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Inside Edunotes
Where the Internet Belongs in the Classroom
Eduwords
Software Review
Web Site Review
Ask Ed Cyber
Homework Help

Educyber Site Guide
Business Users
Computer Users
Educators

Edunotes Newsletter
This newsletter is created by Brian and Maki DeLaet and Nick Lee at Educyber, Inc.
Subscriptions in the U.S. are free. Subscribe online at www.educyber.com or call (720) 275-4646.
Educyber is based at:
11830 W 35th Ave.
Wheat Ridge, CO 80033
NOTE: Links and Web sites change frequently. All links and web sites were accurate at the time of publication.

Where the Internet Belongs in the Classroom

O.K.  We're nearly all wired and by the end of the year, we are told, EVERY school in the US will have Internet access in some form or another.  So now that it's here, we have to figure out what to do with it.  How can we use it to help kids learn? 
There are four main steps in integrating the Internet into the learning process.  The first of these is deciding what our (society, administration, teachers, parents) expectations are.  Obviously, this is the biggest task and should be an ongoing process, yet it seems like so far we have largely left this task un-addressed.  At what ages are what materials appropriate?  How can the Internet be integrated into the current curriculum?  Do we need separate classes for Internet?
Next we need to train the teachers.  Imagine sending a plastic surgeon in to perform a kidney transplant.  Yes they would have some of the training and experience necessary, but imagine how nervous the patient would be and perhaps how even more nervous the plastic surgeon would be.  Equipping teachers not only with a solid understanding of the Internet and how it works but also with how it can be a part of their teaching is crucial to successfully using the Internet in the classroom.
Implementing Internet use in the classroom is next.  Once teachers are confident enough to teach with the Internet, the students can begin to benefit.  In too many schools, steps one and two are skipped, bringing the Internet straight into the classroom where it ends up being abused or simply unused.  Helping students to explore other languages and cultures, delving into science projects in ways not previously possible, communicating with authors or experts in their respective fields are just a few of the ways the Internet can enhance student learning.
And finally, we need to evaluate the result of using the Internet in the classroom.  Not to give it an F and throw it out but to see if it is effective and the ways it is effective.  Technology shows no sign of disappearing from our lives.  If we take the time to evaluate how we are using it and how it is affecting us we can better direct its use and growth.  Sure we can learn from the students.  Watch them as they use this new learning tool.  See what works.  See what they like.  See what helps prepare them to be responsible, functioning adults in our increasingly complex and fast-paced society.  Then go back to step one and work through the process again.

Edu Words (a glossary for computer users)
Web Page: One file, usually an html file, on the Internet.  It can be anywhere from one to dozens of screens in length but is still called one page.
Web Site: A web page or group of pages on a certain theme or topic or for a certain company.  Many small businesses and individuals have one page web sites while large companies often have hundreds or thousands of pages on their website.
HTML: Hyper Text Markup Language.  Currently the language of the Internet.  HTML consists mainly of tags before and after blocks of text that describe how the text should look in the web browser.  For example, <CENTER> Hello </CENTER> would place the text Hello in the center of the line.

Homework Help in the New Millennium - PORTALS

By Judy Musick

If you are over 30, you remember what it was like.  Your report on Diphtheria was due on Monday.  You got motivated at about 4:40 on Sunday afternoon and decided to get some information from the library.  Onto your bicycle (we went everywhere by bicycle in those days) and in about 10 minutes you discover that your local branch is not open on Sundays.  Strike number one.  Back home you go.  A phone call to the library headquarters elates you when they say they do have Sunday hours - an elation that lasts about 13 seconds until they tell you that they close at 5:00 and it is now 4:59.  Strike number two.  Stuck with the resources you can find in your home, you bravely begin your research. 

Query:  "Dad, what do you know about diphtheria?" 
Reply:  "I think it has something to do with the amount of oil you put in your car engine.  If you don't have enough oil things can go wrong and .." 

Query:  (to older sister) "Janet, what do you know about diphtheria?"
Reply:  "It's a disease we don't get anymore because of vaccinations."

Query (You are feeling very hopeful now): What kind of disease is it?
Reply:  "I don't know.  My philosophy has always been if you can't catch it, don't worry about it."

Query:  "Is anyone home who can tell me about diphtheria?"
Reply:  Silence

Strike number three. 

Still, there is a chance that you have something written in your home.  You check the National Geographics for the past 25 years (your father is an avid collector), your 1956 copy of the Encyclopedia Brittanica, and your dictionary.  After all that checking you have come up with 12 sentences of information.  At an average of seven words per sentence you realize that you have 84 words worth of information.  Not enough for a 10-page report even if you add a lot of padding and filler.  Feeling resignation and self-condemnation for your lack of preparation, you go to bed reportless and hope the professor is in a good mood for giving extensions.

"THE LIBRARY WAS CLOSED" is no longer an excuse in today's society.  The Internet has given everyone his or her own personal library open 24 hours a day 7 days a week. 

Homework help for a fee (subscription by the month or by the year)

1.       http://www.inetlibrary.com

This service costs $49.79 for a one-year subscription.  It claims to be worth the financial investment because the entire 150,000 web sites it links to are safe, organized and reviewed.  The information is organized into 17 sections, 96 subsections and 936 categories.  The service is intended to meet the needs of students K-12, and has resources that cover all levels of reading ability.  The buttons from the home page send you directly to lesson plans, maps and statistics, state educational resources, the Homeschooling center, Special Education, Fund-raisers, 39 different encyclopedias, current news and weather, 3500 different periodicals, 670 different newspapers, homework helpers, college search and scholarships, 10,000 books to read or print out, automotive center, current events, and museums and photo galleries.  The site also offers Forums on different topics where you can get advice or information from other subscribers or post your own input.  Professionals in their field moderate the forums, and you can participate in forums or read their contents without being a subscriber.

Whether or not the $50 investment is worthwhile depends on how you use the service.  If you only need to write one report and then you are done, don't slap down the bucks.  If you have several papers to do, or if you need in-depth coverage of a particular topic the service might be worthwhile.  If you are looking into higher education and can find a $500 scholarship, the service has paid for itself several times over.  Ditto for being able to read books online. 

2.       http://www.elibrary.com

This service costs $9.95 a month or $59.95 for the year.  It separates information by source: magazines, books, newspapers, pictures, maps, TV and radio transcripts, etc.  After you submit your search question or topic, the results are laid out according to source, e.g. 4 magazine articles, 24 books, and 11 newspaper articles.  Clicking on the results gives more details about the information found, including specific source, date and reading level. 

I found the reading level evaluation to be particularly helpful in choosing what I wanted to look at and what I chose to skip over.  Since you have the option of signing on for a shorter length of time, this site can be great if you need a few weeks intensive research on your Master's thesis, but after that you plan on soaking in a hot tub for the rest of the year.  Another nice element of this site is elibrary Tracker which is described more fully in the next section because it is FREE!

My basic take on paying for research help is similar to my take on paying for the Internet.  AOL, CompuServe, WANS and a host of other ISPs offer the Internet for a fee.  In exchange for your money they provide a lot of customer service, ease of use, bonus perks and peace of mind.  Other ISPs like NetZero offer the Internet for free and cover their expenses through advertising alone.  If you like the reliability, the "dummy-proofness" and the added benefits you pay for the Internet.  If you are capable and comfortable with separating information from propaganda and can handle a little inconvenience for financial savings you choose free Internet and/or free email. 

Next Time:
Homework help for FREE

New Software

This new software can be helpful in bringing out children's creativity while they practice some of the important computing skills like moving/pointing  the mouse and clicking. While maintaining both parent- and child-friendly features, it contains numerous hi-tech tools that allow children (and you) to explore and express their imagination. The program is set up as an art studio where anything visual is clickable. The tools include over 30 painting and drawing tools, 144 stamps, visual special effects, sound effects, coloring pages and backgrounds that can be used to create a "masterpiece". Some of its parent friendly features includes a printing option to conserve printer ink and the main window always opening to full-screen size that prevents children from accidentally messing up your desktop.
I had my children (ages 8 and 4) try out the software and they loved it. It was easy to figure out how it works, so basically all I did was open the program and pretty soon, they came up with several neat pictures. The kids loved the visual and audio special effects and I heard them giggling all the while they were playing.
Discover Painting for kids is available for Windows 95/98 and Macintosh systems for $25.00. To purchase the software, go to Crescent Vision Interactive's website at (http://www.crescentvision.com). A free 30 day trial version is also available at their site, so you can download it on your computer and let the kids decide, too.

Web Site Review

The Hands-On Technology Program

http://www.galaxy.net/~k12/scihome.html
"Teachers are very busy and school budgets are tight. You can still have an extensive hands-on program. The key is to start small and let the program grow, and to get parents and community involved." As they state in their introduction page, The Hands-On Technology program is designed by and for teachers who struggle to provide quality education within their busy schedules and tight budgets. The site contains a number of activities that you can integrate into your science and technology classes. Each activity is furnished with the student lab books that you can print out and make copies of, teacher's notes to help plan and hints on getting some of the materials you will need for each activity. The program is created by AT&T and the Colts Neck, New Jersey public school systems so their activities are already classroom-tested. While having fun, students are guided to make their own hypotheses, observations and conclusions, which enhances their language art skills. Also each activity is designed to teach students important scientific practice and techniques and to encourage students to experiment on their own.

Ask Ed Cyber

Dear Ed,
My husband gave me a zip drive for Christmas.  I want to back up my files to a disk, but I'm not sure where all of my files are.  How can I find them?
-          Not yet backed up

Dear Ms. Not yet backed up,
What a nice gift!  One of the worst things that can happen is turning on your computer and hearing your hard drive die.  But if your data is backed up, you can rest easy knowing that even if you have to reinstall all of your programs on a new hard drive, you can easily restore your data.
First, let's look at good hard drive use habits.  Important system files are stored in many places on your hard drive, including the System directory and many of the Program Files directories.  It's not a good idea to be storing your data files in the same place as these files which is why there's probably a folder on your hard drive called My Documents.  That's the best place to put all of your data.  If you want to create subdirectories, or sub-folders, to organize your files (one for Word documents and one for Excel spreadsheets, for example) you can do this all within My Documents.
If you keep all of your data in one place, it's quite easy to make a backup.  You simply tell your program to backup all of My Documents.  However, there are other places on your hard drive that your information might be stored.  Favorites, for example can be found in a subdirectory of the same name in Windows.  Netscape mail and bookmarks will probably be in Program Files - Netscape - Users.  Other important Microsoft files can be found in Windows - Application Data.
Once you know where all of your data is, start your back up program.  Iomega hardware comes with it's own backup program and is probably best to use if you have a zip drive.  Windows also comes with a backup program that can be found in Accessories - System tools but I recommend using the Iomega in your case.
Click Start, Programs, Iomega Ware, 1 step backup.  Click the customize button and then follow the steps to create a backup job that only includes the files and folders with your data.  Make sure you have a disk in the drive and start the backup.
It is a good idea to backup your data every week and to use at least two disks, rotating them each week so that if something catastrophic happened to your computer during a backup, you would still have last weeks' backed up data.

- Ed