Case Study of Teachers’ Use of the Internet

After reading the following scenario, please answer the questions that follow.

Mrs. Stillens wanted her fourth grade students to meet the California state standards for Social Studies by exploring California history .Her lesson objective was for her students to learn about Native Americans. The students worked independently to examine three websites the teacher had bookmarked before class. These web sites provided all the necessary information to successfully complete the fill-in-the-blank questions on her handout. Some of the questions on the worksheet included when the Native Americans were in California, what main tribes were present, as well as some of the major events involving Native American history. The teacher reviewed the correct answers with the class and had the students check one another's responses. These were then turned in to the teacher for a grade.

Discussion Questions:

What do you think were the educational goals of the described lesson?

What are some positive aspects about this lesson?

What are some negative aspects about this lesson?

How do you think students would respond to the described lesson?

What would you do to make this lesson different if you were teaching it?

Scenario #2

Mrs. Jones brought her student to the computer lab to follow up on her class' study of Greek gods. The students worked together in pairs in order to choose a god to become an expert on. She allowed the students to do their own searches using a kid-friendly search engine and guided them in deciding which sites were appropriate for their chosen topic. Based on the information provided by the websites, the students were to write a character description, draw a picture of the god, and then choose someone in modern life that represented some of the qualities of that Greek god. As a follow up activity, the students were given a choice in how they would represent their knowledge about their particular god's characteristics in relationship to a modern person. They could cut and paste a photo from the Internet and complete the assignment electronically, or they could draw or cut out of a magazine a picture of the modern day person that possessed these characteristics and then add that to their description of the Greek god. Lastly, they shared the similarities between god and modern day person and presented that comparison with the rest of the class.

Discussion Questions:

What do you think were the educational goals of the described lesson?

What are some positive aspects about this lesson?

What are some negative aspects about this lesson?

How do you think students would respond to the described lesson?

What would you do to make this lesson different?

What are the major differences between the first example and this one?

Which lesson would you be more comfortable teaching? Why?