NEWSLETTER FROM ONLINECLASS(TM)

NEWSLETTER FROM ONLINECLASS(TM)
________________________________________________________________________

http://www.onlineclass.com
tbt@onlineclass.com
December, 1998
________________________________________________________________________

Contents:
December Is Planning Month For All of Us
How To Choose An On-line Project That's Right For You
Letters to the Editor
Note the corrections to winter/spring class dates
_______________________________________________________________________
December Is Planning Month For All of Us

December is supposed to be a breather month, but it never seems to work out that way, does it? We'll be busy this December putting the finishing touches on Dinosaurs Alive and the second session of Blue Ice: Focus on Antarctica, both of which start in January. You may be planning your calendars into the new year and wondering how to beat the winter blahs. Check out both our January and February schedules.

We'll also be preparing the on-line teacher workshops that run every week in January. If you are a teacher signed up for an OnlineClass offering, go to <http://www.onlineclass.com/OnlineClass/prepsessions.html> to sign up for one of the workshops in January. We cover how to participate in and plan your on-line experience. If you have not yet taken the plunge into the world of the Internet or have plans to create your own project, the workshops are only $30 for non-OnlineClass teachers for a week of reading material and interaction. See below for an excerpt from the workshops on "how to choose an on-line project that's right for you."
----------------
We are ready to mail teaching guides for Blue Ice: Focus on Antarctica, Dinosaurs Alive! and The North American Quilt, so signing up before the holidays will give you a whole month to read and to explore the Web sites!
-------------------

_______________________________________________________________________
How To Choose An On-line Project That's Right For You

The following is an excerpt from the OnlineClass workshop for teachers, "Strategies for a Successful Online Adventure." You can get more details about these workshops at
<http://www.onlineclass.com/OnlineClass/prepsessions.html>

--------------
Why choose an in-depth program?

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) <http://www.iste.org/> has just released a set of national (US) technology standards which states that by the completion of grade 8, "students should apply strategies for troubleshooting routine hardware and software problems, and use telecommunications to collaborate with students, experts, and others at distant locations to investigate curriculum-related concepts, issues, and information."

As your school works to adopt these standards (which range from grades 2 -12), the learning can be spread out over a variety of technology/Internet experiences and projects...but they can be most quickly learned by a series of in-depth, interactive programming. Imagine if each grade participated in one on-line project per year, increasing at each grade level the complexity of participation! By grade 8, students would be experts at using the technology, but also would be able, as the guidelines suggest, to apply their own strategies to the management of information and technology experience.

In reviewing and surveying why teachers choose to participate in organized and in-depth on-line projects, these are some of the other practical reasons we have heard:

having an organized project saves prep time for the classroom teacher and thus, even when there is a registration fee involved, the cost to the school ends up being less than paying additional teaching or prep time to create a project from scratch.

participating in a project designed by on-line experts allows the teacher to concentrate on the subject matter rather than learning on-line techniques and/or searching the Web for material.

collaborative projects bring features that a teacher cannot create easily alone, features such as interacting with experts and visiting field research sites. They recruit other schools for collaboration partners in varied geographic locations, something difficult for an individual teacher, especially one new to the Internet.

the resources gathered by the producers (photographs, background material, etc.) is not available on other sites or in self-directed projects. They are unique in comparison to other resources for the
classroom.

working with outside experts and curriculum developers brings a new perspective to the teacher's experience, often introducing interdisciplinary elements that are beyond the expertise of the individual
teacher.

researched Web links associated with a project make it possible for teachers to provide a bounty of subject-related resources to students without the hours of research time on the Web.

teachers appreciate a controlled and safe way to introduce the Internet to their students and to practice techniques themselves without the distraction of keeping a project "afloat".

veteran Internet users are tired of "edutainment" Internet content and welcome the planned and structured in-depth approach of on-line projects that stimulate meaningful, high-level thinking in interactive learning communities.

--------------
Choosing the project right for you

Your remaining decision is determining which project you should take on. As the on-line offerings grow, the choice becomes harder. But just as we want a library full of books, we want an Internet full of excellent content so that we can make the decision based on our needs in the classroom and not
based on taking what we can get, no matter what.

As you review the projects you have to choose from, match them with your
own criteria for

curriculum goals, subject and standards

depth of content and appropriateness for your age-group

time required for the project vs. the time you have available

presentation and content quality

reputation and credentials

Which project fits best for you? Look at the depth of the material and decide whether you are going to use the on-line project as a standalone project (using the activities as they are) or as a part of a larger unit
you plan to teach (go back to Unit Four to review the steps in how to integrate an on-line project into your own classroom material).

****end of excerpt******
--------------

Coming in the January, 1999 Newsletter: how to budget for an on-line
project and how to create your own on-line collaboration.

--------------

Note: As you look for the right on-line project for your classroom, it's nice to see what other teachers and educational experts can recommend.
There are many Web sites which rate and link to available on-line projects. Even better is to see the criteria set by educational experts for a successful on-line teaching strategy.
<http://www.EDsOasis.org/Guidelines.html> ED's Oasis Evaluation Center sets criteria for what makes a good interactive experience and recommends interactive on-line curricula.

ED's Oasis has also recently implemented a free newsletter service to keep you up-to-date on the projects they recommend and on the issues of on-line education. For more information, visit their Web site above.

Other helpful links on this topic:

<http://www.capecod.net/schrockguide/webquest/webquest.htm>The Teacher's
Role in Cyberspace
<http://www.wested.org/tie/dlrn/>The Distance Learning Resource Network
(DLRN) for K-12 educators.
<http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/k12/livetext> LiveText from the Institute for Learning Technologies at Teachers College, Columbia University - guidance and models for curriculum development and technology planning.
<HTTP://www.cast.org/publications/stsstudy/index.html> The role of online communications in schools: A national study.
<http://www.edweek.org/sreports/tc/> Technology Counts: Schools and reform in the information age. A special report.

-------

Finally, from the October Telecommunications in Education Convention in New Orleans, keynote speaker Linda Roberts of the U.S.Office of Education offered the following statistics: With almost 80% of public schools and 30% of classrooms now connected, only 44% of those surveyed considered computer/Internet use effective.

Teachers tended to be more skeptical than the public. For more information:
<http://www.ed.gov/technology>

Priorities for effective use:
Student achievement
Teacher skills and knowledge
Improved management and administration of schools
New resources in the classroom
Connection of schools, families, and communities

Which of these priorities match your own goals? It is important to know
BEFORE you choose an on-line experience so you can pick one that will suit
your needs.

_______________________________________________________________________
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dear OnlineClass,
First of all, thanks for the great unit on myths and legends, the kids are really loving it. The Catholic Education Office of Melbourne has offered us a small (unfortunately very small) grant because of the great work that our school is doing with incorporating the computer into the curriculum. The proviso in receiving the money is that we document what we are doing so other schools can be aware of new
possibilities. We have decided to video aspects of what happens in our class for this. As part of our curriculum we have used OnlineClass classes over the last couple of years and we would like to incorporate this as part of our presentation. We would not be sharing passwords to the site, or publishing the lists of activities that you provide, but we would show kids e-mailing their key-friends, working through
some of the activities, using the Internet etc. We would also hope to talk about our experiences in using Blue Ice and Mythos Speaks. (Next year it would be hoped that we invite principals and teachers from other schools to view our class to see the work in action, but that depends on the level of the school that we are teaching, whether we can talk our principal into providing the money to do the classes etc. Here's hoping!!!!)
Anyway, at the moment, we are asking your permission to use your programme as an example of great Internet based curriculum activities for our video presentation. If this is alright, or if you have any questions could you please get in contact with us?

All the best
Lis and Rob
St Paul's Australia

ANSWER: As always, the answer is yes! yes! yes! Please feel free to show
your OnlineClass work to others. Let us know if we can provide hand-outs or
special access. Your work on-line is terrific, we want everybody to know!

******************************** end *******************************
(c) TBT International, Inc., DBA OnlineClass

NOTE: to unsubscribe from the OnlineClass newsletter, simply send us a "reply" to this e-mail with "remove" in the subject line.

Please accept our apologies if you are receiving more than one copy. Send us a note and we'll try to find the duplication on our various program and request lists.

Note that on a few occasions, we receive remove requests from folks who write to us under an address different from the one they want removed.
This makes it difficult to help, especially if we get bounced from the current address. If you fit in this category, please accept our apologies for being unable to answer your request, and please help us by identifying the address you want deleted.