EDCI 632

Educational Applications of the Internet


Department of Educational Studies
Spring Quarter 1998
Wednesdays 4:30 - 8:30

Dr. Sandra Turner, Professor
Office: 206 McCracken
Office phone: 593-9826
E-mail: turners@oak.cats.ohiou.edu
Home page (always under construction): http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~turners
Office hours: Thurs 9-11 am or by appointment

Course Description

In-depth study of the applications of the World Wide Web in education. Topics include accessing global information resources, video conferencing, and publishing online. Students will develop instructional activities that integrate telecommunications across the school curriculum. Prerequisite: EDCI 532. Credit hours: 4

Course Objectives: The student will be able to:

Connect to online resources using a computer, modem and communications software.

Select telecommunications hardware and software appropriate for the K-12 classroom.

Use online databases and the Internet to access and share information.

Develop effective search and retrieval strategies for online resources.

Plan and implement instructional activities that integrate telecommunications into the school curriculum.

Use online services for conferencing and collaboration.

Publish a home page on the World Wide Web.

Address the ethical and legal implications of using telecommunications in schools.

Demonstrate a basic understanding of the infrastructure required for connectivity.

Analyze the information literacy skills K-12 students need to access online information.


Text
Serim, F. & Koch, M. (1996). NetLearning: Why Teachers Use the Internet. O'Reilly.

Ryder, Randall J., & Hughes, Tom. (1997). Internet for Educators . Columbus, OH: Merrill (optional ).

In addition, students will be expected to read relevant articles in current educational periodicals such as
Assignments and Evaluation
This course is designed to give you an opportunity to learn about the use of the Web in education through extensive exploration online and through sharing what you are learning with others. In addition to the structured assignments, you will spend hours each week exploring the Web, finding resources that are relevant to your content area or grade level, and sharing what you learn with your classmates via the listserv and class discussions. There will be no midterm or final exam. Total points: 170.

1. Using Claris Home Page software, design, create, and publish your own home page on the World Wide Web. Your home page will be a portfolio of all your work in this class. (35 pts)

2. Create a lesson plan that involves the Web to teach a content area objective in mathematics, science, health, social studies, language arts, music or art at the K-12 level. Post it on your Web site. (20 pt)

3. Spend at least one hour in a K-12 school observing how the teachers and students are using telecommunications, assisting teachers in finding online resources appropriate for their curriculum, working with students using telecommunications, attending a technology committee meeting, and/or helping the school connect to the Internet. Document your experiences and personal reflections in a one-page paper and post it on your Web site. (20 pt)

4. Working in a team with another classmate, conduct research online about an international, national, or regional K-12 telecommunications project for students. Interview by e-mail one teacher who is currently participating in the project, if possible. Download a variety of files (text, pictures, movies, sound) from the WWW, convert the files to a standard file format using helper applications, and import the files into PowerPoint to create a presentation describing the project to the others in the class. (25 pt)

5. Create a bookmark file in Netscape containing 5 sites relevant to one of these topics: a. copyright and the Web, b) children's safety on the Web, or c) filtering software. Save the file on disk. (10 pt)

6. Add your picture and information about you to our Class Snapshots on the Web. (10 pt)

7. Develop an annotated list of 8-10 sites that are useful resources for teachers in a specific content area relevant to the K-12 curriculum. Post on your Web site using active links to the sites. (10 pt)

8. Join a listserv relevant to K-12 education and share what you learn with the other members of the class. Participate regularly in the specific listserv for this class. Join an IRC chat. Participate in an Internet video conference. (10 pt)

9. With a classmate, choose a specific topic and use two different search engines to find sites related to that topic. Compare the results of the two different searches. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each search engine? Which is more effective? How do the different search engines handle Boolean searching (and, or, not)? Present your findings to the class. (20 pt)

10. Set up one faculty member so they can use Eudora Pro to connect to the Web or set up and configure a dial-up connection to the Web for someone else. (10 pt)


Peer Collaboration

You are encouraged to share ideas with your classmates, work together, ask each other for advice and help, share resources, brainstorm problems, and ask for peer critiques. This collaboration is a two-way responsibility; I hope you will both ask for advice and provide support when asked. Just refrain from putting your hands on someone else's keyboard -- talk them through the process, don't do it for them!

Class Policies

You will need a Zip disk for saving your files.

There is a $10.00 printing fee for the class.

Attendance and participation are expected for every class. If you must be absent, please let me know in advance. You will be expected to demonstrate that you have done and understand what was covered in class.

Academic dishonesty is defined in the student handbook. If you are found to be involved in academic dishonesty or academic misconduct, an instructor may lower or give an F grade in the class or on the project and/or refer you to Judiciaries.
Topics:

What is needed for telecommunications: computer, modem or server, software
Features to consider in selecting a modem
Features of communications software
Connecting via a local network server
Types of online resources
Local bulletin boards
Commercial online services: America Online, CompuServe
Internet services: World Wide Web, gopher, telnet, FTP, listservs, e-mail
Local intranets
Purpose, structure and history of the Internet
Uniform Resource Locators (URL) - the addressing system of the WWW
Internet service providers
Infrastructure required for connecting to the Internet
Protocols - TCP/IP
TCP/IP stacks - MacTCP, WinSock,
Connections - Dial-in, SLIP/PPP or dedicated lines
Data Transmission - analog, digital, ISDN, T1, T3, cable
Browsers
Features of browsers
Creating and using bookmark files
Helper applications
Searching online resources
Search engines
Planning a search strategy
Keywords
Boolean logic
Locating educational resources on the Internet
Communicating with individuals or groups on the Internet
Electronic mail
Keypals
Listservs
Distribution lists
Internet Relay Chat
Videoconferencing on the Internet: CU SeeMe and NetMeeting
Publishing online
The writing process for student-designed home pages
Prewriting, composing, revising
Creating a home page using Web authoring software (e.g., Claris HomePage)
Text
Graphics, video, animation
Sound
Tables
Frames
Interactivity
Design considerations for online documents
Converting among different file formats
Compressing and decompressing files
Options for posting a home page on the Web
Criteria for evaluating student-designed home pages
Two-way interactive video and audio environments
Multi-user environments: MUD, MOO, MUSH, MUSE
Regional and global telecommunications projects
Information literacy skills for K-12 students
Developing instructional activities across the K-12 curriculum
Scavenger hunts
Web Quests
Ethical and legal issues
Netiquette
Acceptable use polices
Dangers of personal identification
Filtering inappropriate content - SurfWatch
Copyrights
Citation of Internet sources
Evaluating the validity of information
Resources for classroom teachers
Intranets
Ohio SchoolNet projects; telecommunity projects
Developing Web-based college courses