This chapter explains how Internet tools allow students to connect to other people, interactive services, and stored information.

Use the following questions to guide your study:

• What are the different types of Internet tools available to teachers and students?
• What are some e-mail activities that can be adapted for the content area you plan to teach?
• How can course-relevant web resources be found?
• With so many resources available on the web, how can teachers structure web projects to engage students in meaningful inquiry?

The Internet is a shared resource that provides opportunities for commerce, entertainment, and education. In 1996, the Telecommunications Act committed to the goal of connecting all classrooms and public libraries to the Internet by the year 2000. In order to make this goal more achievable, a federal subsidy - the e-rate - was established.

The Internet is a meta-network - a network of networks. There are huge networks providing high-speed regional backbones, and there are small networks within individual offices and schools.

The method of transferring information from computer to computer is called transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP). Each computer on the Internet has a unique identity or address called an IP number. Usually this IP number (e.g., 134.129.172.88) can be linked with a domain name (e.g., grabe.psych.und.nodak.edu). Computers can function with just the number, but because humans find the domain names more meaningful, special computers on the Internet called domain name servers make the conversions.

Investment in Internet connectivity is occurring so quickly it is impossible to report accurate statistics. The data reported in this chapter indicate 40% of classrooms offer Internet access. As we prepare this web page, 63% of classrooms were reported to be connected. For current statistical data, we recommend the National Center for Educational Statistics.

I. Access to People (pp. 197-209) I.A Chat

Chat systems allow "keyboard conversations" - real-time (synchronous) exchanges of text messages.

I.B E-Mail

The most common format for interpersonal telecommunication is electronic mail (e-mail). E-mail is asynchronous - the message is composed and sent at one point in time and received and read at another point in time.

I.C Telecomputing Activities

Communicating through e-mail and in some situations through chat provides the opportunity for many kinds of activities and projects. We like Harris's suggestion that teachers should acquire a sense of the different types of projects that are possible rather than attempting to mimic the projects of others in their classrooms. The fundamental idea is to develop an activity to support instructional/learning goals rather than define instructional/learning goals by adopting a project. Harris had attempted to identify and categorize the various "structures" of on-line activities. The major categories include:

• Interpersonal exchanges - Talk among individuals, between and individual and a group, among groups.
• Information collections - Working together to collect and compile information provided by participants.
• Problem-solving projects - Working together to collect and compile information provided by participants.

I.D Mailing Lists

Not all e-mail messages need be addressed to a specific individual. In certain applications, users may send a message to a group of readers. With a mailing list, the initial message is sent to a designated address and then relayed to the e-mail accounts of everyone who's address appears on the list.

Mailing lists usually have both a submission address and an administrative address. The submission address is used to submit messages to be sent to the group. To subscribe to the group, to withdraw from the group, and to perform other "administrative" functions, a mailing list also has a separate administrative address. Sending message with an administrative function to the submission address is one of the most common mailing list errors.

I.E Advantages and Disadvantages of Computer Mediated Communication

E-mail and chat systems provide the opportunity for what is sometimes called computer mediated communication (CMC). CMC is place independent - individuals do not have to be in the same place to communicate. Some forms of CMC - e-mail - are also time independent and do not require that those involved in communication interact at the same point in time.

I.E.1 Properties of CMC that may alter classroom discussion

CMC may change classroom communication in both positive and negative ways.

It is important to recognize characteristics of typical classroom discussion:

• teachers dominate classroom interaction and are responsible for 40-80% of the "talk"
• opportunities to contribute frequently require a quick response

CMC can change some of the basic characteristics and encourage greater and more diverse participation. Because e-mail communication is time independent, students have more time to create messages and are not necessarily in competition to submit their comments first. Chat discussion are more similar to face-to-face discussions. CMC also reduces the salience of cues (e.g., the instructor standing in a prominent position in front of the class) that may encourage student participation.

CMC also contributes some unique problems to a discussion. Most CMC relies upon text and keyboarding skills will be a limitation for some. The lack of cues and the greater anonymity of CMC contribute to immature, insensitive, and unproductive behaviors.

Moderating Effective Discussions

II. World Wide Web (pp. 209-224) The World Wide Web (WWW) interconnects information sources by way of hypermedia links. Special software, called a browser, is to required to connect to and interpret the protocol used by web servers. A browser provides a graphic interface so that following links from one web page to another is very easy and allows interactive involvement with a full range of hypermedia - text, images, video, audio.

The individual pieces that make up a web page (e.g., text, images) are actually sent to your browser as separate items and then assembled on your machine. The one essential piece among the assortment of file types your browser can display is a simple text file. This file contains the text messages you see as part of a web page, but also special tags making up the hypertext markup language (HTML). The HTML explain to the browser how to build the web page.

You can view samples of HTML by asking the browser to display the source code for a web page. Go to the VIEW menu at the top of this page and examine the source code for this page.

II.A Locating information on the web

Online services offer two basic approaches to locating resources:

• browsing
• searching

Browsing is based on an index or directory consisting of a hierarchical system of headings and subheadings.

Searching is based on the use of an online database that can be searched.

II.A.1 Search Services

II.A.1.a Search engine and directory combinations

Several search services are based on a cataloging system. Human editors examine web pages and organize this content using some type of classification system. You can then use a search engine to search within this hierarchical classification system. The advantage of combining these techniques is that the search engine can be more precise in locating useful pages when the directory is first used to narrow the focus of the search.

Example: Yahoo! - http://www.yahoo.com/

II.A.2 Index search engines

Index search engines rely on a computer-generated index of the contents of web sites.

Example: WebCrawler - http://www.webcrawler.com

II.A.3 Meta-Index

Some search tools activate and cross-reference the results from several search engines.

Example: MetaCrawler - http://www.metacrawler.com/

II.A.2 Conducting a Search

Search engines present users a simple interface - search terms are typically entered in a field and the search engine locates web pages matching the terms entered.

An unfortunate consequence of the simplicity of this procedure is that many students never take advantage of the powerful search features the search site probably makes available. Search engines are usually capable of duncting what are called boolean searches - ways to combine search terms to generate a more precise search.

Try the advanced search version of HotBot for an easy way to conduct boolean searchers.

III. Access to Files (pp. 224-226) III.A The Internet can be used as a way. to transfer files.

Files can be sent to a server (upload) or taken from a server (download).

File transfer can be accomplished in several ways.

• FTP (file transfer protocol) - FTP is an older method typically using a ftp client such as Fetch (Mac) or WS-FTP (windows) to transfer files.
• HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) - HTTP allows file transfer using a web browser.

Most web users have transferred files, but probably do not recognize this is what they were doing. A common example is upgrading to a newer version of a software program - e.g., you may have upgraded your web browser to a newer version.

Extended discussion of Internet Applications

IV. Categories of Web Resources (226-229) The Internet can be used to deliver a variety of learning resources. Our focus is mostly on resources that can be used in traditional classrooms, but the interest in tutorials is growing

	On-Line Tutorial	Instructional Resource	Primary Source
Description	Resource takes responsibility for instruction.	Resource outlines activity, but does not provide instruction.	Resource provides raw materials on which learning activity might be based.
Teacher Role	Teacher trouble-shoots when student encounters problem.	Teacher responsible for facilitating and evaluating learning.	Teacher locates source, creates related activity, facilitates and evaluates learning.
Example	On-line tutorial; online class.	On-line curriculum activities.	Teacher created WebQuest based on general purpose web pages.

Our emphasis in this chapter is really on the column in this table labeled "Primary Sources." We define primary sources as raw information sources not necessarily developed to meet educational needs or even to provide a fair or unbiased treatment of a particular issue. Much of what is available on the web would qualify.

V. Using the Web for Active Learning

Using web resources in the investigation of complex problems is a good way to integrate the use of technology into nearly any content area and a way to take on challenges that students can attack collaboratively. A basic question then becomes how might teachers help students take on what complex information problems using web resources? One approach is based on scaffolding. Bernie Dodge proposed that educators provide scaffolding through what he described as WebQuests.

A WebQuest is presented as a document consisting of:

• a brief introduction to a topic
• the description of an inquiry task related to the topic
• links to a set of primary web resources students can use in performing the task
• suggestions for how students might use the web resources

To prepare this activity, the teacher needs to:

• identify an interesting and content-relevant topic
• define a related task the requires information problem-solving and reflection
• locate relevant web resources that provide information for processing
• develop a method for evaluating the product of student work

Examine the Snow Goose WebQuest