Week 2 Competency Objectives

1. Define communications
2. Explain the Internet
3. Describe the World Wide Web portion of the Internet
4. Discuss appropriate classroom uses of the various types of electronic and digital communication tools
5. Describe the educational implications of the Internet, World Wide Web, electronic and digital communications
6. Describe ways to implement strategies to meet the needs of today’s digital students
7. Compare and contrast teacher–created online supplement content, blended learning, and 100% online courses

The Internet and the World Wide Web

From shopping, purchasing movie tickets, “chatting,” and entertainment to online banking, conducting research, and accessing up to the minute news, the Internet and the World Wide Web have found their way into almost all aspects of our daily lives; or at least into the lives of most of our students. One researcher stated that today’s students are the natives of the technology world and adults are the foreigners. Do you ever feel like you are in another country when your students start talking about texting, tweets, blogs, wikis, and their Facebook page? You are not alone. This week you will gain an understanding of these and other Internet terms as you continue your exploration of the world of 21st century technology.

The Changing Face of Education

The Internet is an invaluable communication tool in schools and homes. Most teenagers would deem it to be essential! Smartphones, college dorms, coffee shops, airports, and many restaurants also provide wireless access to the Internet. Two factors have enabled this wide distribution of the Internet: wireless technology and broadband connections. Broadband connections are able to process digital information more quickly, have a larger amount of bandwidth, and have quickly become mainstream in American homes and schools.

Because of the rapid dissemination of wireless technology/broadband connections and “new” economic realities of the second decade of the 21st century, PreK–12 education is beginning the process of dramatic change and change that will be created, tweaked, and tweaked again by you and your peers–resulting in a new education system. Experts agree that this changing face of education is yet to be defined, but will include virtual teaching and learning or eLearning in three ways:

1. Classroom teacher–created supplemental content – The days of students sitting in computer labs using desktop computers to work through education software programs are clearly disappearing. Technologies now exist for teachers to easily create extensive supplemental content at virtually no cost, including videos, and provide them online for their students to use out of class. New wireless netbook computers (at less than $200) mean that all students can have access to content created by their classroom teacher, anywhere and anytime. For your final project, you will create videos for your students to interact with out of class and starting with this week’s Tips & Tricks section, you will begin to learn how to use a program, Camtasia, to create your supplemental videos.

2. 100% online courses – The number of middle and high school students taking 100% online courses has exploded over the past few years, most states now have virtual schools and a number of states have mandated that all high school students take at least one 100% online course. 100% online courses will continue to explode and will be part of the changing face of education, but most experts agree, 100% online is only one component of the changing face of education; most kids will continue to attend traditional face–to–face (f2f) schools.

3. Blended learning – Your textbook defines blended learning as courses that meet in a face–to–face classroom for part of the class and meet virtually or online for the rest of the course. In other words, you teach part of the time in your traditional classroom and the rest is online. A recent major study by the U.S. Department of Education concluded that blended learning is the best of both worlds by merging f2f and online teaching and learning. Some schools have already transitioned to a “blended school year” with 4 days of f2f instruction per week and students interacting with online content on the fifth day. Another emerging trend is to create “blended summer school” and blended credit recovery courses. You may only teach one or two days a week during summer with the remainder being online.

Throughout this course, you will discover and explore new teaching strategies and ideas that will help you meet the needs of your digital students in the changing face of education. One thing’s for certain, you are already part of the changing face of education and may teach an online course or in a blended environment in the near future.

If you have completed reading this page, continue to the Classroom in Action page.