Teachers and the Internet

The internet can be a valuable resource for teachers of all levels and subjects. From lesson plans, to fun activities, and research. You can also keep in touch with students and parents. No doubt the internet can be of use to a teacher. But, as a teacher, you need to be aware of what the internet should and should not be used for.

Teachers, learn to use the internet effectively! If you are a college education away from becoming a teacher, utilize the internet and online degrees in teaching.

Perhaps finding lesson plans is the number on reason teachers like the internet. They can readily find activities on a variety of subjects. But, don’t rely on this on a daily basis. You must do some long term planning for your classroom. Trying to find lesson plans should only be for enrichment activities, or, in instances where you just can’t think of anything or want more. You cannot be an effective teacher if you are getting your daily lesson plans from the internet.

The number two reason that teachers use the internet is probably to get worksheets. This is where the internet shines. Free, downloadable, printable worksheets are readily found on the internet. But agan, we need to caution you. Do not go here constantly looking for worksheets. Your classroom should actually be for the most part, work-sheet free. A lot of teachers don’t know this.

Worksheets can be a lazy way of teaching. However, worksheets are terrific for drilling on basic skills like math and language arts.

Doing daily drills on these are a good way to get students the basics. Extra fill in items, like coloring sheets and mazes are also a good idea for worksheets. But teaching with worksheets is probably not a good idea. Every good worksheet you find, save a copy and file it.

That way, you may never need to buy any worksheet books again!

Teachers can also create classroom websites. But be careful about privacy issues.

Email is the new way to stay in touch. Your school or district probably has an email set up for you. Know how to use it. Set up your parents with your email address and keep them informed. Get all parents on your email list.

You can send class updates, including projects and assignment due dates. You can also readily contact parents with concerns.

Use the internet to do some educational research. If you are having problems in class, do an online search. See if other teachers have the same problem and have solved it.

Teachers Say Internet Improves Quality of Education

More than eight out of ten teachers (84 percent) believe that computers and access to the Internet improve the quality of education, according to a survey by education technology nonprofit xyz company ( say ) , and 75 percent of teachers said the Internet is an important tool for finding new resources to meet new standards.

Two-thirds of teachers, however, agree the Internet is not well integrated into their classrooms and only 26 percent of them feel pressure to use it in learning activities.

Xyz company also found that nearly every teacher has access to the Internet at his or her school and 80 percent of classrooms have computers that are online. Seventy-seven percent of teachers agree that teachers without Internet access in the classroom are at a disadvantage.

Teachers cite multiple uses for the Internet, but most primarily see its potential as a research tool, and say it has not changed the way they teach. Forty-eight percent of teachers say the Internet has become an important tool for teaching over the last two years, yet across every demographic group of teachers, half or more use the Internet at school for less than 30 minutes a day.

Other findings from Xyz company’s survey include:

78 percent of teachers cited lack of time as the number one reason for not logging on to the Internet

46 to 50 percent list lack of equipment, speed of access or lack of technical support as hindering their use of online resources

44 percent of teachers cite lack of knowledge about how to use the Internet, and 32 percent list lack of leadership from the principal or administrators as reasons for not logging on.

Xyz company’s research suggests the critical challenge ahead is to find ways to help teachers go beyond the research functions of the Internet. Most teachers do not use the Internet in daily activities such as communication with students, parents and other teachers, or for organizational activities. Sixty-seven percent of teachers believe the Internet is not well integrated into their classroom. Those teachers most likely to use the Internet and say it is well integrated into their classrooms are sixth through eighth grade teachers.

Less than half of teachers use the Internet when building new lessons or engaging in classroom projects (42 percent), and an even greater number (62 percent) do not update lesson plans with material found online. Teachers in private and parochial schools engage in technology integration more often than teachers in public schools. Fifty-two percent of private and parochial teachers use the Internet for class projects and for updating lesson plans; compared to 40 percent of public school teachers who use the Internet for these activities.

Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of teachers say they do not feel pressure to use the Internet in classroom instruction or the curriculum’s Of those teachers who reported feeling pressure, 54 percent say district administrators, colleagues and peers are the source of that pressure. Only 10 percent say the pressure comes from principals. The lack of pressure that teachers feel from principals suggests the need for more guidance to help principals learn how to best utilize technology to support education. In addition, learning how to provide leadership on educational technology is a new development area for many principals.

THE INTERNET’S PERCEIVED VALUE FOR TEACHERS

Even though a majority of teachers have still not used the Internet in their teaching, and even fewer have used it in a major way, there may be many reasons for this – the recent development of Internet tools and resources, the rapidity with which technologies are changing, the limited opportunity that teachers have had to see how the Internet can be used in their practice, and the rarity of fast and convenient Internet access. Some teachers who have not used the Internet may be looking forward to a day when they might. How do teachers see the Internet’s potential value for them in the near future? Do most teachers see the Internet as a valuable or an essential resource in their teaching, as something of limited value, or perhaps something that is not even needed?

Even among teachers who did not have access to the Internet either at home or in their own classroom, one-third regarded the Internet as an essential teaching resource.

CORRELATES OF INTERNET USE AND PERCEIVED VALUE

Clearly, the access that teachers have to the Internet as well as their teaching responsibilities affects the likelihood that they will use the Internet themselves or with their students and, to some extent, whether they have come to value this resource in their teaching. This section reports our analysis of the degree to which different factors are correlated with teachers’ Internet use and perceived value.

MEASURES OF USE EMPLOYED

Three measures of Internet use are employed, and each measure is based on two or three dichotomous criteria (i.e., meeting or not meeting a given standard). Thus, each teacher received a score of 0, 1, 2, or 3 in each of these categories.

A teacher’s TEACHER USE score is the number of the following three criteria met:

Did they get information from the Internet on a weekly basis?

Did they send e-mails to teachers at other schools at least 5 times during the year?

Did they ever post information or student work to the World Wide Web during the year?

A teacher’s STUDENT RESEARCH USE score is the number of these three criteria met:

Did they have students use the World Wide Web in at least 3 lessons during the year?

Did they have students use the Web at least 10 times?

Did they choose an Internet browser software as one of the three most valuable pieces of software used in their teaching?

A teacher’s STUDENT PROJECTS AND PUBLISHING score comes from three criteria as well:

Did they have students do e-mail in at least 3 lessons?

Did they have a class participate in a cross-school collaborative project?

Did they do a lesson where students became expert in a topic and put their information on the Web?

Finally, a teacher’s PERCEIVED VALUE score is the combination of whether they believed desktop e-mail for themselves was essential and whether they believed classroom Web access was essential.

ASSOCIATION BETWEEN INTERNET ACCESS AND USE

Certainly teachers have to have access to the Internet in order to use it. But what kind of access makes the biggest difference in use and perceived value—whether the teacher has access at home or somewhere in school; whether the school access is in her own classroom; or whether her classroom access is through a modem or through high-speed/LAN-based direct access? Our data provides some evidence on this issue.

In terms of a teacher’s own professional Internet use, having a modem at home may be almost as important for teachers as having one in their classroom. Teachers with a home modem but no access at school at all have nearly the same Teacher Use score as teachers with an Internet connection in their classroom but no modem at home (.23 vs. .20). Moreover, teachers