Finding Instructional Resources

Finding Instructional Resources on the World Wide Web

The seminar will

introduce you to some of the different kinds of teaching resources on the Web,
give you a chance to "poke around" in them a bit, and then
present a few suggestions for discovering them on your own.

(Note on how to use this seminar online: The references below contain active links and suggestions for exploring. As you follow them, of course, you will draw yourself farther and father away from this page. Therefore we make two recommendations.

Bookmark this page so that you can return to it quickly.
Print a copy of this page so that you have easy reference to the suggestions while you are elsewhere. Enjoy yourself.)

As you follow these links, please remember, the best resource that the web can provide you is a new idea that increases your visions and amplifies your teaching ability.

Texts

The Web is full of texts. Take a look at some of these: A library of on-line books. Here are some suggestions.

Look at the on-line text of Pride and Prejudice (hyper text version) at the University of Texas. You can find by using the Author Search for Austen, Jane or just by browsing. Observe that it includes illustrations, links to footnotes, family tr ees, and a glossary.
Explore the Encyclopedia of Mythology under OTHER on the Online-books page.

Contemporary poetry with illustrations (an effective use of the web) is found at I Live on a Raft. I particulary liked the poem and illustrations, "Autumn."

Images

"Worth a thousand words" and sometimes the only way we can communicate clearly, pictures are all over the web. Here are some samples.

American Bison
Van Gogh's sunflowers, see also the Gateway to the Arts. London, Paris, or the middle of a North Dakota winter, the access is the same.
A map of the Santa Fe Trail If you like maps see the Perry-Castaneda Li brary Map Collection
Mathematical puzzles called Reptiles

What Other Teachers have Produced

Sometimes the ideas of others can be molded to fit our students needs.

Lesson plans and teaching strategies for K-8
How far does Light go? A project for an advanced High School Science course.
The World Lecture Hall Mostly College level courses but full of links useful at all levels K-PhD.

And the works of Students.

Elementary School A school in Alaska. Look under "The Microcopium" to learn a lot. The students published a "World Wide Web Storybook. Look at the alphabet primer. I liked the let ter "N."
High School A physical Science class with Student work. Also a project writing "African Folk Tales"

Supplementary Information

Some information is just hard to get. Sometimes the WWW provides it.

Supreme Court decisions in searchable format
The MAD scientist network It sounds unlikely, but it's useful.
A trip through the human body (sideways)
Biographical database Try the Master Challenge; Look for notable persons by name or topic.
Bach's Music For real. With the right Browser Plugin you can listen to a large selection of Bach's music from your computer.
There are all kinds of tutorials. Here's one in Forestry and a whole set in Psychology. look at the one in Sensation and Perception.

So how do you find resources like these?

Some suggestions (but not by any means an exhaustive list.)

Lists and reviews. Web sites are mentioned on public radio, in magazines devoted to the web, in teacher's journals and newsletters. they are also reviewed on the Web itself. One source of careful, accurate reviews is the Scout Report.
A second kind of source is the http://wwwscout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/ like Yahoo. This is a hierarchical index with many cross links and a good internal search engine. From the first page, pck a topic tht interests you and dig deeper. WARNING 1: As you descend into the structure, someof the page become quite long. be sure to scan the whole page. WARNING 2: Set an alarm clock. This is really addictive.
Search Engines provide a means of wide ranging search of the Web. Try Alta Vista. This will bring you to the Simple Search. Enter a topic in the search box (if you can't think of one try "covered bri dges", include the quotation marks).
You'll probably get several thousand responses--too many to look at one at a time. To focus your choice select Tables if your browser runs JavaScript or Text-only otherwise. Either way will allow you to require the inclusion [the check] or omissio n [the x] particular words in your selection. Check or X a few (2-4) choices and submit the inquiry again.
Alta Vista has much greater selection power than this. To learn about is read the help menu on the simple or advanced search screens.

What now?

You should have a good basic idea about finding instructional resources on the web, but here's a list that came from the Instructional Media Group at Auburn University that gives you a few more starting points.

Send comments or questions to Nick Backscheider at backsni@mail.auburn.edu

Last updated: Tuesday, 24-Jun-97 10:57:34 CDT
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