Web Links for Teachers

Thought for the 21st Century: "Teach a girl to fish, and you will transform civilization." James Grant, former Executive Director of UNICEF, called the education of girls and women a "Trojan Horse" in the worldwide struggle for human rights and development. Educated women, for example, marry later, postpone childbirth, better nurture children, contribute to economic progress, and participate more actively in the social and political life of their communities.

This Web site is dedicated to victims of ethnic and gender marginalization and abuse worldwide.

Act globally: www.equalitynow.org; www.womenforwomen.org; www.htcfl.org (Healing the Children)

The World Wide Web is a part of the Internet. It consists of "pages" containing text, images, diagrams, video and audio coded in "hypertext transport protocol" (http), and "linked" together (accessed by clicking on highlighted text or icons).

Educational technology is a systematic process of finding replicable solutions to problems entailed in teaching and learning. It also may be conceived of as the products of this process (e.g., textbook, computer program, Web-based instructional unit). Educational technology is not synonymous with computer technology, which is an effective and efficient tool for locating, processing, storing and communicating information.

Educational Uses of Computers

Computers are tools to access, store, manipulate, and present information. At best, they can enhance motivation to learn and provide instruction.

Computers enable children to locate text and visuals related to their classroom curriculum, and to produce reports that can easily be edited and updated. Even reluctant readers and writers typically are thrilled to engage in computer-based literacy and research activities, especially in close collaboration with peers. Use of computers can help compensate for disabilities, and can accommodate various learning styles. Thus, computers have a core role in education today.

While there are critics of computer use in the early grades, these relate primarily to excesses of the sort that pertain as well to TV viewing. What is often overlooked is that the "digital divide" between girls and boys, and the rich and poor, begins in childhood, where there are wide discrepancies in access, and subsequent discrepancies in attitudes and skills.

Unfortunately, research has revealed that even those teachers who display competence in the use of computers for their own purposes, tend not to effectively design classroom computer activities that reinforce their curriculums. Key elements in helping them do so include: administrative support, technical assistance, financial incentives, and one-on-one sustained guidance in the utilization of computers to enhance their curriculums.

Even as teachers become skilled in the selection and utilization of computer software, they need to remain focused on their essential roles in orchestrating a variety of media and activities to ensure high achievement by all their students. Information literacy generally, and skill in using computer applications in particular, are developed primarily by the systematic and persistent efforts of good teachers, not computers.

See Hackbarth, S. L. (2001). Changes in primary students' computer literacy as a function of classroom use and gender, Tech Trends, 46(4), 19-27. Subsequent research at a more racially diverse midtown Manhattan school has documented gender and racial gaps, especially among students lacking Internet access. Gains in computer literacy at an uptown school have been double those at a midtown school where only the "gifted" classes have weekly computer lab sessions. In-service training at both schools is devoted to print literacy and mathematices to ensure high scores on state-mandated exams. Only computer specialists attend computer workshops offered by the District; classroom teachers are otherwise occupied ("balanced literacy" [mostly fiction], spelling, TERC math).Thus, classroom computers are devalued and little used.

Nevertheless, groups of fourth and fifth grade girls who independently formed email networks outscored all others on a measure of computer literacy. Current efforts to nurture such networks in the upper grades have been relatively hampered at the midtown school due to focus on gifted at all grade levels, k-5 (both the lab teacher and the library media specialist are assigned lower grade kids at the expense of "non-gifted" upper grade classes), and to less computer access at home and school (75% home Internet access midtown vs. 95% uptown; 2 classroom computers midtown vs. 3 uptown; mostly gifted classes k-5 have computer lab midtown vs. all grades 3-5 have weekly computer lab uptown). It's a Tale of Two Cities!

On this Web page are presented links to other sites that can be of help to teachers as they engage in the classroom-based action research process (a form of "educational technology") of helping students become ethical high achievers and lifelong learners.

Steven Hackbarth, Ph.D., www.educational-technology.com

Resources for 21st century professional educators
(Click on underlined text.)
Educational Technology Resources: links to Web sites for k-12 teachers and administrators, and college faculty-- Web-based learning, professional organizations, distance learning, discipline-based inquiry.
Teachers' Guide to the Internet: online information banks and tutorials covering Internet basics, search engines and subject directories, Web site evaluation criteria and forms. Sites compiled and recommended by Susan Hess, Library Media Specialist, I.S. 71, Brooklyn.
The Well Connected Educator: a site were k-12 educators share their insights and concerns about educational technology.

Teachers Network: professional development courses, peer collaboration.

The Teachers' Bookstore: links to reviews of books and tapes for professional enrichment--school reform, the practice of teaching, educational technology, etc.--and to discounts on orders.
Amazon.com has book reviews. (See keyword search form at bottom of this page.)
The Educational Technology Handbook: a comprehensive guide for integrating technology into school curriculums; covers the design and conduct of instruction via print, electronic, and human media. Author interacts via email with students enrolled in college courses using this text.

BookWire: search & shop.
Compare prices and selection.
barnesandnoble.com Search Page

Curriculum guides by subject:
K-12 Curriculum Guides and Lesson Plans

Software sources
M&M Quality Educational Software Library: an extensive library of shareware/freeware/public domain software for the Macintosh, Apple II, MS DOS and Windows operating systems; something for every subject matter and grade level, including wholesome games.
Children's Software Revue provides parents, schools, libraries and software producers with objective, comprehensive, timely software reviews. Started by former teachers in 1993, Children's Software Revue has become a full color magazine on technology and learning, with 100 to 200 authoritative reviews and ratings, as well as helpful articles, tips and spotlights on each school subject.

Information about grants:
Funding your TechnoVisions

Multicultural education:
Multicultural Studies Web Sites

Warnings and opportunities:
Advice for New Teachers

Sites suitable for student research:
Homework Help: Web Research Sites

Links to online references: dictionaries, encyclopedias, maps, almanacs, biographies, booklists, libraries. LibrarySpot

A global network dedicated to exploring youth-centered learning on the Internet.
Thinkquest.org

Subject search directories
Yahoo! (Yet Another Hierarchically Organized Oracle is far more than that--the premiere tool. A team of over 80 editors select and categorize Web sites.)
AOL NetFind Home
The Argus Clearinghouse: Research Library
Overture Search Performance
Dogpile: "All results, no mess"
LookSmart  (24,000 categories with information catalogued by over 100 editors)

www.kinderstart.com: Focus on the early years (for parents and teachers)

Keyword search engines

Google (Wired magazine award for "Most Intelligent Agent")

HotBot, Edupuppy.com, Eduhound.com, Eduhound.com/espanol

Go (highly rated, after Google)

Alta Vista (has multilingual keyword searches and offers translations of found pages)
Lycos
Web Crawler
Excite  (a powerful tool)
Northern Light  (also offers professional and news document downloads for fee)
SavvySearch  (meta search engine, with multilingual keyword input)
Ask Jeeves  (Yes, real folks try to identify pertinent Web pages.)

Need to translate?
Babelfish (Type in text or provide URL and then draw heavily on your own understanding of the context.)

Permission is hereby granted to link to this Web site, and to use the
contents for educational purposes.
Please send comments and Web link recommendations to Steven Hackbarth
by clicking HERE

This Web site was judged by Awesome Library to be among the "Top 5% in K-12 Education" and received a "Golden Web" award from The International Association of Web-Masters and Designers.

See my observations and reflections on life at Eternal Awards.

Page URL: http://hometown.aol.com/shnyc
Updated: March 2003

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