Internet in K-12 Instruction

• Check out the statistics on Internet use in today’s world – Can you relate? How can educational processes NOT include this widely used-tool?
  21 million Americans use it to get additional career training
  Helps 17 million when dealing with major illness
  17 million use it for choosing a school for a child
  16 million use it to buy a car
  16 million use it for a major financial decision
  10 million use it for finding new place to live
  8 million use it when changing job
  7 million use it to cope with family illness
  Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project (BBC News, January 26, 2006)
  
  As many of my classmates have done, I feel the need to post a reflective piece…these last two months have been a delightful learning experience – one in which I plan to continue growing! The use of blogs, podcasts, wikis, social bookmarking and other tools will have a huge impact on education and instructional technology. What a great feeling I’ve had in considering how to apply them to my own situation…and now that I can take a moment from “living and breathing” the knowledge acquisition, I’m anxious to put social software to use. This will be one of those classes that “won’t go away” – I’m so trained to check my bloglines and del.icio.us accounts everyday that its impact is already noticeable.
  
  A couple of basic tenets remain:
  
• Learning is not an end-all product in the form of content iterated by a teacher – it is lifelong process that is more exemplified by knowing “how” to get the information rather than making the brain a repository of facts (unless, of course, you are going to play Jeopardy with Alex T.). The power of the Internet to harness all of that wonderful information is only as good as the skill of the learner to filter, screen and select the best fit.
• Learning usually involves social construction of knowledge – how great that social software has evolved to help bridge the gap in our global community!
• Learning is also tied deeply to motivation. Expecting our “digital natives” to conform to the agricultural-age education model is not only a “turn off” but does nothing to help promote learning in our students nor prepare them for their future lives.
• Even with the abundant technology applications for education, the teacher still plays a huge role in not only facilitating the process of learning, but also providing the “touch” (i.e., that special caring connection that only exists between teacher and student).