The video of Donald J. Leu, a PhD in Literacy and Technology from the University of Connecticut, articulated his worldly knowledge of the importance in implementing the internet workshop to students in grades K-12th. The internet workshop is a simple research activity where students go on the internet to gather information and then share and compare what they discovered.
The benefits of the internet workshop for students is that it develops content knowledge (conceptual understanding), creates strategies for using network information as a resource, and fosters skills for collaboration. Another benefit of utilizing the internet workshop model is that it fits in with most instructional models. Dr. Leu emphasizes that the internet workshop can be used in a departmentalized or self-contained classroom. Older students may have a study to complete the internet activity in an open lab session. Younger grades, that are self-contained classrooms can have students use the internet on a rotating schedule, even with 1 computer for a half an hour independently and a half an hour collaboratively within a five day a week period.
The challenge that I see in using the internet workshop model is the constraints that teachers are under to follow a rigid pacing calendar of their curriculum. Overall, I believe in the value of exposing and exploring students' minds to technology. We are living in the 21st century and the students that are not given the opportunity to build background knowledge or develop navigational strategies and skills will be digitally left behind.
The benefits of the internet workshop for students is that it develops content knowledge (conceptual understanding), creates strategies for using network information as a resource, and fosters skills for collaboration. Another benefit of utilizing the internet workshop model is that it fits in with most instructional models. Dr. Leu emphasizes that the internet workshop can be used in a departmentalized or self-contained classroom. Older students may have a study to complete the internet activity in an open lab session. Younger grades, that are self-contained classrooms can have students use the internet on a rotating schedule, even with 1 computer for a half an hour independently and a half an hour collaboratively within a five day a week period.
The challenge that I see in using the internet workshop model is the constraints that teachers are under to follow a rigid pacing calendar of their curriculum. Overall, I believe in the value of exposing and exploring students' minds to technology. We are living in the 21st century and the students that are not given the opportunity to build background knowledge or develop navigational strategies and skills will be digitally left behind.