Using the Internet in the Classroom: Workshop, Project, or Inquiry?

          I thought this weeks readings and videos brought up many good talking points regarding how to use internet materials in the classroom, and presented a lot of options for teachers across grade levels and content areas. To start, the chapter from Leu, Leu, Coiro (2004), despite it being slightly outside of our five year window from which we are working with Web 2.0 literacies, discusses immensely the importance of interweaving digital literacies with content knowledge. As I read this article, I felt as though it was talking more to my personal high school experience with the Web in the classroom, and not how we have been discussing its uses in more recent years. When I was in high school, many of us were in a laptop program, where teachers were required to find ways to incorporate them into their curriculum. As I read the article, it reminded me of my biology class, where our teacher would give us a website to go to, look for specific information on the site, then use the links to find more information. We combined the aspects of Internet workshop and Webquests together when we would do these types of lab projects.

          As I continued to read through the article, I realized that the uses of Workshop, Projects, and Inquiries are all relavant now with Web 2.0 literacies. The big factors of communication possibilities between students and teachers across the globe makes it critical for us to continue to follow instructional models that help our students gain internet literacy skills, including the ability to evaluate and cross reference multiple internet sources, as described in the "Using Internet Inquiry in Your Classroom" section (p 123). In a social studies class, I would think that using Inquiry would be the most thought provoking and appropriate way to combine critical literacy skills, digital literacy skills, and content knowledge. Leu's video on Internet inquiry with using the cyclical phases and getting students to ask their own important questions to research. I liked his example of "What happened to Benedict Arnold after he betrayed the US?" because it is a simple question that can lead to a mountain of information that students have to sift through and evaluate on their own. This approach also allows our students to become more independent thinkers and can take ownership over their thinking and questioning abilities.

          The two peer-selected readings this week, although discussing two different demographics of students, discussed very similar things with how to use Webquests with ELLs and LD students. Making modifications to any project for students who either struggle because of a language barrier or LD is absolutely crucial to these students' success, especially when using the internet. A lot of websites offer the content on it in more than one language, and teachers, if they do their homework on the project, can meaningfully engage ELLs without too many modifications that would hinder their ability to communicate with classmates or their ability to navigate the web. Our use of language and expressions and how we use them with ELLs can make or break a project if we are not careful. Furthermore, using webquests with both demographics of students keeps them motivated to learn, especially when they can be more independent in their learning.

The Inquiry Oriented Internet Projects website( IOIP Click here to access! )was my database of choice when looking for webquests for social studies. I recommend that all teachers of all subjects look to this website as it is meant for all content areas. There were so many webquests available here that it was difficult to limit myself in looking at only a couple. For the projects I did look at, all of them followed the phases that Leu discussed in his videos of questioning, search, analyze, compose and share.