In February, I made a presentation at the BEIT conference of the ACSE. ACSE is the Association of Computer Studies Educators and is a provincial body whose goal is to organise and provide resources and materials for the teachers of Computer Studies courses. Membership is made up largely of teachers involved with the teaching of Computer Science and Computer Engineering courses.
For whatever reason, good textbooks and teaching materials are not easily accessible for teachers of these subjects throughout the province. Traditionally, Computer Studies teachers are well known for developing their own unique lessons, problems, projects, and other materials to support the student learnings because of the difficulty of finding the perfect print resource.
My presentation focused on using the Internet as a source of materials for Computer Studies educators. There is a good selection of references available and, like most disciplines, they run the gamut of usefulness for a specific purpose.
Most Internet use can be seen to be on a continuum. At the one end, users visit an Internet site for the basic content. This is an electronic resource. For example, on an appropriate Internet site, you may need to find out quickly what the population of Monaco is. There definitely is a place for this type of use.
On the other hand, there are Internet web sites that can truly change the way that a student approaches his/her studies. These sites force the student to critically analyse what they are reading or researching. The challenge becomes to take this information and massage it into new information or learning. That gives us a different level of sophistication for Internet use.
Both types of websites have a valuable place in the classroom.
When you look at a group of teachers as I did at ACSE, you just know that there are some incredible things happening in classrooms throughout the province. If every teacher took the time to put just one of their very best lessons on the Internet, the educational value would increase exponentially. Does it have to be filled with Flash and moving graphics and spinning globes and background music? The answer is no. Used inappropriately, these features become distracting. All that we really need is good solid content.
On a Bruce Springsteen album, he makes reference to giving a little back. Can you imagine if all Internet using teachers just gave a little back - even a single quality webpage?
One of my favourite Internet journals is Iteachnet and the Daily provides regular inspiration. Perhaps the Iteachnet motto says it all.
