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by Sarah A. DiRuscio, NECC, TRLD & CUE Conferences

• Internet uses for Students

• Internet uses for Educators

• Finding Lessons on the Net

• Joining Collaborative Projects

Why Internet & Special Ed?

• Breaks down classroom walls (other teachers, parents, and professionals)

• Anywhere-anytime access

• Develop lifelong skills

Internet Skills for School Success

Younger Students

• World Wide Web

• E-Mail

• Gopher

Older Students

• Mailing Lists

• Newsgroups

• Telnet & FTP

Internet Uses for Special Education Students

• Online Correspondence

• Conduct Research

• Virtual Fieldtrips

• Students are International Publishers

Students Publishing

• Web Pages

• Electronic Portfolios

• Web Zines

• Submit essays to online organizations -Classroom Connect -Global Show &Tell

Web Page Development

• HTML Editors

• Online tutorials

• Students give you essay on a disk

• Teachers helping teachers seminars

• Teach students HTML and watch them surpass you!

• Hot Dog, Hot Metal, Adobe Page Mill

Students Communicating

• E-Mail exchanges

• Other Schools

• Other Countries

• Professionals

Communication Projects

• Holidays around the World

• International Food Pyramid

• Online Weather Unit

• Mystery Female/Minority Scientist

• Newspaper with partner class

• Mystery VIP Student/Biographies

E-Mail Projects

• Ask an Expert questions

• Keypals-USA & the World

• Collaborative short story

• Email jeopardy

• Dear Santa Letters

Students Researching

• Encyclopedias

• Dictionaries

• Journals

• Personal Stories/Letters

• Ask the Experts

Research Projects

• Famous Reptile Unit

• Famous African American

• Indy 500 Science

• Basketball Salaries & Math

• Golden Gate Bridge Safety

• Mystery Capital

• History of Quilts

Effective Search Techniques

Search Engines-Use for very specific information

• Alta Vista

• Lycos

• Infoseek

• Magellan***

Searching Strategies

• Always check spelling!

• Use "quotes" for phrase or name

• Use lower case unless proper noun

• ex: "Golden Gate Bridge"

• Use + when word must appear

• ex: +ADHD treatment children

Virtual Fieldtrips

• White House

• Web Museum to see Mona & Leonardo

• Outerspace with NASA

• Smithsonian Institute

• Museum of Paleontology

• Egyptian Tombs

Internet Supports Special Educators

• Increases parent communication

• Interact with peers from around world

• Access to quality online materials

• Become a better teacher!!

Special Educators Improving Professionally

• Creating Web Pages

• Resources for Teachers, Parents, Students & Public Community

• Latest Special Education journals and articles (Special Edge Online)

• Join Special Education Mailing Lists & Newsgroups

Excellent Special Ed Web Sites

• Hwa-pey Wang's Home Page

• Jerome & Deborah's Big Page

• University of Kansas Special Ed. Site

• Help for Family with the Special Child

Integrating the Internet into Classroom Curriculum

• Locating traditional lesson plans

• Downloading technology-based plans

• Internet extension to your lessons

• Joining collaborative projects

Finding Special Education Lessons

• Bookmarks from other special educators

• Forefront's Web Site

• Classroom Connect's Database

• Search the Ask ERIC Files

• Use Keyword and Search Engines (Magellan)

Net Supports Traditional Lessons

• Cow's Eye Dissection

• Froggy Page

• Shakespeare's Works

• Women of the Civil War

• Volcano World

What are Collaborative Projects?

• Online communication (Keypals)

• Gathering information (research/surveys/questionnaires)

• Contests (Internet Scavenger Hunts)

• Writing Projects (group stories/newspapers/web zines)

• Video/Audio Conferencing (C-U-See-Me)

Collaborative Project Groups

• Academy One

• Global School Net

• Kidsphere-Kid Projects

Students should be authors of the Net, not just the browsers!