Value of Internet Resources in Education

There are myriad Internet resources currently available that can enhance educational experiences for students, parents and teachers, thereby positively impacting students’ learning. The infinite Internet resources at a teacher's disposal enable them to create and teach engaging lessons and provide positive learning experiences. It is in an educator's best interest to create lessons requiring the use of technological tools to teach the lesson as well as for the students to use in school or at home to extend the learning in an effort to meet students' preferred intelligence and learning modalities. The Internet affords an infinite cache of tools that will help students understand, organize, synthesize and share knowledge. For example, Web 2.0 tools provide such things as Snipd for archiving, Delver and Managed Q for searching, Gliffy, Exploratree, Mayomi, Mind Meister and Kayuda-just to name a few, for concept mapping, EasyBib for creating a bibliography, Similipedia for researching, Diigo for annotation, slideboom, Google Docs and knols, for file sharing, wikis, blogs, podcasting etc... the list goes on and on. There is so much information available and these tools are especially wonderful for the purpose of accessing it efficiently. Students can demonstrate learning by pulling up a presentation on slideboom whenever necessary. Teachers can communicate at any time via Websites and blogs. Students can share opinions and reactions with each other via wikis, knols and blogs. Parents can check in on their child’s progress via student information systems and communicate with teachers and administrators. They can even pay for lost or damaged school library books online. The Internet provides free access to information easily. While it is not without it’s pitfalls, it has the capacity to do more good than harm simply by making it easier to communicate and access information. The Internet is currently shaping minds whether teachers use it for teaching or not. It is a school’s responsibility to teach Internet safety and train teachers and students how to use its’ resources. It is a community building tool simply by being an avenue for increasing communication. It is a learning tool used by teachers and for teachers regularly during professional development whether it’s in school, or an online tutorial or class at home. Teachers are using the Internet to learn, plan, and teach on a regular basis. Students are using it to learn and demonstrate their knowledge constantly. As the Internet advances with Web 3.0, so too will teaching and learning.