Educator's Guide to the Internet

Safety and Privacy Guidelines

• Never use a student's home email address for correspondence. All classroom email exchanges should either use the teacher's email address or a special email address should be set up for the exchange. You should monitor all messages coming to the class and leaving the class.

• Use a service that specializes in classroom email exchanges or work with a teacher that you know.

• Students should never give out personal information like their own email address, phone number, or address in any classroom email exchange. Students should never use their last name.

Tips for a Successful Keypal Exchange

• Develop a focus and a timeline for the exchange. A joint project or activity will give the students in both classrooms a reason for composing an email and you will get a better quality of work than if the exchange was simply left open.

• Establish a reasonable schedule for email exchanges and stick to it! Remember to plan for breaks like vacations and testing.

• Have your students practice their email skills! This is a great opportunity to talk about netiquette and Internet safety.

• Set aside classroom time for students to read and respond to email.

• Consider letting students work in groups. That way if a student is absent or drops out there will still be a response to the other class.

• Have students respond to emails using a word processor and then paste their responses into an email. You might consider pasting all the students' responses in a single email so the other teacher only has to open and print one document for his or her class!

• Focus on one aspect of writing with each response. For example, you might have the students work on descriptive language in one post or punctuation in another.

Keypal Project Ideas

Read and respond to a book together. This will call for extensive collaboration between you and the other teacher, but it is a great way to motivate students to read and write.

Exchange creative writing. You might have students exchange poetry or stories, or you could have one group start a poem or story and have the other group add to it and exchange the work back and forth until it's finished.

Write a collaborative report. Students can work together on a research paper. They can work out a division of responsibilities and then work together to write a final paper. They can edit each other's work and collaborate on the final paper.

Conduct an experiment together. Students at each site can gather data, test theories and report findings. For example: Have a plant-growing contest! Plant seeds on the same day and record plant growth.

Write in Character. Have each group write as a famous character from literature or history and see if the other students can identify them.

Create a travel brochure. Have each group create a travel brochure for their city.

Some other ideas:
Exchange book, music, Website, or movie reviews.

Write a description of an imaginary creature and have the other group draw a picture of it.

Exchange local or regional myths, stories, slang, or fads.

Compare prices for common items.

Web-based Email Resources

Epals
This site lets you connect with students and teachers from around the world in a safe, controlled online environment. You can create a free classroom account with up to 35 student accounts. All email is restricted to other schools and students using the service. You can search for teachers looking to do an email exchange and you can post a profile of your class and the type of exchange you would like to participate in. You will also find more involved classroom projects at the site, a teacher discussion board, and guide to using the service in the classroom with teaching tips and ideas.

Scholastic Classport
Scholastic's Global Classport lets you communicate with classrooms in 182 countries, and collaborate with teachers around the world. It is powered by ePALS and provides the same types of teacher controls and filters.

Tips for Using Ask an Expert Resources

• As with Keypal exchanges, never use a student's home email address for correspondence and students should not give out any personal information.

• If you use an Ask the Expert feature of a Website, be sure to read the instructions for asking a question! Many sites have strict policies and guidelines. Also check to see if the site has an archive of previously asked questions.

• Evaluate you curriculum to determine where an expert source would be an added benefit. Look for areas of the curriculum that leave more questions than answers. For example, if you are studying ecosystems.

• Make sure your expert is an expert! If you can, find experts from expert sources! For example, if you are looking for an expert in space, someone from NASA would be perfect! If you are not sure about the qualifications of the expert, do a Google search on them and see if they have the credentials to answer your students' questions! And finally, don't forget about local sources for experts.

• Don't waste an expert source's time with questions that could be answered from other sources! The purpose of asking a question of an expert is that they have a unique perspective or experience that can't be found elsewhere. Work you're your students to identify questions for the expert and have your students carefully evaluate their questions before sending them off!

• Contact the expert before your students do. This is a great way for you to tell the expert a little more about your students, find out what types of questions they feel comfortable answering, and finding out how long it will take for the expert to respond to your students.

• Make sure that your students take the time to thank the expert for their time and input. If what they learned from the expert results in any kind of written work, you might want to send a copy to the expert. Don't' limit your thank you notes to email, A written thank you from the students is always appreciated!

Web-based Expert Sources

Ask an Expert
This site from Pitsco is designed for use for schools and students. It indexes Websites with kid-friendly Ask and Expert feature. You can search the site by keyword, or you can browse the site by topic.

AskA+ Locator
This site from the Virtual Reference Desk, indexes Websites with an Ask and Expert feature. You can locate sites by topic area.

Access Excellence: Let's Collaborate
This site for educators has communities of teachers and scientists talking about the latest development in the biological sciences and sharing ideas for working with students.

Internet Public Library
Have an unanswered question? Fill out an online form and submit your question and the folks at the Internet Public Library at the University of Michigan will try to help!

Ask Dr. Universe
This site from Washington State University is designed for elementary school students and answers a wide-variety of science questions.

Ask Shamu
Do you have a question about an animal? You can email or phone the folks at SeaWorld/Busch Gardens for an answer, or you can look through their question archives.

Ask Joan of Art
Do you have a question about American Art. Joan of Art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum may have an answer for you!

Reasons for Using Blogs in the Classroom

• Most students are familiar with blogging and are comfortable with the concept.

• Blogging is a non-threatening way for reluctant readers and writers to practice and refine their skills.

• Students who post their writing on the Web are likely to be more careful with their facts and their writing.

• Blogs are immediate. Students can see their work online in seconds.

• Blogs can build community.

• Blogs encourage reflective thought.

• Blogs can be multidisciplinary.

Tips for Using Blogs in the Classroom

• Find a blogging service that will give you the resources and flexibility you need.

• Develop a focus for student blogs. Whether the blogs are daily reflections, reading reflections, classroom experiences, a blog about a student's hobby, or a blog from a character for literature or history, each student should have a definite focus for their blog.

• Make sure students understand the importance of not sharing personal information like last names, home email addresses, or street addresses.

• Get parental permission before starting a blogging project! Make sure they understand what the blogs will be used for and what protections are in place.

• Make sure students understand netiquette! They need to understand how the written word can be misinterpreted. They need to know how to respond to the feedback they get in a constructive way and how to give constructive feedback to other bloggers.

• Set goals and expectations for blogging. Your goals should reflect the focus you set for the blogs.

• Establish rules of conduct for blogging.

• If you are uncomfortable with individual student blogs, consider a class blog!

Things To Do With a Classroom Blog

• Create an online book club.

• Have students comment on news and current events.

• Have students respond to what they are currently learning in the classroom.

• Have students write using vocabulary and spelling words.

• Have students respond to quotes, poetry, art.

• Have students post data from classroom experiments.

• Have students write book, movie, music, Website or TV reviews.

• Communicate with another class.

• Have students write blog entries as a character from a book or as a person from history.

General Blog Sources

Blogging in the Classroom Blogs

K-6 Blog Examples

A Kindergarten Web Log
This blog for a Kindergarten class is designed to provide information to parents and is maintained by a parent.

J.H. House Elementary Principal's Quest
This blog from Joyce Hooper, principal at the J. H. House Elementary School Conyers, Georgia, examines topics like citizenship, courage, responsibility, sportsmanship, and kindness. Students, teachers, and staff responded to her regular posts. You will also find blogs from teachers and other staff members at the school on the left hand side of her blog.

Tips for Daily/Weekly Data Collection Projects

• Select topics that have enough data to allow every student the opportunity to collect information.

• Be sure to carefully evaluate data sources to insure that the information provided is accurate and up to date.

• Look for projects that enhance work you are already doing in the classroom. For example: collect weather data if you are doing a unit on weather, collect batting averages if you are working on percentages, collect.

• Create a reporting system for collecting the data. For example charts, graphs, oral reports, written reports.

• Have the students analyze the data that has been collected. Is there a trend in the data? Can they make predictions based on the data? Can they draw any conclusions from the data?

Data Collection Sources and Projects

Collect facts about animals and create animal reports.

Enature

Natureworks

Animal Diversity Web

Collect weather data locally, across the country or from around the world!

Weather Channel

Weather Underground

BBC Weather

Collect facts about countries or states.

Stately Knowledge

CIA World Factbook

View live cam sites and report on activity (or lack of.)

National Zoo

Africam

Crane Cam

Ideas for Using News and Information Sites

National Lead Stories

Local Lead Stories

Feature Stories

Lead Sports Stories

Classroom News Sites

Student News Net
The good news is that this site provides extensive daily coverage of news from around the world written for kids. The bad news is that you must pay a subscription fee to access the site.

Weekly Reader
You'll find a weekly feature story along with a word of the day at this site. The site also features games and puzzles and activities for grades K-6. A special Teen section has an interactive news quiz and news stories from Teen Newsweek.

CNN Student News
This companion site to the classroom news program, CNN Student News, is intended as a resource for the teacher and includes lesson ideas and curriculum materials. You can also view the program on the Website.

Science News for Kids
This site from Science Service features weekly science news for children ages 9-13. You'll find an article archive organized by topic, puzzles, games, and science fair projects from students across the country.

National Geographic Kids News
You'll find articles on history, science, nature, and cultures at this site from National Geographic.

Online Newshour Extra
This site from PBS Newshour features daily news stories, lesson plans, and a directory of news stories, video clips and other resources organized by subject area.

Sports Illustrated for Kids
Updated daily, this site has sports news, scores, and feature stories along with games and other activities.

Using Guides and Tutorials in the Classroom

Establishing the Readability of a Site

Sample Sites

Ideas for Using Primary Sources

Sample Primary Source Sites

American Memory Collection from the National Digital Library
Wide collection of online exhibits on American history including images, sound recordings, movies, maps, and documents from the Library of Congress.

The National Gallery of Art
Images and information for the 100,000 works in the permanent collection. You can search the collection by artist, title, or subject.

American Journeys
First person accounts of early American exploration.

Avalon Project
This site from Yale contains documents in law, history, and diplomacy.

Types of Virtual Field Trips

Sample Virtual Field Trip Sites

Metropolitan Museum of Art
This is one of the best museum sites on the web. You can view over 3,500 works from the museum's permanent collection. Each work is accompanied by a description and you can enlarge the image for a closer view. Be sure to check out the Timeline of Art History , a chronological, geographical, and thematic exploration of the history of art from around the world, as illustrated especially by the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection.

Scholastic Explorers
Explore cultures and ecosystems at this interactive site from Scholastic. You can learn about Native American culture, endangered ecosystems, and the ocean. Each virtual mission includes field report s from research teams, a teacher host, and activities for students.

Adventure TV
Take streaming-video trips to exotic places around the word. From desert, to jungle, to ocean depths you can explore the cultures and natural wonders of the world. The site features six video channels: Mountains, Jungle, Water, Desert, Snow, Safari's, and Educational.

Virtual Guidebooks
Travel around the western United States and Canada at this incredible site featuring over 2600 virtual reality panoramas of everything form painted rock petroglyphs in Arizona to glaciers in Alaska. You can look in any direction, as well as up and down, and zoom in and out. You can also browse the site thematically or geographically.

Five Ways to Find What You Are Looking For

US Domain Abbreviations
org non-profit - pbs.org
mil US military - navy.mil
com commercial - redsox.com
net network - verizon.net
edu : educational institution - ucla.edu
gov: U.S. government - whitehouse.gov

Every country has a two letter domain extension. For example, France is fr and Canada is ca. For a complete list of domain extensions, click here.

2. Be Told
Over the course of a day you are probably exposed to dozens of Website addresses. You hear them on the radio, see them on television, read them in magazines, journals, newsletter, and newspapers, your hear them from friends, students or co-workers. If you belong to a professional organization, chances are journals or newsletters from that organization review and recommend Websites. Being told often is a great way to locate sites that are of interest to you as you are exposed to sited based on your lifestyle! A great exercise for you and your class is to track Website you are exposed to over a period or time and then analyze the types of sites you were "told about." What can you determine about who others think you are based on the sites you were exposed to?

3. Stumbling
Many people call this surfing. Stumbling is a better term, as real surfing calls for some level of training and skill. Stumbling is when you are on the Web, click a link, then click another link and then two hours later you have no idea how you ended up at the site you are currently looking at! This is not the most effective way to locate sites if you a randomly clicking. To raise stumbling to the level of surfing, students need to be able to know what they are looking for strategically follow links to find that information.

4. Directories
Directories are organized and reviewed listings of Websites. They can be large and general or small and focused. Directories can be organized by organizations or institutions or they can be created by individuals. They key to directories is that a person has looked at the site and determined that it has some value to others. Because people are looking at the sites, the relevancy and content of the sites are often more carefully reviewed than if a search engine "looked" at the site. You will find directories for almost any topic you could possible think of. For example, here is a directory to butterfly Websites: Butterflies

Individuals who create directories often don't know that they have created a directory! To find content specific directories on the Web, go to Google and type in your topic and then type in Websites. You might also try the word links. This will usually return sites with lists of links to the content you are looking for.

Here are some examples of results using that technique:

Big List of Volcano Websites
American Literature Sites
Children's Literature Web Guide

5. Search Engines
Search engines use computer programs called spiders or robots that browse through sites and record common words and phrases along with other information. This data is then returned to the search engine where it is classified, analyzed, and ranked. When you enter a term in the search engine, it then accesses its database and returns sites that meet your search term. When you search using a search engine, you are not searching the Web, you are searching the search engine's databases. This is why you often get links to sites that no longer exist. The site has either moved or been taken down since the date the search engine visited it and when you did your search. Because computer programs analyze the content of the sites visited, they do not check the quality of the information at the site. That is why if you search for "tigers" and are looking for the animal, you will get results for the animals, teams named tiger, and lots of other hits that have nothing to do with the mammal.

Search Tools

For Students

Kids Click
This directory is organized by school librarians. It can be search by keyword, first letter, or topic.

Kids Connect
This directory has sites for kids organized by topic area.

Internet Public Library Kids' Space
This directory from the University of Michigan has reviewed Websites in a variety of areas like science, social studies, math, music, art, and reading.

Fact Monster
Fact Monster is a neat little reference site with basic information about a whole host of topics. It is a good site for quick reference information.

Ask Jeeves for Kids
Ask Jeeves for Kids lets users type in a question instead of a search term, actually any search engine will let you do this, Ask Jeeves for Kids uses this as a hook and for young students it's not a bad hook! Students in grades K-4 are often not developmentally able to come up with search words or terms. The site doesn't answer questions, it points students to Websites where they may find the answers.

ThinkQuest Library
These are Website designed by teams of students for an annual Web design contest. There are some amazing sites in this library and while they shouldn't be used as credible research sites, they are a great way to get students started on a topic.

For the Teacher
Surfin' the Net with Kids
Barbara Feldman (not Agent 99) reviews Websites for kids focusing on a new theme or topic every week.

Berit's Best
This site reviews Websites appropriate for young children.

GEM - The Gateway to Educational Materials
This site reviews and catalogues educational sites from credible sources like museums, universities, and other educational organizations.

Google
This simple and clean search engine returns sites based on popularity among other criteria. It is currently regarded as the best search engine.

The Internet Archive
Has a site disappeared? Not to worry, this site is archiving the Web. As long as you know the Web address, you can go to this site and access the as it was all the way back to 1997. This is a great place to take students to show them how the Internet has changed in the past few years. In addition to archiving Websites, the site is also collecting public domain music, film, and other resources.