According to Moore’s law, technology performance is increasing exponentially. Right now, you may be wondering what exactly performance, measured by the number of transistors we can pack on a microchip, has to do with the Internet in the classroom. While it may seem unrelated, Moore's Law has had numerous implications for both our society as well as our classrooms.
The rate of exponential change dictated by Moore's Law means that approximately every two years our technological computing capability doubles. This increase in technological performance is seen on a daily basis on the streets (cell phones and iPods) and in our classrooms in the form of computers and high speed Internet.
The technology of today has changed drastically from that of the past, as has the way in which technology is integrated into every facet our daily lives. The field of education is not immune to this technological shift.
According to Smith, Clark and Blomyer in their 2005 article entitled "A synthesis of new research on K–12 online learning"
"In 1999, about 52 percent of K–12 teachers said they used technology in instruction (Lanahan, 2002). About 90 percent of children ages 7 to 17 reported using computers in school, as did 97 percent of high school students (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2004)" (p. 9). This number suggests that a significant portion of our students and teachers are using technology in their classrooms and the Internet plays a large role in this usage.
The use of the Internet in the classroom empowers us as educators to provide opportunities for our students beyond what is available in our classrooms or neighborhoods. The Internet can enable us to take our students down the street or to the moon with NASA on a virtual field trip. It can enable us to make connections with students in far away places via web conferencing or electronic pen pals. In Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching MD Robyler defines several examples of activity structures that are enhanced through the use of the Internet. Aside from those named above, electronic mentoring, electronic publishing, group collaboration, problem based learning and social action projects are all defined as activity structures that work well with Internet integration.
The Internet can also provide our classrooms with access to informational resources that may otherwise be unavailable.
According to the Pew Research Center's The Internet and Education report (http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2001/The-Internet-and-Education.aspx):
"The Internet has become an increasingly important feature of the learning environment for teenagers. Research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in November and December 2000 shows that teens use the Internet as an essential study aid outside the classroom and that the Internet increasingly has a place inside the classroom. The Project surveyed 754 online youth ages 12-17 and their parents. Teens and parents report that Internet is vital to completing school projects and has effectively replaced the library for a large number of online youth. 71% of students report using the Internet at their primary source for their last major project, and they also report accessing online study aids like Sparknotes or CliffNotes. Beyond legitimate assistance with studies via websites, or email or Instant message communication with teachers, students also take advantage of the Internet to cheat, with 18% of students reporting knowing someone who used the Internet to do so."
Access to Internet resources not only provides students with content that is relevant and useful but that is also up to date. Students are able to access real time data through the Internet for their assignments. This could be useful in my thematic unit on Urban Ecology. If students were able to retrieve up to date ecological data on the environment we were studying that would be of great value. Unfortunately, this data was not available so I decided instead to do a web quest for some other basic ecological facts. The web quest is designed to be fun and to also help the students to begin forming a library of helpful sites. The library of web resources will then serve as a class resource for the duration of the thematic unit.
Despite the great promise of the Internet there are still some barriers. For example, high speed Internet is still not ubiquitous in the united states and this prevents some rural communities from effectively accessing these tools in the classroom.
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