The Internet for Educators
The internet can be used by educators in many ways, and this technology may be the greatest asset to the classroom since the printing press. The Internet offers infinite opportunities for enhancing the classroom. From multimedia presentations to split-second academic research, no school should be without adequate computer access for teachers and students alike. Finding predesigned lesson plans online is easy to do with a simple Google search, but finding quality lesson plans can be more difficult. However, as long as a teacher understands that pre-made lesson plans are only a springboard for inspiring and adding to their own lesson plans, these lesson plan online resources can be a wonderful asset. Every teacher, group of students, and direction of learning is highly individualized and no pre-made materials can serve as a replacement for plans written by the individual teacher for his or her own class. However, the Internet may be the best tool available for researching and enhancing lesson plans. Research of academic journals, magazines and newspapers, and even text books is simple, fast, and free online. Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, is perhaps the greatest free exchange of knowledge in all of history. Teach
This website is maintained by an individual professor. He claims that it consists of thousands of lesson plans and other resources for teachers, some linked to from other websites, and some unique to Edmund's own site. He claims to have provided a description for each link so that visitors can find the information they need. However, there are numerous problems with this website. First, the "thousands" of lesson plans and resources are virtually useless because it is impossible to find the information that would actually be relevant. The descriptions provided are vague descriptions consisting of a couple words each, hardly information that would qualify as helpful. All of the links appear to be to other websites or servers, not really original content by this professor. While link collections can be helpful, this is not one of them. Many of the links are broken or outdated, and a simple Google search of the web would reveal a lot more helpful information in a much more orderly fashion. The links are not organized by any logical means. In fact, it appears that Edmund has organized the links by length of the title. This organization is not in any way helpful, but rather simply a symptom of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Additionally, this tiny, low-cost website still has ads on it. The author of the website even says, "Try the following google ads!" As if he actually thinks that clicking on the advertisements on the page would be beneficial to his fellow teachers and students, which is ridiculous. The professor is so self-indulgent that he even states, "Ready to leave? Before you do, read my essay, 'On Sisyphus and Teaching,' or visit our fishing leagues page." The counter also claims that 386,307 people have visited this page, something I find incredibly hard to believe. Truly, this is more a vanity page than a useful resource, even if some of the links on the page would in fact lead to helpful lesson plans. ers can meet other teachers from around the world and exchange classroom ideas, experience, and advice. The internet and computer technology allows teachers to teach using multimedia presentations, and to
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Approximate Word count = 1445
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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