Fourteen year old: "I'm working on a history paper about how the Holocaust never happened."
Long pause. "Zack, where did you hear that the Holocaust didn't happen?"
"The Internet. It's on a Web page at Northwestern University."

November Learning

How often do you hear students, and teachers, mutter something like 'find it on the net' or 'just do a google search'? We all face the same dilemma of how to use the World Wide Web effectively and wisely. A discussion is needed about how teachers access and use the web in lessons, for homework, and for useful extension tasks. There are good websites out there which can enrich learning, excite students and challenge them to think. What websites do teachers use that do all of this? How have you used a particular website with your classes and what was the outcome(s)? Alan November raises many important questions about how children, and adults alike, use the internet to access information. One of the most interesting articles, Teaching Zack to Think, on the topic is still hosted on his site and available to download. Well worth a read.

There are lots of different ways we can use online tools in the classroom. Gary Robinson, a digital designer, has created a mini application that produces a montage of a Google image search. He calls the application Montage-a-Google. How could it be used with students one might think? It really is a great starter tool particularly if you get students to generate a montage for homework which they feel best represents a certain topic. Or you could use it at the start of the lesson and students have to guess what they will explore in the lesson that day.

We have created a number of tutorials on how to use ICT in the classroom on our other site InnovativeICT.net. We are currently making one on how to use the internet well, so do check back regularly .

Have you got a great online tool or website that works well with your classes, why don't you post a comment below and tell us about it?