Professional Development

Sample Internet Staff Development Two Day Workshop

Developed by Rhonda Christensen.
This is a sample outline for a two day staff development workshop focusing on integrating the Internet into instruction. Sessions may be on two consecutive days or a week or two apart. The longer time period allows participants time to use their new skills from Day One to find educational resources for use on Day Two. Ideally this is a hands-on workshop with a maximum of 15 participants per instructor.

Day One

8:30am-9:00am Introduction and overview
Collect pretest data such as Stages of Adoption, Skills Checklist and/or Needs Assessment
9:00am-10:00am Brief introduction/overview of the Internet
Integrating the Internet into Instruction (PowerPoint presentation)
Show the following example Project web sites
Show the NASA Global Quest II video (22 minutes) - an overview of teachers telling how they use the Internet in the classroom. Available from NASA at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/.
10:00am-10:15am Break
10:15am-11:30am Web Browsers and Search Engines
Define web browsers and search engines.
Searching the Web (PowerPoint presentation)

Search Engine Wars - Comparing search engines

Have participants compare the number of hits found from different search engines using the same keyword. For example, Einstein.
Also compare the type of information that was retrieved - was it what they thought they would get?

Example Search Engines
List of current search engines  
Discuss search engines created specifically for kids
Wesley Fryer and Kathy Schrock  have excellent resources regarding search strategies.
Scavenger Hunt - Searching for Information exercise 
11:30am-12:30pm Lunch break
12:30pm-1:30pm Resources for K-12 classrooms
Show the following example Web sites and let participants explore them.
Show how to make bookmarks in a browser.
Show how to print from the web to include the location.
1:30pm-3:00pm START (Sharing Technology Applications Resources with Teachers)
Present START (PowerPoint presentation)
Show the START CD-ROM with live Web links
Show the Web site (http://www.tcet.unt.edu/START)
3:00pm-3:30pm Review and wrap up of Day One
Give assignment to find at least 3 educational resources on a particular topic and bring the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) to the next session.

Collect data - Day One Daily Evaluation

Day Two

8:30am-9:15am Educational/Social Issues regarding the Internet
  Show PowerPoint presentation that includes issues such as Acceptable Use Policies (AUP), Filtering software and security of information
9:15am-10:00am Web whacking and CD-ROMS
  Using software that "whacks" Web sites is relatively simple and inexpensive to download web pages and copy them onto a CD-ROM for use with students. It is one way to control their access to preselected sites. It also no longer requires a live link to the Internet to access the information.

There are also commercially available CD-ROMs with topical information that allows teachers and students to simulate surfing the Web. It may be useful as a readiness activity or as an additional resource. Classroom Connect; has a series of CD-ROMs that follow this design (http://www.classroom.net).
10:00am-10:15am Break
10:15am-10:45am Graphics
  Show participants how to take QuickPics or scan pictures to use for their Web page
Show how to save images from the Web
10:45am-11:30am Creating A Web Page
  Build a simple web page (on floppy) from a template.
Use topic sites found from homework assignment and link from this home page
Add pictures from QuickPics, scanned pictures or images saved from the Web
Show how to save Word documents in HTML format
11:30am-12:30pm Lunch break
12:30pm-2:15pm Continue working and finish web pages
2:15pm-2:30pm Break
2:30pm-3:15pm Show and Tell Web pages
3:15pm-3:30pm Wrap up and collect data
  Skills list - posttest
Daily Evaluation
Stages of Adoption