Integrating the Internet into lesson plans

Clinical Laboratory Science, Jul/Aug 1999 by Kiser, Karen M

Students of today are expected to participate actively in their own acquisition of knowledge. They need to acquire the skills that will position them for life-long learning. The student of today constructs knowledge, collaborates to solve problems, and evaluates information.' Course outcome statements should reflect these expectations of students.

Teachers choose the best instructional approach to meet stated educational outcomes. Traditionally instruction has been teacher centered and consisted primarily of lectures, sometimes with audio-visual aids, and reading assignments. These strategies are the least successful in promoting retention of learning. The average retention rate for lecture is 5%, reading 10%, and audio-visual 20%.' "The key to moving into the higher retention range is allowing students to have hands-on experience with the concepts and providing a space for them to work together."1 Practice by doing provides an average retention rate of 75% and discussion groups 50%. If students who grasped concepts more easily were encouraged to teach others, their retention rate jumps to 90%.1

The Internet can be a wonderful tool for providing learning opportunities that enhance the effectiveness of student learning and their retention of the material. This article provides information for instructors on an approach to classroom Internet integration for new and advanced users.

ABBREVIATIONS: AUP = acceptable-use policy; URL = uniform resource locator.

INDEX TERMS: Internet learning; lson plan.

WHEN TO USE THE INTERNET

When should you consider using the Internet in your classroom? The Internet is useful when the information required is not in your textbook or library. It is useful if your students need access to data collected by government or public interest groups. The knowledge or information is best understood if it is from eyewitness accounts, is fast breaking news, or requires specialized knowledge. The Internet is also a good place for contacting experts, worldwide collaborating, and gaining experience in researching and evaluating information.1

Enhance existing lessons by activities that use the Internet as described above. Also consider adapting those lessons you don't enjoy teaching or which are ineffective with the current instructional approach.

SEARCHING FOR WEB SITES

Once you choose a topic, use a search engine to find possible sites to use in the lesson. If the topic is more general, start out with Yahoo. Use AltaVista if the topic is narrow and very specific. There is also a site that allows the use of multiple search engines (Table 1). Sometimes the number of hits returned is overwhelming. Advanced search techniques can be helpful at this time.

Most advanced search techniques use Boolean logic. These are logical operators such as AND, OR, and NOT. In addition, you can refine the search. AltaVista will sort your hits into categories and provide a list that you can exclude or require.2 This saves browsing time. Start out with a broad topic and then narrow the search once you know the major categories. The other technique that is effective is to browse first. Scan the first 100 'hits', noting the number of the link in case you want to visit the site later.2 This takes tremendous will-power because it is very tempting to immediately visit the sites. Resist if possible. Once you scan the first 100 'hits', decide whether to modify the search or return to visit the sites that seemed worthwhile. Those sites that seem worthwhile and deserve consideration for inclusion in the lesson are bookmarked for later visits. Sometimes the search doesn't yield any results. Discard the idea of incorporating the Internet into the lesson and consider another instructional approach.

WEB SITE EVALUATION

The next step is to return to those sites that were bookmarked to evaluate the Web page content. Remember anyone with a computer and modem can publish something on the Internet. Sometimes the information on Web pages is false, incomplete, or inaccurate. In addition, there are parodic Web pages that can be mistaken for official Web sites, as the name and page layout can mimic the original. It is best to approach all Web pages with some suspicion.

When evaluating online information, consider the source of the information, the author's credentials, and the purpose for publishing the Web pages. Do links to other sites reveal biases of the author? Check the pages for current information and regular updates. An updated Web page will contain a recent date. Compare this site with others that deal with the same subject (Table 2).3 Consider the accuracy and usefulness of the content, ease of navigation, use of graphics, sound or video, and whether access to the page is easy and quick.

When evaluating Web sites, copy and paste the uniform resource locator (URL) of likely sites into a word processing file. Type a brief description or title above the URL, allowing recall of the site when working on the lesson. Switch between the browser and word processing program by clicking on the taskbar.