Lesson One: Painless, Progressive,
                      Internet Integration

          Four Fundamental Historical Firsts

          Mapping Our Painless, Progressive Journey
               - Key Trends to Keep in Mind         

          Five Successive Models for Progressive
          Internet Integration
           

Lesson Goals:

To obtain an overview perspective of key trends and issues relevant to integrating Internet use in your existing curriculum.

To review examples of progressive Internet integration activities which can be easily created with minimal time invested.

To become comfortable with the format of this class, noting more reference resources are shared than you'll have time to thoroughly explore within the four hour per lesson format. You should try to take a quick look at all presented resources, but not allow yourself to get sidetracked. Many resources will be revisited in the coming lessons.

Four Fundamental Historical Firsts

Before discussing Internet integration, it is important to emphasize the four indisputably important major historical firsts the Internet brings to your classroom.

1. The ability to find specific information from world-wide sources within seconds of having the need. This allows self-empowerment through self-directed, inquiry-based learning.

Net Effect: Teaching effective searching skills and sensitivity to
authenticity of information and copyright/plagiarism issues,
are vitally important as life-long learning skills.

2. The ability to self-publish globally using multimedia on a
shoestring budget on equal par with the world’s largest
institutions, corporations and governments. This allows for every
story to be told and dramatically facilitates the sharing of
information.

Net Effect: Our students will need to be effective authors
with a growing variety of multimedia tools.

3. The ability to collaborate with individuals without restraint due to
distance or time, either privately one-to-one or publicly
involving whole communities and bringing people together around
purposeful causes to take organized action. The Internet potentially
increases the quantity and quality of human relationships.

Net Effect: Our students will need to be effective collaborators,
developing leadership and social skills using online collaborative
tools as well as in face-to-face situations.

4. The fourth historical first is that most students' technology skills are far superior to those of most teachers. As you read the tutorials on project-based learning, you'll see many opportunities for you to let your students learn the technologies, build self-esteem, and increase their self-motivation through developing their self-directed learning "survival" skills.

        Net Effect: Students can be your best source of technical
        support in the classroom! You do more for your students
        by facilitating THEIR learning the technologies instead of
        making them directly dependent on you.

Read "Mapping Our Painless, Progressive Journey" at
http://lone-eagles.com/journey.htm
It is recommended that you read the entire article before exploring any of the presented links. Note the time recommendations in the above "Required Assignments" section and that it is easy to lose track of time exploring exciting online resources. These resources are presented as reference resources in the context of the lessons and will be revisited in future lessons.

Read "Five Successive Models for Progressive Internet Integration" at http://lone-eagles.com/integration.htm
It is recommended you read the entire article before exploring any of the presented links, noting the time recommendations in the above "Required Assignments" section, It is easy to lose track of time exploring exciting online resources. These resources are presented as reference resources in the context of the lessons and will be revisited in future lessons.

Internet Terminology

You and your students may benefit from access to existing Internet term glossaries. Go to any search engine such as http://google.com and enter as a search phrase:

Internet AND glossary

OR

Internet and term*

Advanced Searching Tips: Putting phrases in quotes will return only those sites with these exact phrases. Combining terms with the word AND (in capital letters) returns only sites with both terms. Experiment and "play" to discover how easily you can find specific resources to benefit your community. The "*" is a wildcard character, for example edu* will return all sites with words beginning with edu. Using "OR" to combine keywords will result in MORE, not fewer sites. OR is MORE.

Google's advanced searching tips will help you save time.  An advanced tip to try out for finding tutorials, lessons, and online courses on ANY topic, such as Ecommerce would be

ecommerce AND (tutorial* OR lesson* OR course*)

You're invited to privately email your instructor:

       1. What areas, if any, did you have trouble with during this lesson?

       2. What questions remain now that you've finished this lesson?

       3. Approximately how much time did you devote to this lesson?

       4. What improvements would you like to suggest?