Internet Workshop I:Internet Workshop: How are school districts, schools, and classrooms integrating Internet technologies into the curriculum?
Overview
This activity will provide you with an experience in which you participate in Internet Workshop, a central instructional model, as you discover the strategies used by others around the US. The experiences are intended to raise important questions for your inquiry projects, and better prepare you for your important leadership role in this area.Internet Workshop
Internet Workshop (Leu, 2002) is an instructional model for quickly integrating the Internet into the curriculum. As an educational leader, you should become familiar with how it is used. Internet Workshop is especially useful to introduce students to sites for an upcoming unit and develop useful background knowledge. It is also useful to develop important understandings as you work through a unit.Internet Workshop has many variations. Generally, though, it contains these steps:
More information about this instructional model is available at these resources:
Locate a site, or several sites, on the Internet with content related to a classroom unit of instruction and set a bookmark for the location(s).
- Develop an activity requiring students to use the site(s).
- Assign this activity to be completed during the week.
- Have students share their work, questions, and new insights at the end of the week during a workshop session.
- Leu, D. J., Jr. & Leu, D. D. (2000). Teaching with the Internet: Lessons from the classroom (3rd ed.). Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon. Available: http://www.sp.uconn/~djleu/third.html
- Leu, D. J., Jr. (2002). Internet workshop: Making time for literacy. Reading Online. [Article reprinted from The Reading Teacher, 55,]. [Online Serial]. Available: http://www.readingonline.org/electronic/elec_index.asp?HREF=/electronic/RT/2-02_Column/index.html
In this activity, we will engage in Internet Workshop together around issues of school use of Internet technologies. Each team member will have 30 minutes to explore and gather information on the Internet in one area. You will bring the information you gathered back to your team where you will share and discuss it for 15 minutes.
Click on one of the following areas to explore in the next 30 minutes.
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Web Sites |
Web Sites |
Web Sites |
Internet Workshop |
CT compare? |
ACTIVITY 1. SCHOOL DISTRICTS How are school districts using Internet technologies to support staff development, the attainment of standards, instruction in math, science, social studies, or language arts, and school district communication with the community/parents? Explore several district sites and bring back to your team good ideas that you can you use in your district. Take notes on good ideas that you found.
What important ideas did you discover that you should be using in your district or at your district’s web site? Share them with your team.
Explore these sites:
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- Oswego City School District, Oswego, New York
- Pekin Public Schools, Pekin, Illinois (A site developed and maintained by students)
- Minot Public Schools, Minot, North Dakota
- Beaverton School District, Beaverton, Oregon
SCHOOLS How are schools using the Internet for teaching and learning and communicating with parents? Explore at least one of these school sites or find others you like.
Take notes and be prepared to share what you discovered:
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- What did you discover that you really liked?
- What new ideas for your own school site did you get from your review?
- Is this just good PR or are important things actually taking place? What are they?
Explore one of these school sites:
- Oak Park and River Forest High School, Oak Park, Illinois
- Western Middle School, Elon, North Carolina
- Captree Elementary School, West Islip, New York
TEACHERS How are teachers using Internet technologies to support teaching and learning in the classroom and communicate with parents? Explore at least one of the classroom web sites below. Take notes and be prepared to share what you discovered about these issues:
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- Which effective elements did you discover at this/these classroom web sites?
- What common elements did you find that every good classroom web site should contain?
- Is this just good PR or are important things actually taking place?
- How do our teachers compare in the integration of technology into the classroom?
- What can you do in your district to support the development of classroom web sites?
Explore one of these classrooms:
- Jack Fontanella’s Kindergarten Class, Juneau, Alaska
- Mary Kreul's 2nd Grade Class, Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin
- Ms. Caroll's 4th Grade Class, Oswego, New York
- Mr. Rosetti's 8th Grade Language Arts and Reading Class, Washington
- Mr. Heffner’s 9th Grade English Class, Rebesonia, Pennsylvania
- Bridge’s Biology Index Web Pages, New Jersey
- Ms. Gabbard's Math Place, Newport, Kentucky
ARTICLES Read the online articles below about Internet Workshop and discuss why the Internet is so central to our students' future. Take notes and be prepared to share what you discovered about these issues:
- Why is the Internet so central to our students' future?
- How do teachers use Internet Workshop in the classroom?
- What ideas might you use in your own staff development efforts?
- Leu, D. J., Jr. (2002). Internet workshop: Making time for literacy. Reading Online. [Article reprinted from The Reading Teacher, 55,]. [Online Serial].
- Leu, D. J., Jr. (2000). Our children's future: Changing the focus of literacy and literacy instruction. Reading Online. [Article reprinted from The Reading Teacher, 53, 424-431]. [Online Serial].
HOW DOES CONNECTICUT COMPARE TO OTHER STATES?
- How does Connecticut compare with other states in the integration of technology in K-12 schools? Explore the data base available at Education Weekly. Select "State Profiles" and then select Connecticut on the map of the US. Now, compare Connecticut to at least one other state (the link is on the left side of the page). (Try comparing Connecticut with South Dakota or any other state.)
- Take notes and be prepared to share what you discovered about how we are doing in the Nutmeg State.
SELF-EVALUATION RUBRIC FOR INTERNET WORKSHOP:
Your Score
I gathered all the appropriate information for one of the areas. (2 points) During the workshop session, I shared the information I found. (2 points) I did this exceptionally well or I did more than was required. (Describe) (1 point) TOTAL (5 possible points)
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