Using the Internet

The Internet is a valuable educational tool in at least four important ways. First, it permits you and your students to gain access to enormous amounts of information that was simply not easily available in the past. Your students no longer need to depend upon just their textbook or your personal knowledge for information.

Second, the Internet allows you and your students to communicate with others to answer project-related questions. Students can ask experts in the field, collect information from other students or adults around the world, design and administer questionnaires or surveys or obtain oral histories of adults who live or once lived in the country being studied. Some tools that can be used are ePals and Skype. See the CultureQuest Teachers' Guide for descriptions and links.

Third, the Internet allows your class to "publish" their work, and provides audiences for that work making that work more authentic and more important.

Fourth, the Internet provides a whole range of resources that enhance descriptions and reporting of results including graphics, animation, sound, and even video. All can be incorporated in the final projects and provide more interesting and more effective communication of the results of students' work.

In addition to efficient searching of the web, students need to learn how to cite web resources, how to evaluate web sites, how to get permission for using web materials, and the legal and ethical use of the web. See the CultureQuest Teachers' Guide. Students will also learn to use "Filamentality" to collect web sites found during their research. Their list of links placed on a free web site provides them with a "hotlist" which they can refer to from time to time and use to create their " webliography", which will be posted on the project web site.

Finally, it is critically important to have each small group report periodically to the entire class on what they are learning in their small group so that the other students in the class learn about cultural aspects other than the one they are studying. This will enable students to get a full sense of the culture they are studying as well as a chance to provide useful feedback to their peers.