Instructional Models

Similarities and differences between the four instructional models of Internet use (Internet Project, Internet Workshop, Internet Inquiry, and WebQuest).

The Internet Project, Internet Workshop, Internet Inquiry, and WebQuest are four commonly used and powerful instructional models using the Internet. Both the Internet workshop and the Internet Inquiry instructional models require students to gather information and compile the resources and present the information and share the information. However, the Internet Inquiry model requires students to identify individual problems or questions important to them while the Internet Workshop Model is a research activity. Also, the Internet Inquiry model requires students to evaluate, synthesize and communicate the answers that they have discovered to the rest. The Internet workshop, on the other hand, simply gathers information and presents the information in a workshop session.

Collaborative skills are both inherent in the Internet Workshop model and the Internet Project models. While the Internet Workshop Models is easy to use and good to begin Internet instruction with, the Internet Project model is challenging to use, which requires collaborative experiences.

Two major similarities between the Internet Workshop, Internet Project and Internet Inquiry models is the use of reading, navigational, contextual and critical literacy, collaborative skills, problem identification and independent research skills. Although not explicitly mentioned, the Webquest would require such skills too for the user or teachers to create curriculum resources. The Internet Workshop instruction can be considered the basic skill required before one embarks on the other models.

These four models differ from each other also in several aspects. As mentioned earlier, Internet Workshop is the easiest to use while the Internet Project is much more challenging. The Internet Project model provides students an opportunity to collaborate with people from other classroom, countries or the world while the other models are centralized to those working within the scope of the project. The participants for Internet workshop, Internet Project and Internet enquiry models are mainly students while Webquest is limited to teachers because this model is specifically for creating curriculum but can be used by others. The Internet workshop model is said to fit every instructional model in the classroom, essentially it fits all the other three instructional models. An interesting and important characteristic that the Internet Inquiry model has is that it is non-linear based and recursive.

Since I will be doing student teaching at an elementary school, I will utilize Internet Workshop in the classroom because it is the easiest to begin with. One activity that I have in mind is for the social studies class on the topic ‘Civil War’. Students will comprehend better if they have previous knowledge on this topic. I will set them on a journey to gather salient information by enlisting the websites and bookmark them to avoid random surfing. I will direct students to access the websites listed. Students will work in pairs and the students with special needs will be guided by the regular or special education teacher. Students will have to apply digital tools such as Google reader, blogs or ‘Internet Journal’ (Leu & Leu, 2000) to plan, organize and gather information and share it during a workshop. In relation to National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S)’ goals, understanding of the ethical, cultural, and societal issues related to technology will be integrated in order to instill positive values. Internet workshop is a method to create technology literate students to ‘survive and thrive’ (Schrum & Levin, 2009, p.8) collaboratively in the 21st century and this is the culture I plan to incorporate in my student teaching.

The following links would be posted on my Diigo public library list for students to access the websites:
• The Constitution: A Living Document – is a website that has information on the changes in the constitution after the civil war.
• Civil War Photograph Collection – this website will be useful for students to share pictures in their workshop to consolidate understanding of the facts.

REFERENCE

Leu, Donald J., Jr. & Leu, D. D. (2000). Teaching with the Internet: Lessons from the classroom
(3rd ed.). Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon. Retrieved June 9, 2011
http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~djleu/third.html

Schrum, L., & Levin, B. B. (2009). Leading 21st century schools: Harnessing technology for
engagement and achievement. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.


I contacted my cooperative teacher to find out the use of SMARTboard in the school and she mentioned that the school has just had a projector installed that is supposed to miraculously turn the whiteboard into a SMARTboard. She would learn to use the SMARTboard during the summer break but I think it would be an advantage for me to learn how to use it. She recommended that I should learn to develop lessons using the SMARTboard specifically about Mathematics: Fractions, equivalent fractions, division and word problems. I hope that by learning to use the SMARTboard, as well as blogging would help me enhance my students' learning. I do not want to limit myself just to use the SMartboard but also use technology to vary my lessons. In this way I hope to capture students's interest towards learning.