Chapter 1 |
1 Introducing the InternetJust a few years ago, well under ten million people were using the Internet. At the time, the Internet was something of a phenomenon, its use confined to the technically able. Today it has become a mass market consumer item. The Internet’s destiny – to become another communication channel alongside
our telephones and televisions – is much more apparent. Even today it caters not just
for academics and computer experts, but for the needs of homes, schools, colleges and
businesses. For the cost of a local telephone call at most, people ‘visit’ arts
centres, libraries and museums. Some use the Internet as
This range of uses, with the potential to satisfy so many needs, has led millions – including thousands of schools, colleges, and teachers – to connect their computers to the Internet. How they did it, what they found, and what they might have found is the subject of this book. Learning Highways shows what the Internet has to offer teachers and learners in schools and colleges. Chapter 2 looks at the part of the Internet that has aroused the most excitement: the World Wide Web. It describes how it works and how to use it. Using the Internet for communication and discussion is the subject of Chapter 3, where the focus is on electronic mail with its own special attractions for schools and colleges. Chapter 4, Connecting to the Internet, shows how both individuals and institutions can get connected. It considers the range of ways to do this showing how different situations need different solutions. In Chapter 5 we look at ethics and security issues arising from providing learners with this powerful technology. The intention is to alert rather than alarm as we also look at ways to mediate access. In Chapter 6 –the Internet and the curriculum – we take a subject-by-subject look at the curriculum by having subject experts share their findings and their vision for how the Internet can contribute. Those with a particular interest may prefer just to dip into the parts relevant to them, but a read across them, including sections on special and primary education, shows some common threads. Towards an evaluation (Chapter 7) pulls together many of the points made and draws some conclusions. In the Appendix you will find references, contacts and places to go. You can find New Highways for Learning on the Internet. The Internet edition is slightly different in that it is cross-referenced: if you click on the underlined text, such as Becta. you are taken directly there. There are also underlined ‘links’ to documents, suppliers, and other information. The text in this electronic form can be edited and used more easily – subject to Becta’s copyright, of course.
Much of the time, people use the Internet to write to each other. Using electronic mail (e-mail), they write to a colleague, consult an expert or gossip with a friend. They send a memo to someone far away or in the next room, or even to The Times. They may e-mail one person or whole groups of people, receiving a reply within the day (and sometimes within minutes). They pick up news – not just mainstream news, but specialist updates about their subject, their hobby or their syllabus. In schools and colleges with networks, teachers use internal e-mail to send memos and reports, arrange meetings and pick up a daily bulletin.
Take a group of secondary school pupils working on an English project called ‘For or Against Zoos’. The task is to produce some leaflets arguing each case to sway readers one way or the other. On the Internet they visit zoo sites and natural history museums, going to places pre-selected by their teacher, to find relevant information and pictures. They store all this while they search for more. They find an encyclopaedia with a section on the history of zoos or find details of rare animals that zoos help to maintain. As they explore, they keep a look out for good pictures they may be able to use, copy and paste text into their word-processing file and print off pages for future reference. They connect to an animal rights group, looking for threads of relevant discussion. There may be tales of injustice, even heated argument, but they sift through the threads, copying, sorting and pasting information into their word processor. They start to sort out their finds into pro and cons. If they spot gaps in their information-gathering or see points on one side not addressed by the other, they have the choice between trawling for more or posting a question about it in a discussion group which others may reply to. Back at the word processor, they develop the text following discussion with their teacher. This takes time, but when they are ready they find a file of a ready-made leaflet, strip out the old text and drop in the new. They test their draft leaflets either on others in school or by posting them on the Internet. They discuss the feedback and incorporate any changes. When their work is done, they may put it up for public display on the school’s network or on the school’s Web pages on the Internet itself.
A maths teacher needs some ideas for teaching statistics and graphs. Her college network is connected to the Internet so, using the staff-room computer, she connects to a maths education discussion group to pick up a few ideas. She also leaves a message on the group asking for ideas on how best to teach probability. Over the coming days or weeks, she receives a number of pointers to useful places on the Internet. One reply takes her to a maths education area where she fares rather well. For a start, the area is organised into familiar teaching topics, examinations and so on. She finds a set of worksheets which for now she stores in her machine. Later she will go through them in detail and edit them. From here she can choose to print them or to put them on the college network for use in class. On checking her electronic mail, she finds messages from a couple of outside groups she belongs to: a maths association and an examination board. She reads about a forthcoming conference on raising achievement. There are also internal college messages about open day, a cancelled meeting, some minutes and a reminder to pay her national lottery money. A request from a teacher in Illinois asking her to fill in a survey she forwards to an interested colleague. She scans a number of messages from publishers and files, forwards or bins them as appropriate. She also finds a pile of teaching resources, all sent and stored electronically, which she ordered some months ago.
A senior manager who has Internet access from his desk uses it mostly for
administration. Much of the e-mail he checks during the day is internal mail that used to
fill his pigeon-hole. He may check the daily bulletin to ensure that he is not listed to
take a lesson for absent colleagues
As with our maths teacher, there are notices from publishers, memos from the education
authority and details of
There are notes from parents – some of which need action, some only a glance before filing. There are requests from teachers that just need a ‘yes’, a date for a meeting or an apology for not being able to attend. A provider for next week’s INSET asks for a room with several computers, so after adding a word or two he forwards this to the IT department. The manager keeps a balance between replying to messages in person and by e-mail, feels more in touch with his team, and, if he wishes, can catch up on his e-mail at home.
The Internet is a global computer network. It is made by joining together smaller
networks with copper wire and newer technologies such as fibre optic, coaxial cable,
microwave and satellite links. You can connect your computer to this network using a modem
and an ordinary telephone line
None of this needs specialised technical knowledge beyond how to use a couple of useful tools: a browser which lets you scan information and a mail program which enables you to send mail. Connecting up a computer to the Internet for the first time can take as little as ten minutes and going on-line thereafter should take one minute using a telephone line connection. In the future, connecting will become more straightforward, just as over the years cars have become more reliable and the controls standardised. Even so, a helpline (normally included in your ISP subscription) is useful – as is a breakdown service for cars.
The Internet came about as result of a rare decision in computer history: that all computers use the same ‘language’ (called TCP/IP) to talk to each other. The links between the computers on the Internet belong to governments, Internet providers and telecommunications companies, but they all play a part in sending the ‘packets’ of information to their destination. There are many spare links across the Internet, so should one link fail, the system has a canny ability to find a way round it. The core of the Internet – a series of war-proof links between military and research establishments – was established as far back as the 1970s. Ironically, years later during the Gulf War, the system was put to the test: the Americans were unable to destroy Iraqi communications systems as the Iraqis too were using the Internet. As Internet users demand more of the system, the communications links are upgraded with faster ones, just as in the past bridle paths eventually became main roads. For example, the telephone and cable companies are adding or superimposing other systems with fibre-optic cabling capable of carrying broadcast quality television pictures. This is the beginning of the information ‘superhighway’ – a future Internet where the fast links will extend to homes and schools and deliver a better quality service than today’s ‘copper wire’ telephone lines can provide. Already many universities are linked together with the type of cable that carries large amounts of data. It will be some years before the information superhighway will be realised, because the world-wide Internet is only as fast as its slowest link. However, there are schemes to cable up areas with local runs of superhighway which will lead to benefits to life and learning. Among these are Salford, Glasgow and Singapore with its proud claim to be the ‘intelligent island’.
The way we use the Internet is changing. Currently our maths teacher needs to connect to the World Wide Web to seek out areas of interest. Before long, she will be able to set up her system so that it knows exactly the kind of information she wants. Using technologies such as ‘cookies’, ‘intelligent agents’ and ‘push’ (described in Chapter 2), the system will deliver to her exactly the information she wants. She will go to the computer and find there the materials she has been looking for. Her computer will no doubt keep a track of her budget and let her pay for things, because inevitably Internet resources will come at a price. Some way into the future is the concept of a superhighway where, instead of text and pictures arriving on your screen, you may have a service something closer to a multi-way television. There are many visions of what this will be like. Lessons might be broadcast to learners nowhere near school, and they in turn might discuss things with the teacher. Learners far apart might collaborate face to face on assignments – and teachers might, too. If their teacher was absent they might plug into another lesson elsewhere. Language learners could chat with their peers and gain an unusually real audience. Those in isolated rural areas or in schools wanting to offer a broader curriculum could tap into a rich learning resource. Gifted students will certainly find new challenges and opportunities. And more than lessons, the audio-visual contact that a superhighway provides will have a dramatic effect on the way other things work: for example, case conferences, LEA meetings, teacher mentoring and support and even classroom observation could take place over great distances. Already those using video-phones or video-conferencing over relatively slow connections report major benefits and time savings. With facilities like these, the learning environment will surely change. It is not a change that can or will happen overnight: hence the focus of this book, which is about the Internet as we see it now and how it may look in a couple of years or so. |