Quality resources for digital learning

Leadership, Sept, 2000 by Cathy Dickerson

All students should be using high-quality Internet resources in core content learning. Now, it's easier than ever to find first-rate resources.

Elementary students in Eureka use computer software to create multimedia presentations, complete with video clips and narration, to show fellow students and parents what they have learned. Middle school students in Santa Maria collect weather data in their coastal community then share and compare it via the Internet with students in a California desert community. High school students in San Diego take virtual field trips to the Johnson Space Center in Houston and other remote sites via videoconferencing.

Technologies available today help students tap in to real-world projects and communicate what they have learned with a wider audience.

According to a recent survey conducted by the California Technology Assistance Project, multimedia computers and Internet access are available in more than half of California classrooms. What we do with those technologies can have a great impact on student learning if we use them to their full advantage. A few key software and Internet resources can make a difference. Multimedia presentation development, Internet-based learning and access to distant resources can spark student learning.

Finding high quality resources

Every computer for student use should have software for multimedia production. Programs such as Kid Pix in primary grades, and Hyperstudio or PowerPoint in later grades, can be used by teachers or students to create slideshow-like presentations that incorporate textual information, still and/or video images and sounds. These can be used in any subject to teach concepts or to demonstrate what has been learned.

Hyperstudio presentations by Eureka fourth-graders showed emerging ability to gather and select information (in print and visuals) from various sources (including software and the Internet) to communicate what they had learned about volcanoes and earthquakes. These multimedia creations can be shared with audiences beyond the classroom, either in person or over the Internet with the easy Web publishing options included in most of these programs. Digital video creation with software such as iMovie, Movie Works or Premier can be used to achieve the same objectives, but it comes with a higher price tag.

All students should be using high-quality Internet resources in core content learning. But there are many resources online that are not useful for student learning. Sites such as Pacific Bell's Blue Web'n (http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn), Classroom Connect's Best of the Web resources link (http://connectedteacher.classroom.com), and Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators (http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide) maintain links to Web resources that have been evaluated for content quality and appropriateness for student use.

Teachers can become part of Internet-based exchange projects in the project registry at Global School Network (http://www.gsn.org), Classroom Connect (listed above), NASA's Quest site (http://quest.arc.nasa.gov) and other sites.

After participating in online learning experiences, students at McKenzie Junior High in Santa Maria have developed their own posters, Web pages and presentations to summarize what they learned. Shortcuts to learning sites made as lists or computer bookmarks can reduce the time that is wasted in searching for materials.

Structured Internet learning activities such as those at SCORE (http://www.score.k12.ca.us), or created by classroom teachers for their own classes using Filamentality (http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil) or Trackstar (http://www.scrtec.org/track) can be highly effective by guiding student online interaction with the content.

A well-developed Internet lesson such as "A Day in the ER" by Dr. Robert Kirk (http://scorescience.humboldt. k12.ca.us/fast/teachers/ER/scoreindex.htm) links students to Internet resources to locate specific information, solve a problem and present findings that achieve core content standards. Evaluations are often built into online lessons, and students and teachers know the criteria for success and how well they have done after completing the project.

Distance-based technologies

Two-way videoconferencing software or all-in-one videoconferencing units enable students to visit people and places without leaving the school site. For the price of three long-distance phone calls, students can meet in real time with their Congressman in Washington, interact with scientists in Antarctica, or present inventions to one other across the state.

Students in San Diego have been doing science projects using videoconferencing technologies over a network to enable multiple schools to access experts and share information at the same time. Distance-based technologies can create opportunities for students to attend courses at other schools or universities, or to collaborate on projects with students from around their city to around the world.

Learning to use software programs designed to involve all students in content-based activities through media clips and re-printable text materials can change the paradigm from using technology as a drill-and-practice delivery vehicle to using technology to orchestrate powerful learning. Software such as "Hidden in Rocks" by Tom Snyder Productions or "Science Sleuths" by Videodiscovery provide prompts for problem-based learning and require only one computer to implement.