4. How Irish Schools can use the Internet

We live in an age when computers and technology play an increasingly important role in our lives. Some like to call it the Information Age. Indeed the concept of being able to access any information you require from your own computer is becoming more and more a reality. As the Internet develops, the amount of information available will supersede anything that can physically exist in the classroom or school library. It will become the largest reservoir of resources available to schools.

With such advances, students today and in the future will need to have a new set of skills in order to live and work in such an environment. The pool of information available to us all on the Internet is growing deeper and deeper all the time. Rather than let children dive into this pool of information and drown, we need to coach them on how to locate the information they require. Once they have done this, they can then utilise it for their own purposes.

A computer, modem, and Internet connection open up the walls of our classrooms to the world. In this chapter, we explain how students can use E-mail to communicate with their peers and with professionals the world over. In addition, we describe how they can publish their own materials on the Internet so that they themselves can contribute to the pool of information. Finally, we explain how the Internet can help you do your own educational research.

Communication

Power of E-Mail

E-mail holds great promise for Irish schools as it is inexpensive and allows extremely fast delivery of messages to anywhere in the world. Both teachers and students can avail of the power of E-mail. Teachers, once they have an E-mail address, can communicate with colleagues from around the globe. They can subscribe to educational discussions on the Internet and can share ideas and experiences with other teachers. They can also post queries about specific topics and any teacher in the world can respond to them.

Many of our schools find themselves working in a vacuum, isolated from other schools: E-mail can eliminate this problem and provide schools with a cheap, fast, and effective means of communication. Teachers working in one- and two-teacher schools now have the opportunity to communicate regularly with colleagues on issues of importance to them. Potentially, we may reach the stage where much of the administration in our schools can be conducted using E-mail. In Australia, for example, the school authorities are currently looking at ways in which communication between schools and central government can be improved using the Internet.

E-mail and the curriculum

Students too can benefit from the power of E-mail. It is an informal means of communication and is particularly suitable for use by children. With E-mail, forget about formality - just concentrate on the message. You are more likely to see a message beginning with "Hi" than "Dear". We are not saying forget formal letter writing, but the new skill is to write a short message that is to the point and accurately communicates the information being imparted by the sender. Consequently, we are dispensing with the "Big Deal Factor" when writing to companies, embassies etc. while looking for information for school projects.

Key Pals, the electronic equivalent of Pen Pals, is proving very popular with children all over the world. This involves regular two-way communication between children. Many classes are using Key Pals to "twin" with similar classes at home and abroad. This process exposes them to the lifestyles and cultures of other children.

The Key Pal idea can be formalised and extended to specific collaborative projects between schools. Schools may decide to conduct research into their own localities and then share this information with each other using E-mail. This process proves extremely interactive in that children can pose questions and receive instant feedback from one another.

Schools can also subscribe to formal E-mail projects on the Internet. These are organised by various groups with an interest in education who expect schools to sign on to the terms of the project. Each school taking part in the project is responsible for submitting specific information to all the other schools involved by a certain date. This pool of information can then be used by each of the schools in completing their own project.

E-mail can also be used as an electronic questionnaire. Children who are conducting research into a specific area or topic may draft a questionnaire and send a copy to a number of schools or institutions. This allows them to compare different environments and draw conclusions.

Finally, E-mail is very useful to children in small rural primary schools, who may have only a small number of students in their own class. E-mail allows children to solve problems in collaboration with peers, even though they are miles away.

[TIPS]

Using E-mail

You can send a message to many addresses. Separate each address with a comma in the "To" field.

Write your messages before you go on-line.

It is advisable to use a subject name.

Don't repeat the whole message in a reply unless totally necessary.

School Web Site

What is a school Web site?

A school Web site is like an electronic brochure containing text and graphics related to your school. Web sites are becoming a popular medium for informing the world about your school and the activities being pursued there. It is a medium through which teachers and students can publish their work to a worldwide audience. This can be a huge incentive for children when they realise that their picture, project or poem can be viewed by an audience of millions.

A school site is not like any other site on the Internet. Many of the commercial sites on the Net are created by graphic artists and provide information of use to customers. We feel a school site should contain material generated by staff and students which will reflect the ethos and atmosphere of the school. In order to have a presence on the Web, a number of schools have had Web sites created for them. Unfortunately, such pages tend to contain only basic information about the school. The more interesting school sites are the ones that have teacher- and student-created features.

The Web site will become the most important feature of the Internet for schools in the coming years. Though there are over 400 Irish schools using the Net, only a few have progressed to creating their own home page containing home-grown resources. Currently, there is a need for more Irish-generated resources on the Internet.

Our hope is that as more and more schools come on-line they will create a school home page, where they will publish student and teacher material for the world to read. This will become the biggest collection of teacher- and student-generated resources.

What makes a good school site?

Thinking of creating a Web site for your school? Creating a school Web site is not as difficult as it might first appear. The best place to start is to look at existing school home pages and see what would work best for your school. Have a look at their layout and content. How would you like your site to look? What do you want to include in it? Who do you see as your potential audience? School sites vary, some include school policies, information on subjects, examples of children's work, pictures, projects, links, puzzles...the list is almost endless!

Schools should be encouraged to create active Web sites which will reflect what's going on from day to day, week to week.

Planning your site

In creating your Web site, you will first need to decide how the site is to be managed and then, what structure it will take. The person who has ultimate responsibility for the Web site must look after the following:

create and design the site.

decide on the material to be published on the site.

reply to the E-mails that are sent to the school.

constantly update and maintain the material on the site.

Some of these people like to call themselves the "Webmaster". In a school situation, it is a good idea for the "Webmaster" to select a group of students to assist in creating and maintaining the site. Students with youthful enthusiasm can be very helpful in selecting content for the site as they are aware of the interests and needs of other students.

Once the teacher and team are in place, the school can now concentrate on the structure of the site. It is a good idea to draw out a simple diagram of what pages your site will contain and show how they will be linked to the home page. Each Web site contains a home page; the central reference point to all other pages in the site. When people access the Web site, this is the first page they view - so it should contain some information about the school and a note on the special features of your particular school site. Decide then on the main topic pages: e.g. staff, policy, sport, etc. From these pages, you can link to more specific pages, for instance on your Sports Page you might have links to G.A.A., Soccer, Hockey, Rugby pages, etc.

School Web sites should be living pages that contain the 'voices' of all those involved in the life of the school: management, teachers, students, and parents.

A number of schools around the country have involved their transition year students in creating and maintaining their Web sites.

Student Pages can contain features on student of the week; a list of problems created by students to which others are required to submit solutions over E-mail; student reviews of videos, music, software etc.; a student newsletter, and so on. Students who are communicating via E-mail can use the Web site to enhance their correspondence by placing pictures of themselves and their work on the WWW.

Often children spend long hours researching and producing projects on various topics which are usually only displayed in the school for a limited period. In future, such projects can be digitised and displayed to the world on the school site. Where is it best to find out about the Romans? In a reference book on the Romans or in Web pages created by students of similar ages in another school?

Creating your site

To put your ideas into action, the text and graphics will have to be prepared and put together. We do not want to get bogged down in the technicalities of doing this, but here are a few ideas to get you going.

Web pages are made up of HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and graphics. Some knowledge of HTML is helpful, and it is not too difficult to get into, there are many Web sites which provide information on using HTML.

In order to enhance your text you can include graphics, photos, and scanned images. Be careful not to overload your page with images as this will make downloading (retrieving) your page very slow. If you want to use photographs of school activities or samples of student work, you have to use a digital scanner or a digital camera.

Don't worry if your site doesn't look very fancy initially, as you acquire new ideas you will find that you will receive lots of positive feedback from schools around the world.

[TIPS]

Web site design

Each page in the site should contain some common design features like the school crest or the same background colour.

Limit the memory size of the graphics appearing on your page.

Use your browser to view your school Web pages off-line.

Remember to include your E-mail address somewhere on your home page.

If you borrow good ideas from other Web sites, E-mail them to check if this is OK.

List your URL on the search engines and major educational directories.

Educational research

The Internet in its present form was initially used by academics. Subsequently, there is quite an amount of research papers available which may be of relevance to educators. Much of this research comes from the US, but European and Irish content is growing rapidly.

A good starting point for teachers is the Education Resources Information Center - ERIC. This is the largest education database in the world with more than 850,000 records of articles, research reports, curriculum resources, conference papers, books, etc. Quite a lot there! A heaven for the academically minded. We are not suggesting that you trawl through all this, but from time to time you may find something of use to you in your profession.

If you are researching an educational topic, you can use the Search Engines and Electronic Learning, contain software and product reviews along with excellent articles on how technology can be integrated into the curriculum. Not only are these magazines available instantly and free, but the sites also contain back issues and a search engine for locating articles on specific topics.

Have you ever wished you could attend some of the large educational conferences that take place annually in the United States and elsewhere? Unfortunately, the conferences, as yet, are not available on the Web but the programme of events and some of the keynote speeches can be found there. Two conference sites worth visiting are those of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and the American Educational Research Association AERA. Both groups are highly regarded worldwide and have a wealth of resources of interest to Irish teachers.

However, if you are just starting out on the road to using technology in your classroom, you can visit sites such as Teaching with Electronic Technology where you will find stories and accounts from other classroom teachers on how they use technology. Such sites contain good thought-provoking resources that can be adapted to your own situation.

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