To date, U.S.
elementary and
secondary schools
have marginalized
technology.
accessing these resources every day.
Many a teacher has explained something in class only to have a student
who recently Googled the topic speak
up and add more current or detailed
information to the discussion. For some
teachers, being challenged in this way is
problematic; but for others it is a teach-able moment, an opportunity to expand
the conversation in response to
students’ interests and explorations.
Tapping into a student’s prior knowledge is a highly effective teaching
strategy. But the easy access to online
information means that the kinds of
prior knowledge students bring to the
classroom vary now more than ever
© CAMPBELL LAIRD
before. A high school teacher introducing Newton’s laws of motion may
have some students who know nothing
about this topic, others who have
explored the physics of skateboarding
online, and even one or two who have
taken an introductory online physics
course from MIT. As students increasingly access such resources, educators
need to assess students’ prior knowledge and design instruction that
provides more individualized learning
paths and builds students’ self-directed
learning skills.
The democratization of knowledge
requires that schools include digital
content, filtered appropriately, within
the school curriculum. The excellent
online resources that now make information accessible to anyone (for just a
small sample, see Resources for
Learning Online, p. 57) mean that
integrating this content into the
curriculum is limited only by the
teacher’s imagination. For example,
; Biology students can access the
animated video of how a cell works
on the Biovisions Web site (http://
multimedia.mcb.harvard.edu) and then
run interactive, online simulations at the
University of Colorado’s Interactive
Simulations Web site (http://phet
. colorado.edu/simulations/index.php?
cat=Biology). After developing a series
of questions sparked by these activities,
the students might hold an online
conversation with a professional scientist at the Ask an Expert site maintained
by the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education
( www.ciese.org/askanexpert.html).
; An elementary teacher could use
the Learn Bird Songs! site (www.learn
birdsongs.com) to assess her students’
knowledge of birds and then collaborate
with a local nature center to take
students on a bird walk. Such nature
