The Internet is a vast, worldwide system ofinterconnected information and communication networks,that hosts a variety of different services: from postingtext documents and transmitting electronic mail tovideoteleconfrencing and streaming media. The Internethas become the dominant mode of delivering information.Its easy graphical interface, known as a “Web browser,”provides instant point and click access to sites aroundthe world. Examples of these popular Web browsers areNetscape Navigator and Internet Explorer.The majorityof the information on the Internet is free. K-12teachers and administrators all around the world havediscovered the extraordinary value of this growingInformation Superhighway. Using the Internet teachersand administrators have the opportunity to explore theworld more and learn a variety of different activitiesthat can be done in the classroom. There are thousandsof ways teachers can use the Internet for professional growth. One of the largest and most popular is TheEducational Resources Information Center (ERIC). It is anationwide information network maintained by the U.S.Department of Education, which is designed to provideeducators with ready access to education publicationsand instructional resources. It is the largest educationdatabase in the world, containing more than 950,000abstracts of journal articles, research reports,curriculum and teaching guides, conference papers, andbooks. AskERIC(http://ericir.syr.edu/) offers a questionand answer service established specifically foreducators to obtain information, but anyone with aquestion about teaching and learning educationaladministration or technology can post questions andreceive responses via- email. Teachers can use the WWWin a variety of different ways to enhance studentlearning. E-mail can be used as a tool for enhancing avariety of classroom activities and collaborative onlineprojects. For example, teachers can create worldwideprojects with “electronic pen pals”usingsuchWebsitesasEpals (http://www.epals.com/),InterculturalE-MailClassroomConnections
(http://www.stolaf.edu/network/iecc/),andVirtualClassroom(http://www.att.virtualclassroom.org).
These sites create a “global classroom” and givestudents opportunities to communicate and collaboratewith diverse “classmates” from around the world viae-mail. In addition to connecting classrooms, e-mail canalso be used to link students with experts and explorersfrom around the world. Numerous organizations, such asGlobal Learn (http://www.globallearn.com/) hostexpeditions to areas around the world and giveregistered classrooms opportunities to ask questions andcommunicate with explorers via e-mail. Searching the WWWfor research is another way to enhance student learning.There are many helpful search engines and directoriessuch as Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com) andAltaVista (http://www.altavista.com/) that allow users to conducthighly focused searches by using keywords. There areeven search engines that perform multiple searches atonce. Metasearch engines such as Dog pile(http://dogpile.com/) perform searches on several searchengines at once so that you can more quickly search fora topic. More specialized search tools are available fordifferent target audiences. For example, SafeKids.com(http://www.safekids.com/search.htm) features acollection of search engines and directories designedspecifically for children, including links toYahooligans (http://www.yahooligans.com/) and Ask Jeevesfor Kids (http://www.ajkids.com/). Each of the selectedresources filters inappropriate content for young usersand retrieves Web sites that are kid safe. Using theInternet in the classroom is very important andbeneficial today. Our world is rapidly turning into onebig computer. Everything we use today has something todo with computers. They are in our cars, hospitals,small businesses and big corporations; we can’t evenpump gas anymore unless we tell the computer what kindof fuel we want. It is amazing what we can do with theInternet. Did you ever imagine you could do all yourChristmas shopping or conduct all your bankingtransactions without leaving your house? With all thesenew advances in the world computers and the Internetneed to be a vital role in the classroom. Students needto learn early on so they will not be blind when theyventure out into the world.
 
 

Electronic Portfolios are very new to me. Before lastsemester I really had no idea what they were or what thepurpose of one was. But now after I have made my own, Ithink they would be excellent for students to use in theclassroom. There are many different types of electronicportfolios. The ones that I know the most about are theprofessional teacher portfolios and the studentportfolios. A Teacher Portfolio is a compilation ofthings that teacher has done, both in the classroom andelsewhere. It is designed to display that teacher'stalents and proficiencies and demonstrates a teacher's
knowledge and skills. What the teacher includes isalways a matter of intent. The question that should beasked is, "What am I trying to tell the reader aboutmyself?" Student portfolios are products of their actualwork. They may include essays, reports, lists of booksthat the student has read, a list of problems she hassolved, a model she has built, or other work samples.For students to feel ownership of the portfolio, theyneed to have decision-making power about the selectedmaterials. The teacher and the student should generallycollect material collaboratively.A typical teacherportfolio may include the following: A brief yetinteresting biographical sketch, not a lengthy resume ora dissertation on education. A short essay that tellsthe reader about yourself and what you have done. Adescription of the kinds of classes you have taughtrecently. Don't include everything. Tell the grade level, class content and describe your teaching style.Copies of documents, licenses, tests, etc. Include whatgraduate classes or in-service seminars recentlyattended. Demonstrate your continuing education andcreativity. A short essay about your teachingphilosophy, how you teach and why. Copies of recentlesson or unit plans you have used. Photos of the classengaged in these activities will help. Creative handoutsyou have designed, student papers you have gradedshowing your comments, etc.  If you have photographs ofyour classroom or a videotape of you in action, includeit. Peer observations and evaluations, letters ofcommendation, recognitions or honors you have received. For Students electronic portfolios are selective andpurposeful collections of work made available on theWWW. Portfolios focus on the students' reflections ontheir own work. They are records of learning, growth,and change. They provide meaningful documentation ofstudents' abilities. Electronic portfolios provideinformation to students, parents, teachers, and membersof the community about what students have learned or areable to do. They represent a learning history.  Teachersand students may construct portfolios in literacy andwriting, science, math, the arts, or any other subjectarea in the curriculum. Portfolios may also be moreinclusive, containing samples of work across curricularareas. Portfolios bring together curriculum, instructionand assessment. Through the use of portfolios teachersand students can develop a shared understanding ofwhat constitutes quality work, and acquire a common languagefor evaluating students. The use of portfolios lead toclassrooms that are student-centered rather thanteacher-centered, because students accept moreresponsibility and become agents in their own education.Portfolios help students to set goals for learning,review their goals periodically, and assumeresponsibility for their own learning. They also allowparents to be informed partners in their child'slearning.There is growing use of portfolios in theclassroom in the form of files or notebooks. Theelectronic portfolio, however, is a new option allowedby the increase of technology in the classroom,providing yet another perspective on what students cando. Electronic portfolios can include varied media suchas text, graphics, video and sound, going beyond justpaper and pencil work. After all, products on paperconstitute only a small portion of what the studentproduces in a school year. Electronic portfoliosmotivate students. Displaying their work to anyone onthe WWW is much more motivating for students thenproducing for the teacher. Students like to displaytheir work, and now the technology allows them todisplay their work to the entire world. Electronicportfolios also encourage students to engage in periodic self-reflection, a very important component of learning.The major advantage of electronic portfolios overfolders and notebooks is that they provide easy accessto student performance. Students' learning products arereadily accessible to students, parents, administrators,and other teachers over the WWW. This process introduceseconomy in storage, and ease of access from practicallyanywhere in the world. Students' writing may becollected easily in notebooks and files. But what aboutsamples of oral reading, a three dimensional model,artwork, a sketch, an animation? By using electronic portfolios it is possible to include examples of allthese different media in a portfolio. As students progress though the school year, their work may be addedto the portfolios.There are many different programsyou can use to make a portfolio, depending on the typeof computer you are using. On most computers you can useHTML, but it probably isn’t the easiest to use forstudents. Other ones that do all the tedious work foryou is Netscape Composer or Pagemill on MAC computers.You just put the information you want and in no time youwill have your own electronic portfolio. There is alsomany ways to upload it onto the WWW. Yahoo offers itfree or your school may be able to get an account somewhere else. No matter how they are done they will bevery beneficial for both teacher and student.