I develop interactive educational programming using the Internet and the
Web. Enroute to fairly exhaustive coverage of topics - Antarctica, the
elections and oceans, in our case - students learn all kinds of skills
because they need them - to find information on the Internet, to form their
thoughts about that information and to share their thoughts with fellow
students from far and wide via email. We design our programs to be a
catalyst to learning and we receive lots of messages from students, I'm
assuming that they type them. [This could be wrong, but certainly not in
every case]. I think our design is an old idea using new technologies to
make it richer. I remember talking with friends during the '70s [yes I'm
an oldster] about learning all kinds of things while studying Egypt, for
example.
My question: Isn't there a value in approaching basic computer and
Internet skills like typing, through exciting uses for that skill as much
as through drilling? In the same vein as "if you build it, they will come",
doesn't "if they need it, they will learn" apply? If we create a real need
based on the students' curiosity and their desire to share?
Julia Gillett
jgillett@onlineclass.com
OnlineClass
Produced by Mame Reynolds, Cathy de Moll, Julia Gillett
Subscription Office:
c/o Student Ocean Challenge
P.O. Box 631
Jamestown RI 02835
Tel: 401-423-3535
Fax: 401-423-2877
Program Office:
c/o TBT International, Inc.
1288 East Como Blvd.
St. Paul MN 55117
Tel: 612-489-6955
Fax: 612-489-0399
http://www.usinternet.com/onlineclass