Software Review: Learning.com

Web Browsing: Research and Citing Sources, Grades 6-8; http://learning.com

Tutorial Lessons and NETS, k-12:

• Browsing Basics
• 5. Digital Citizenship: Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior.
• 5.a Students advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology
• 6. Technology Operations and Concepts: Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations.
• 6.a Students understand and use technology systems
• 6.b Students select and use applications effectively and productively
  

• URLs
• 1. Creativity and Innovation: Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.
• 1.a Students apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, processes
• 2. Communication and Collaboration: Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the earning of others.
• 2.a Students interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media
• 6. Technology Operations and Concepts: Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations.
• 6.a Students understand and use technology systems
• 6.b Students select and use applications effectively and productively

• Web Searches
• 3. Research and Information Fluency: Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.
• 3.b Students locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media
• 3.c Students evaluate and select information sources based on the the appropriateness of specific tasks
• 4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making: Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources
• 4.c Students collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions
• 5. Digital Citizenship: Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior.
• 5.a Students advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology

• Validity and Sourcing
• 1. Creativity and Innovation: Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.
• 1.a Students apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, processes
• 2. Communication and Collaboration: Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the earning of others.
• 2.a Students interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media
• 2.b Students communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats
• 5. Digital Citizenship: Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior.
• 5.a Students advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology
• 5.b Students exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity

Review:
This tutorial gives students the basic understandings and skills needed to access and do research on the Internet. Beginning with an explanation of what the Internet actually is, the program grounds students in how powerful and comprehensive a tool the web is. The other lessons allow students a chance to learn how to access web pages, search for resources, and evaluate the relevance and validity of those sources. The program is extremely useful for those who have little to no background experience with the web. By teaching students something as elementary as how to type in a web address, the program assumes no prior knowledge and therefore is comprehensive in the processes it covers. However, it is unrealistic in today's society to expect that a classroom of middle schoolers would not be experienced with the web. As the lessons are a bit lengthy and slow-paced for someone familiar with the subject matter, I would expect students to get a bit bored with the lesson. I think it would be more expedient to give a quick lesson myself on web basics. However, the lessons on efficient searches and material evaluation are quite helpful as they are less commonplace skills. These can be boring topics to lecture on, but are crucial for students to understand, so this web program can help capture their interest while relaying the lesson. While I do appreciate that the program was trying to make the learning experience fun, it seemed that parts of the program that included the professor were too contrived, forced into the program merely to grab attention. This could be fixed by either toning down the professor, or invigorating the other speaker to make her delivery a bit more expressive and entertaining.

Resources

(2007) Learning.com easytech integrator. Retrieved March 2, 2009, from http://learning.com

International Society for Technology in Education. (2007) NETS for Students 2007. Retrieved March 2, 2009, from http://www.iste.org