This web page contains hot links to several web sites that are good resources for K-12 educators who are doing educational research. Under each of the hot links is a brief narrative which describes and evaluates the web site. In my position as business manager for a public school district, I have a computer at my desk with internet access capability. The Internet provides me the opportunity to gather current information on nearly any topic which affects my profession, and it is easily accessible with a few clicks of the mouse and simple key word searches. The table below summarizes the contents of this web page in the order in which they come. Click on a choice in this table to immediately page (scroll) down to your topic, or scroll down the page to view it in order in its entirety.
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New to the Internet? You'll want this info. | |
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Index of links to organizations - many disciplines | |
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Home page for #1 ed researcher organization | |
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Home page for science discipline ed researchers | |
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Index of links to resources for teaching science | |
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Best site for central office staffers | |
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Link to essay on role of computers in ed reform | |
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Essay on the relative value of Internet | |
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Links to K-12 resources and school districts | |
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Course (Education 603) Home Page |
The goal of this site is to document the questions most commonly asked about the Internet by those in the primary and secondary school community, and to provide pointers to sources which answer those questions. Topics covered include Internet in an educational setting, school support for an Internet connection, implementation and technical options, security and ethics, collaboration, projects, and resources, suggested readings, and more. This is a great site for educators and districts who are new to the Internet, or are considering its implementation. If you are at least an intermediate user of the Internet you may not find this site as valuable.
Return to this web page table of contents Contributing ED603 student D. Behm.
It includes quite a good list of educational research associations in the U.S. and international associations as well. Personally, I'm interested in the following associations.
These pages commonly have their programs or projects, publications, conference news, on-line forums, list of members, teacher resources, etc. The real value of these sites, in my estimation, lies in their search engine value. Instead of searching for the key words "science education", for example, the compilers of these sites have linked you to other sites that they have researched and found to be the best. Imagine going into a library with the goal of finding the most pertinent works on a given subject. The job is much easier if you had a list ahead of time which detailed the top ten resources, according to some authority. The organizations listed above have much expertise behind them in their given fields. They have found their favorite web sites for you, and indexes and hot links to these sites make the world wide web a much more concise and efficient tool.
Return to this web page table of contents Contributing ED603 student Soo-Young Lee.
A good web site for educational administration researchers. It lists different offices, topics, pending legislation, grants and funding, professional development and educational organizations, etc. This site can be likened to a specific, powerful search engine with the broad topic of Michigan State Government Department of Education. Files and folders set up to be user friendly.
Return to this web page table of contents Contributing ED603 student Wm. Mull.
The educational reform movement is very strong and so is the move to add more technology to classrooms across the country. This site takes a look at how these two very strong movements are related, and how they are affecting each other. Some topics included in this site are:
1) The Role of WWW in Education
2) The Interactive HTML Crash Course
3) The Information Highway Debate
4) Education Reforms for the 21st Century
5) Computers and Kids: Life on the Front Lines
6) The Educational Resource Guide
7) The WWW.EDU Home Page
The page has essays which defend and promote the use of instructional technology, especially computers and the Internet, in education. If you are a teacher or administrator who is trying to sell the idea to your school or district and are searching for powerful, eloquent arguments to strengthen your position, this page would be of great value. The page focuses on the merits of the technology itself, and does not provide research topics for specific curriculum topics like math science, social studies, and reading.
Return to this web page table of contents Contributing ED603 student S. Sutherland.
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View Essay: Business Manager's Perspective of Value of the Internet |
The Internet is becoming a very valuable tool for public education. At the public school district in which I work there have been two recent developments in the use of the Internet within the past six months. The business manager's computer was made Internet accessible, and two fully stocked multi-media classrooms have been opened at our only middle school.
If the business office of a school district can be categorized as providing services that are non-instructional in nature, then the two recent Internet developments are making an impact on both the instructional and non-instructional operations of our district. I am more familiar with the non-instructional operations, especially finance. I'd like to explain how the Internet helps me to be more effective in my duties.
I have book-marked my favorite sites which pertain to business matters for the school district and I visit these sites at least once each day, if not more frequently. It is very easy for me to get on the Internet and view information such as pending legislative fiscal policies which may affect our school district. By frequently visiting web sites such as the Michigan State House of Representatives, and the page that the State Senate posts as well, I am able to keep the Superintendent of Schools and therefore the Board of Education better informed. At this time the world wide web has become an essential tool for the effective school district business manager. The financial data that is posted on the world wide web is voluminous, and using it effectively depends on narrowing the scope of one's Internet search for information. By book-marking favorites once I've established them, I can access them from the desktop of my computer within a matter of seconds.
I find the Internet very useful in researching interest rates that could be selected for school district financial investments. The number of sources I can look at that may be good investment vehicles has increased dramatically, because I can move around the world wide web very quickly. Before I had Internet access, I would have to call each bank over the phone to procure a quote, and this process was very time consuming. The time that I save not only is a personal convenience to me, but it also benefits the school district in saving labor hours spent on functions like this. Revenue sources for school districts are limited in scope and in most instances are capped since the advent of Proposal A, which took effect during the 1994-95 school year. Many districts have been forced to downsize their staff, and the world wide web is promoting better usage of school district resources (labor hours specifically) by saving valuable research time. Now I'm able to view dozens of investment offerings from many more sources than I even knew existed, and view them in as much time as it would have taken to make two telephone calls. Instead of spending further time on this task, I am able to move on to other more pressing matters.
The asynchronous nature of communication that is provided by the use of e-mail is another very positive aspect of the Internet. In the business office, it is necessary to make many phone calls to other people employed in a financial capacity. Their schedules, like my own, are very busy. Voice mail is used in such a way that it approximates e-mail; however, it is more difficult to skillfully conduct asynchronous conversations using voice mail than using e-mail. The reason for this is that not everyone can leave voice messages that are clearly and concisely communicated so that the person receiving them has enough understanding to act effectively without more communication necessary. Far more people are able to type a clear, concise message than leave an effective voice mail on topics that include technical financial instructions. With e-mail, the chance of misunderstanding is greatly decreased although not eliminated. Because e-mail provides a written record, messages are usually more accurate. From my perspective, I prefer having written instructions for assignments I am responsible for. That way, I don't have to rely on my memory to recall all the specific details. I simply retrieve the e-mail I either saved on my computer or printed and filed and then I am sure I know exactly what was communicated to me.
E-mail is also less expensive than voice mail in the long run, once the commitment to purchasing the necessary hardware has been made. For example, I know that local telephone calls cost our school district approximately $.08 each. Long distance calls cost much more, of course, depending on length of the conversation and distance (long distance "phone tag" gets very expensive very quickly). The school district I'm at has a live Internet connection at all times. I can e-mail people all over the country at no cost other than the monthly charge to maintain the Internet connection, which at this time is being funded by a grant from our intermediate school district, Wayne County RESA. In this regard, the cost of communication has decreased, and the effectiveness and frequency of communication has increased. Although the costs of hardware procurement for Internet and e-mail capability are significant, telephone system installations and upgrades are expensive as well.
From an instructional stand point, the new multi-media classrooms seem to have given a dose of adrenaline to the teaching staff at the middle school. Teachers are voluntarily stopping by during their prep hours and using the equipment. The district also offered a paid workshop for training on the use of the new equipment and it was very well attended by the teaching staff. As with any new teaching initiative, the new technology has its detractors within the school. However, many veteran teachers are embracing the new technology and have shown a willingness to experiment with it that has not been seen in the district for quite some time, according to people who have been here long enough to know.
The middle school student body, as a whole, has shown that they have a basic knowledge of the Internet already, and that they enjoy working with it in the multi-media classrooms and the media center. Educators have long said that enthusiasm for learning serves both students and teachers well, and the new technology in markedly increasing enthusiasm. It is difficult to analytically measure the impact on instruction that the Internet has had at the middle school, but nearly all involved acknowledge that the impact has been very positive.
I also see the Internet as a means of increasing parental involvement in the school district. As more parents purchase computers for their homes, they are beginning to take a greater interest in what kind of equipment their children are using at school, and how they are using it. The ease of which a school district home page can be Internet accessed by students and parents at home will undoubtedly put greater numbers of people in touch with what is happening in their schools. This could have the long-term profound impact of possibly having more favorable voter turn out for important ballot issues such as school district millage and bond issue campaigns.
The final area I see the Internet as being beneficial in is the area of professional development. From personal experience, I know that it is much easier to do effective research using the world wide web than it is to go to the library. I have a greater number of resources available to me with the web than at the library, although not everything on the web comes from an authoritative source. Skill in using search engines must be cultivated in order for the aspiring Internet researcher to be effective. Because I do not have to leave my office or building to surf the web (and neither do teachers who have Internet accessibility at their school), I am simply able to get more work done on any given day by eliminating travel time to the library.
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