Ten Best Uses of the Internet in the Classroom

IDT 7064-M50 June 12, 2010 Tara Thomas

Lesson Plans

Online Professional Development

Student Research Resource

Virtual Tours

Online Publishing

Wed-enhanced Learning

Web-based Instruction

Online Class Communication

Skill Practice

Teaching Tools

#1 Lesson Plans

Description Rationale: This site has many lesson plans, student interactive tools such as Cartoon Creator and other

resources that are innovative and exciting. Many are technologically based.

http://www.readwritethink.org

/

Description Rationale: This site has information from experts around the world. It can also be translated into different languages. It beats staying late after school on

Wednesdays for professional development lectures.

http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm

#2 Online Professional Development

Description Rationale: This site really is sweet and safer than most search engines. It features “On This Day” and “Birthdays” concerning famous people and events . The school librarians site features “tweets” from

librarians. Who new librarians were so cool?

#3 Student Research Resource

http://www.sweetsearch.com/

http://earth.google.com/

#4 Virtual Tours

Description Rationale: What an awesome way to see what

places really look like. It could really enhance a Social Studies

lesson. Plus, we could all virtually go to Disney World!

Description Rationale: This site allows peers to really collaborate. Students won’t have to wait

anymore for their turn to do their part on a project- less whining about taking turns!

http://docs.google.com/demo/edit?id=scACplZivd38Qniqkie9gM6nr&hl=en#document

#5 Online Publishing

Description Rationale: I like the huge variety of subjects, videos and interactive experiences, games,

blogs and quizzes covered on this site.

#6 Web-enhanced Learning

http://dsc.discovery.com/

Description Rationale: This site has funny and informative videos on many subjects.

And, you can see how current they are. Go U.S.A.!

#7 Web-based Instruction

http://www.brainpop.com/

Description Rationale: I just had to use two slides for this site. The way they have the videos aligned to the state objectives

makes you want to pay to get full access.

Description Rationale: This site is through Scholastic. You have a class home page and way to publish student work. The tutorial is great. Plus, it makes you look like a very tech savvy

teacher.

#8 Online Class Communication

http://teacher.scholastic.com/homepagebuilder/index.htm

Description Rationale: This site is great for reading practice for Pre-K-2nd grade. Some ELL

teachers have used this as a way to teach phonics. I’ve actually seen pre-K students learn

to read with the help of this site.

http://www.starfall.com/

#9 Skill Practice

Description Rationale: Sometimes you just need a worksheet. This site offers customizable

worksheets and word walls. It is a good resource to have when you need written assessments for

students on different levels.

#10 Teaching Toolshttp://edhelper.com/

The tool that was new for me that I used on this project is called Snagit. http://www.techsmith.com/

This tool is screen capture software that allows you to take a screenshot of a Web page, edit it and send it to outputs and output accessories like Microsoft PowerPoint. I found out about it on the American Association of School Librarians’ site. http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/guidelinesandstandards/bestlist/bestwebsites.cfm