WWW: Beyond the Basics

6. Education

by Paul Mather

ABSTRACT

Educational uses of the World Wide Web (WWW) in a K-12 setting tend to focus, thus far, more on technology than pedagogy. This leads to systems that are technologically at odds with the typical K-12 classroom and educator, compounding the long-standing problem of technology refusal in K-12 education. Furthermore, existing WWW applications typically follow the entrenched didactic model of instruction, providing a vehicle for alleviating the pragmatic problems of wide-area dissemination of lecture, testing, and course materials.

This chapter describes the typical milieu of the K-12 educator, and shows how the WWW can serve as an excellent enabling technology for a significant student-centred active learning paradigm known as constructivism. With modest technology, the WWW can be appropriately integrated into a constructivist classroom, providing access to a rich source of up-to-date raw information and all-important real-world audiences. The WWW also serves as an excellent vehicle for educators to confront the pressing problem of critical literacy.

Of primary interest to computer scientists interested in pursuing educational technology (but pertinent to educators, too), this chapter gives a general framework for the effective use of the WWW in the classroom. Its focus and discussion is biased towards curriculum and instruction issues rather than technology.

CHAPTER CONTENT

  1. Introduction
  2. Foundations
    1. Technology vs. pegagogy
    2. Environments
    3. Teaching methodologies
  3. Typical current applications and approaches
    1. Wide-area dissemination
    2. Administration and public relations
    3. Online resources and projects
  4. Realistic and effective applications
    1. Characteristic features
    2. Guidelines and examples
  5. Critical literacy: the WWW's great potential
  6. Conclusions

References

[PREV][NEXT][UP][HOME][VT CS]

Copyright © 1996 Paul Mather, All Rights Reserved

Paul Mather <paul@cs.vt.edu>
Last modified: Wed Dec 11 09:52:49 1996