is readily available.
Having been a teacher for eight years, the researcher can understand that
teachers already spend a great deal of time preparing for lessons (even for
which they are already familiar), grading, writing parent memos, doing report
cards, doing interim report cards, coaching, attending meetings, etc. Many
teachers have so many responsibilities at school in addition to their lesson
plans, that to ask them to learn an entire new method of accessing information
and to figure out how to use it in the best way in the their classes is
sometimes not possible. In some cases,
teachers who are proficient in using the Internet are so overwhelmed in the
wealth of information that is available that they do not know where to begin.
Example: If a search is done on the
word 'India' using Metacrawler (or Yahoo or other search engine), you will find
sometimes in the tens of thousands of sites available. There is simply not the
time to sift through these one by one, knowing some will be useless, amateur,
hearsay, inappropriate, or unrelated. Gradually more and more web sites are
becoming available, by subject and age group, that can act as a gateway to
lessons, curriculum, ideas, or general information on how to get started
incorporating the Internet into the classroom. However, the survey data showed that a vast majority of
Internet-using teachers did not have to drastically change their
lessons to include the Internet in their curriculum.
Throughout the survey, teachers made
comments regarding the validity of the data on the Internet and the inability
of students to evaluate data they find on the Internet. This again reinforces
the increased need of teachers to assume dynamic leadership roles in the
Internet classroom. Of course this is a concern and must be addressed directly
by the teacher. Perhaps even to the point of spending lessons on how to
evaluate data from the Internet.
Traditionally, in a library, one cannot find materials that are not
'politically' correct or mainstream. This is one area where the Internet offers
something that a library does not. Just as the Internet opens up doors to a
large amount of useless, inappropriate, even disgusting data, it also allows
access to data that is not mainstream. Students will be able to see and
understand opinions, viewpoints, points-of-view, and observations from angles
they never knew existed. Teachers will have to learn to help the students keep
their efforts focused with such a wide variety of data available on virtually
any subject. There will be every opportunity for students to become side
tracked. It is in this context that teachers who have concretely defined the
rules (Acceptable Use Policy, See Appendix E) will see their efforts rewarded. There will
have to be a certain amount of monitoring in the classroom, as there always has
been. Teachers must be firm in setting and enforcing rules of the
Internet. There is a great deal of
filth all over the Internet that is easy to stumble upon.
A student, who
can lead his own quest for knowledge, is going to be energetic and enthusiastic
about doing so simply because he is at the wheel ? He can spend more time
where he needs to and less in area where he is already familiar. He can jump
back to a previous site with a click of a mouse and refresh his memory or
clarify something. Throughout the Internet lessons, teachers can, and should,
still keep dialogs going between teacher-student and student-student. Teachers
can continue to evaluate in the manners they prefer, the only thing that will
change (the only thing that has to change) would be the way the information was
presented (unless Internet is used for reinforcements). By no means does
the writer suggest that random surfing is going to produce better students.
Teachers must assume the new role of guide as the students move toward a
self-paced environment where they use the teacher as a reference much like the
Internet itself. The teacher is constantly monitoring the sites being looked
at, how the information is being received, and helping the students to evaluate
the validity of the data they are using.
Reflections
The world, both in business and in private,
is seldom judged by a single standardized test. Why, then, do we continue to judge our entire educational system
on the results of matching, fill-in-the-blank, and true-false tests? The kind of improvements that we are seeing
are very difficult to measure, but do have a dramatic impact on the
educational development of our students.
Of course, we must rely on some definitive empirical data, but we must
expand those findings with actual observations and allow observational data to
have more influence (in educational studies) than it has traditionally.
However, having said that, it is of interest that every study that does compare
standardized tests of Internet-using student vs. non-Internet-using seems to
indicate significantly better improvements for the Internet users. It would
seem a waste to have finally found something that can motivate students to seek
information and learn about things on their own and NOT actively incorporate
it into existing methodologies and fundamental skill sets. In a world where
problem solving skills and higher order thinking skills (learning how to learn) are the ideals of wisdom,
the Internet is a tool that allows students to develop and reinforce skills at
each and every levels of the Bloom's Taxonomy.
Over half of the
returned surveys included handwritten examples of successful Internet classroom
uses. Following are a few excerpts from these Internet success stories:
Teachers of
virtually every subject area could find pictures, relatively easily, about
almost any topic they sought. This was indicated to be a tremendous supplement
to difficult to teach sections of class where visual aids are lacking and
needed!
St. Paul's
Episcopal School (www.stpauls.pvt.k12.al.us ), in
Florida, has an environment where all students are provided with a laptop,
which can wirelessly connect, to the Internet from any location on campus. This
gives every teacher and student the opportunity to use the Internet without
having to reserve the lab, or have students moving around the classroom.
Teacher and students alike seem to have grabbed hold of the 'connectivity'.
Based on the comments by many of those teachers and administrators, they were
all very excited about using the Internet in their classes, and because of the
ease of access for each student in class, many were motivated to incorporate
the Internet into their classes. ? If
you build it they will come.?
An
Alabama teacher had her students use the WWW to locate sites that were related
to the authors, geographical and cultural information from their daily textbook
readings. Another teacher at that same school actively uses the on-line
resources available at the Library of Congress in her historical lessons. She
is also an avid user of the MapQuest on-line assignments (as was used in the
New Zealand Collaboration, 1998).
A teacher from
Georgia was able to bring up foreign language radio stations, newspaper, and
even TV programs free of charge via the Internet. There were great
possibilities for class exercises in hearing live Spanish at the click of the
mouse.
One South
Carolina success story was where they were able to publish their own web site
about Drayton Hall Plantation, a historically significant site in the city of
Charleston, S.C. They were able to scan in photographs the students took, and
posted their research about the plantation on the schools website. The students
took a great deal of pride in developing their web page, which would be
available to anyone in the world to see!
Another teacher, also in South Carolina, in a similar context produces
travel brochures for the Lewis and Clark times. They actively used the Internet
to find pictures, monetary information, geographical data, and other types of
information. They used the PBS website heavily. They used this project to end the Stream to the River, River
to the Sea section of class.
Interactive
chat rooms in foreign languages are what one Georgia teacher uses mostly in her
Spanish class. She looks forward to when chat rooms become audio capable; her
students can then communicate in the spoken language in a controlled classroom
environment.
An English
teacher from Florida used the Internet in class one day for research and was
overwhelmed the next day when student after student said they had gone home
that night and researched on the Internet with their parents. Considering that
parental involvement is an important key to a student's educational success,
here is a tool that may help to include parents in the education of their
children.
Numerous science
teachers mentioned the ease of access to get weather maps with many types of
satellite images updated every few hours.
This was extremely useful when teaching weather chapters.
A Florida
teacher had a great success story during a hurricane lesson. They had been
monitoring the progress of two particular storms, when a student asked a
question about how 'Hurricane Hunters' deployed the instrument, called a
dropsonde, into the hurricane. The teacher recommended that she send an E-mail
to the hurricane hunters. Within a day, the girl had received a message back
explaining how the dropsonde is used.
The girl was so excited and the class loved that they had 'talked' with
real 'Hurricane Hunters'. Maybe situations like this will not directly increase
test scores, but it will affect that girl for a long time.
Recommendations
The
conclusion section touched on many observations that are important issues in a
very wide-reaching topic. Because the Internet is not subject, age, gender, or
race specific, it affects everyone who uses it, and also those who do not use
it. The researcher feels that the
review of the literature and the survey point to very strong conclusions:
Teachers see the
need, and want, to learn how to effectively use the Internet in the classroom.
They are very interested in being trained and given the opportunity to
incorporate it into their own classes.
School administrators and Board members must recognize this and while
supplying teachers with the physical tools to use the Internet, they also must
provide appropriate training and support for the teachers to experiment with
the most effective ways to use the Internet in each specific area of study.
Teachers
are seeking help in defining tools that help them to effectively evaluate the
Internet lessons in, not only their classroom, but also in education in
general. National survey institutions
and the U.S. Department of Education should attempt to devise a way to
accurately reflect the non-measurable improvements associated with Internet use
in the classroom.
As was indicated
by the survey, many teachers are already using, and many would like to be using
the Internet in the classroom. Administrators must continue to support the
efforts of these teachers, even in failure or lack of use, so as to eventually find effective uses of the
Internet for each teacher.
Although
few in number, some surveys have been conducted on mainly public school usage
of the Internet. Included in over half of the returned survey packets in this
study of private schools was a letter from the administrators and teachers
showing support and thanks for doing such a survey and requesting to see the
results of the survey. Typically, a ten to twenty percent (10%-20%) return on a
random survey is considered acceptable, however, this survey was returned by
close to fifty percent (50%) of the selected schools. While there were
objective questions on the survey, over eighty (80%) of the returned surveys
included comments on the eleven (11) questions, which offered the chance for
elaboration. This is evidence that the private school sector is very interested
in survey data related to the private sector.
While
a very high percentage of the returned surveys were from schools which appeared
active in getting their classrooms connected to the Internet, there were some
(2 just from the selected private schools for this survey) schools where there
are no active plans to implement the Internet on their school campus. While
this might be justified by the administrators in charge, the researcher would
ask if this decision is in the best interests of preparing their students for a
future in a competitive world that in full of technology?
Teachers
have made the point very clear that they feel that it is worth the effort and
money to get private schools connected. Some schools have chosen to fully
implement campus wide technology structures which fully accept and utilize
technology and all that it has to offer, both positive and negative. For
schools which may be considering their own technology plans, it is important to
consider the immediate needs of your specific students and your school's market
niche and merge that with the long term goals of the school and of the
community itself. Incorporating technology into the many classrooms of a campus
is an extremely expensive endeavor, and training will be just as expensive.
Students, teachers, administrators, parents, business leaders, and
knowledgeable technology specialists should work together to form a technology
plan for the school. This plan must take into consideration that in an area,
technology, that is changing (even)
over the course of every few months: that technology plan will, and must, change to
incorporate these breakthroughs and concepts.
Skeptics
of the Internet must not view the Internet as a fad that is going to go away in
a few years. This is a technology, which is so powerful, flexible, and versatile,
that it is going to continue to grow. It is important to take control of the
directions it is growing before the Internet grows in such a way that it
dictates to us in which direction it will go.
With planned guidance, thoughtful anticipation, calculated incorporation
of the Internet into the classrooms, and supportive administration, the
Internet will continue to be one of the most useful tools that mankind has
seen.
Universities
and colleges must incorporate Internet and technology skills into the
teacher-preparatory-curriculum for students majoring in education.
Recommendations
For Further Study
This survey
focused on middle schools and high schools from only six states in one geographical area.
Another study might incorporate elementary schools (public and private),
colleges, and universities from all states in the United States. Still another
similar survey might include international data from other countries in similar
situations.
There
might be value in studying in great detail the efforts
of two similar schools (or groups of schools), one with active Internet
usage and another with minimal usage. This survey might be over the course a
few years to attempt to determine if there are predictable results from use of
the Internet.
There
is a need for a much deeper, subject specific study concerning how teachers
from various schools, in various geographic areas, use the Internet in the
classroom, so as to offer more thorough survey data to individual subject
teachers.
Distance
education is one spin-off of the Internet which is
going to become bigger and bigger. A study on how this might be used in
elementary, middle, and high schools would offer some insight for those
involved in it's early technological stages.
Thus,
the opportunity for further study appears to be extensive and the reality of
improving education, both public and private, might well be integrally
intertwined with the Internet.