Internet as Teaching Tool

Kenneth R. Szulczyk

Lecture 5

Teaching Methods Two methods

Information website No interaction with students Students can download

Syllabus Lecture notes Research papers

Interactive website with students Tutorial programs Proctor and grade exams and quizzes

Interactive Website Interactive

Computer server has high security Viruses Worms Hackers – people who break into computers

Difficult for educators to write interactive programs Make sure program does not open a security “hole”

Computer specialists are very protective of the server

Interactive Website Interactive teaching

Student’s computer and computer server have to interact Server contains a database

Keep track of student’s scores What are the correct answers

Interactive Website Interact with students

Teacher has to be good programmer and has access to computer server

Difficult Specialized software like WebCT WebCT allows students to log in

Students can take quizzes Download lecture notes, etc.

Information Website Fairly easy

Teacher can have own website Teacher has control over his/her own material www.geocities.com

University or school has website Instructor has user access and password to

upload his own webpages OR instructor sends webpages to web computer

person

Information Website Student’s computer downloads information from

web server Little interaction between web server and student’s

computer Easy to maintain computer security

Information Website How to post

HTML files Language of webpages Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML)

Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files Acrobat Reader files

HTML Files Frontpage (Microsoft) Netscape Communicator

Similar to a word processor The file name will have the extension

.htm or .html

Many programs will convert files into html

Word File to HTML

Excel to HTML

Power Point to HTML

Creating HTML I prefer to use Frontpage and Netscape

Communicator Microsoft office tends to write messy html code

Word, Excel, and PowerPoint You can copy and paste data and pictures onto

the clip board Move objects between Frontpage and Microsoft

Office

Creating HTML Example - Dissertation Defense

45 slides html file conversion

File – loads first webpage Folder – contains 251 objects

All 252 objects would have to be uploaded to web server to display correctly

It is a nice webpage Has side board that allows person to view other slides

PowerPoint to HTML

Posting Objects You can post objects

Word, Excel, and PowerPoint

When student clicks on hyperlink The internet browser will either allow student to

download file or display the file as if it were an internet file

Posting Objects Place the file in your website folder

Example The file “Syllabus.doc”

.doc means it is a Word document On webpage, create the hyperlink

<a href=“Syllabus.doc">Syllabus</a>

<a > and </a> are html tags that define hyperlink

Posting Objects One Problem

You are giving the world your material It is easy for other people to steal your work

Example Someone can download your presentation Someone can steal your work

Not give you any credit

PDF Files One method

Convert all files into Adobe Acrobat Reader files Files have extension .pdf

Students can view or print files Students cannot copy or re-edit files Cannot copy and paste pdf files

PDF Files You can buy software from Adobe

Acrobat Reader creator Allows you to define level of security

Free software PrimoPDF You print your document and select PrimoPDF

Creates a basic pdf file Weak security features

Create PDF File from Word

PDF File Creation

PDF Files You have a pdf file Place file in your website folder Example “teaching_syllabus.pdf”

On webpage, create the hyperlink

<a href="teaching_syllabus.pdf">Syllabus</a>

Problems with Internet Makes it hard for writers and instructors to

make money Copyright Laws Lots of restrictions in U.S. I am not allowed to post the articles I gave you

for class Articles come from education website Have to pay money for a subscription

Problems Same problem with e-books, music, and

videos Artist or writer creates the work Someone posts their work and everyone

downloads the work for free

Conclusion Internet is a potential powerful teaching tool Internet is a potential “world library”

Now the internet contains a lot of garbage Anyone can post information on a website

As search engines improve, it will become easier to find good material

Companies pay search engines money Their websites come up as the first selections