Internet Resources

Who knew that students around the world would like to learn about students that lived somewhere else? It is extremely exciting to know that someone in a different country may or may not do the same things as you do or do them differently from the way you may do them. It is always fun to learn about others and see how their lives differ or are the same compared to our own.

There are several different resources that students could use on the internet to help them learn about other students or about their peers. They can work together using Wikis or Google Documents or collaborate through e-mail or instant messaging or even through VoIP. Several resources are at the fingertips of students and teachers if they just know how to find them.

Internet search engines would introduce a variety of sources needed for students and teachers to research more about different cultures and people around the world. Students’ learning will be enhanced by allowing them to look up information for themselves instead of having the teacher provide everything for them. Google is not always the best search engine for everyone’s needs. Super-Kids and Awesome Library are better search engines for students because they have appropriate information for students and inappropriate information will not pop up. Students need to know which search engines are student-friendly and are not likely to have inappropriate information or pop-up ads on there. They need to specify their search by putting quotation marks around their query, and put + to make it more specific and – to take out results that do not coincide with what you are looking for.

Internet research would allow students to develop a proper researching strategy so that it would be easier for them to look up information and find the specific websites that they are looking for. SchoolNet Global is a great website for students that want to learn about students in different areas of the world. They can learn about what those students eat and what they do in their everyday lives and see how they are similar or different from each other. A few search engines like Super-Kids and Awesome Library are available for students to search for information without having to worry about inappropriate information coming up.

Students will be able to pinpoint the subjects that they are looking for or blogging about with tagging and bookmarking web pages will allow them to go back to a favorite website or something that they had been looking for easily without going through the entire search process again. Certain tags might include the words “ocean,” “blue whale,” or “sea creatures” if someone did an assignment about whales or other sea creatures that live in the ocean. Students could bookmark that page if they would like to see it again or use it as a resource for one of their assignments. Students will need to pick out the words that best describe their blog or what they are talking about so that other students from different places may find their blog if they are researching the same subjects and learn from them and use them as a resource and vice versa. Bookmarking will allow students to find pages easily after they have already searched for them.

Students and teachers will be able to communicate with each other through e-mail to talk about assignments or projects that they are working on or are going to come up soon. Students should know that they should use their e-mail wisely and not respond to emails or open them from people they do not know. Teachers should make a list of students’ e-mail addresses so that they can send an e-mail to all of those students and tell those students his/her address so that they will know to expect e-mails from him/her.

Instant messaging would be an easier way for students and teachers to communicate to each other instead of e-mail because they will be talking to each other as if they were together in person, but with a computer screen and several miles between them (if at all). Those that are using instant messaging can converse with other people and if they need to, they can go back and see what the other person said if their memory fails them. This will enhance communication between students and teachers. AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and Windows Live/MSN messenger are common messaging tools that most students and teachers already use.

Teachers could go into chatrooms online with other teachers all at the same time to discuss different topics or how to interact with certain students. Students could use chats if they were in a group of 3 or more people to discuss their assignments or projects and develop ideas for them with live time. This is the same concept as instant messaging but with several people rather than just 2 people.

Surveys and opinion polls would allow students to see the perspective of other people and what they think or believe about a certain subject. They could use this information in their own assignments so that they can enhance their information and show what people really think about certain things like global warming or what is going on in other areas around the world.

Voice Over Internet Protocols (VoIP) like Skype can be used for students and teachers that would rather talk to each other than type out what they are saying to each other. They can also see each other face to face, in a matter of speaking, if they have a webcam so that they may view each other.

Blogs are a great way for students to interact with other students and teachers. They can blog about a subject and receive comments from their peers and teachers about it so that they may enhance their learning and be constructive with the feedback that they have received. They can also follow another student’s or teacher’s blog and do the same for them. Tagging would be beneficial to their blogs so that others may find it easily.

Wikis are helpful because everyone can edit that page if they have the password. They can also create information pages for other students and teachers by collaborating and putting all their work together on the same web page and do it on their own. Unlike GoogleDocs, however, you cannot edit the page while someone else is editing it or see who is editing it at that time.

Online collaborative resources like GoogleDocs are very important and helpful to use with students because it will allow them to work on an assignment at the same time without having to be in the same place at the same time. E-mailing each other back and forth with a new draft gets tiresome after awhile. GoogleDocs is a breath of fresh air since students and teachers can edit it wherever they are and see what another person has edited on it.

Images are a great way to enhance your assignments or projects because they add color and/or detail to your work. Peers will be able to see what you are referring to and enjoy your work because it becomes more interesting with the pictures that have been added onto it, as long as it has to do with the subject(s) at hand. Flickr is a great website to find pictures that are both colorful and imaginative and there are several pictures to look through on that website.