Preliminary Thoughts: Instruction and the Internet

Let me offer several preliminary observations about the nature of the Internet and the act of instruction. Hopefully, these observations will provide some practical guidelines for integrating Internet resources into more traditional classroom activities.

• Never forget the twin pillars of communication and interaction.

  At the heart of all good instruction lie two basic qualities: communication and interaction. Instruction rests first on the clear presentation of ideas, in language and complexity within the limits of the learner's understanding. Similarly, quality instruction involves a dialogue between instructor and learner, an on-going interaction in which the learner test ideas and clarifies his thinking. If communication and interaction are the mainstays of traditional instruction, they must likewise rest at the heart of any technology-enhanced education. The effective integration of Internet resources into the act of teaching must strive for these high standards.

• Not every act of traditional instruction translates directly into "cyberspace."

  Not every instructional content can be forced into every mode of instruction. For some types of teaching, technology tools like the Internet are particularly effective; for other types of teaching, traditional approaches may be better. Oil painting is a very flexible medium, but the light textures of watercolors can never be produced with oils. The same is true of the Internet: it is an excellent medium for many forms of instruction, but for some forms, traditional classroom activities cannot be improved.

• Interacting with the Internet provides hundreds of hidden opportunities for instruction.

  Discovery learning everywhere abounds on the Internet, regardless of the specific subject matter of a site. English teachers can use any website to evaluate the persuasiveness of its presentation, the tools of rhetoric it employs, the prejudices it evokes, and any logical fallacies which might lie beneath its arguments. The biology instructor might discuss color schemes of webpages and the ways by which the human eye processes color. The educational value of an Internet site is limited only by the creativity of an instructor.

• Always "re-purpose" Internet materials to achieve learning objectives.

  There is no rule that demands that resources gathered from the Internet must be used in one way and not another. If an imaginative instructor wants to use a news site to launch a discussion of history, or an art site to comment on music or other cultural expressions, or an economics site to discuss social values -- there is nothing to stop that instructor. If students wish to gather resource material from the Internet and then weave them together into a new creative whole -- that is education. Feel free to mold Internet materials around the learner goals set for students.

• Recognize the Internet as a "community of contribution."

  On the Internet, you are expected to give as well as receive. Using the Internet is about more than just navigating between webpages: it is about building webpages and sharing your expertise and experience with others. Building webpages is not "rocket science" -- if it were, not many people would be doing it. Webpage construction can be easy and fun if you just get the right tools and training. Buy a good HTML resource book. Start small: build an on-line syllabus or a "hot list" of resources for a class. Strive to improve with time -- both in the quality of your page design and the content you place on pages.