Part 2:How to combine the web with email?

Most teachers I know want easy and quick "recipes" to use. They would like to find some "relevant" material to their classes which will be, more or less, like a "school book"....*S*

If you belong to this group of teachers, I suggest that you take your class to the library and have them "browse" there. It will be far more effective.

However, if you think that your students (and you) will benefit more by spending more time and effort doing some research on the web, I have some answers as well as a "shortcut" for you.

I want to stress that I am not teaching my students how to use the internet (that is merely a byproduct of the process).  I am USING the internet to teach the subjects we are covering.

I hope you have already read part 1 of my syllabus (how to set up email boxes for you and your students). If so, you can proceed and build a lesson.  If you haven't, or can't set up email boxes for each student, I have provided a "shortcut" method which I describe at the end of this lesson.

How to build an "internet lesson"

You should remember that if you want your students to work on a certain topic, YOU should do the browsing FIRST. Spend some time on the different sites and DECIDE which sites or files they should use to work on.
After loading the site in your browser, do the following :

a. Go to "file" (I use netscape communicator 4.04)
b. Go to "edit page" and click on it
c. Do ALL the editing you need, including questions to your students.
d. Go back to "file" and click on "send page"
e. Send the page to your email address. The page will arrive in your mail box COMPLETE with all the images.
f.  Send this assignment from your email, to the email addresses of the target group of students. (it helps to build mail groups in your address book by class.)
g. Ask your students to go to the "assignment" in their mailboxes and tell them to work on it and to send their answers to your email address.
h. Open a folder for each student in order to follow his work and progress.

Remember, do NOT save the file before sending it. Saving it will cause a lot of problems when it comes to images. Just send it to your mailbox right AFTER editing it.

I would like to warn teachers who go into the internet "for fun"....BE PREPARED for DISASTERS!  Unless you monitor and go over the material beforehand, and prepare it (even more than you would prepare for a regular lesson), I don't see the advantage of having an "internet lesson".

The "shortcut"

If you have not read and followed the directions in the first part of my syllabus, or for whatever reason, you cannot open an email account for each student, here is a simpler method.

a. First, follow steps a-e (how to build an internet lesson).
b. Send the assignment to an email account,  which you have opened especially for this purpose.  You should  use one of the web based email services
like  hotmail, rocketmail, yahoo, excite, etc.  These kindsof accounts can be opened simultaneously by more than one user. (Trust me, I've checked most of them!)
c. Have your students open the assignment in this mailbox, and have them answer it by writing their answers on paper (ouch!!)
d. In order to check the work in class, print the assignment and make copies of the text.

I used this method at the beginning, when my students were not "fluent" at using email. This method is also effective for teachers who don't have "free" access to an internet lab, but still want to have a "taste" of this kind of teaching.

By the way, the "shortcut" method is also easier to use for classes that are not regularly exposed to email and internet.

It takes time to have the students get used to the fact that once they have mailboxes they do not need to "write" their answers before sending them... *S*  So....
be patient. It is a BIG change for them too, no matter what they say about the younger generation adapting to changes. Some of my students still want "to stay behind"(as they  call it) and use the paper and pen. Oh, my!

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