| Home |
 |
Chapter 8 |
|
On the Web! Activities |
|
What can portals do for you?
Enough! Enough! You can become so inundated by the vast resources of the World Wide Web that you lose focus. We start out looking for one topic, find fascinating links and hits, and end up hours later – intrigued by the wealth of information we’ve tapped into but far afield from our original search.
How to focus and filter when self-restraint is lacking? Use relevant Web portals. Those created for K-12 teachers and students are invaluable. Portals help to focus information and links on the topic at hand. Education World (http://www.educationworld.com ) and A to Z Teacher Stuff (http://atozteacherstuff.com/ ) are two examples of education portals that offer resources specifically for teachers and students. These portals provide access to appropriate materials, discussion, tools, and a myriad of other useful resources.
Activity:
Go to an education portal from the ones listed here or another of your own choosing. Select the grade level you prefer to teach and explore the materials associated with it. Then go to a generic portal such as Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com). How do the links in the generic portal differ from those in an education portal? How do the quality of the websites linked to differ? Which is more valuable to educators? Why?
Want to know more? Check out these sites:
http://www.eduscapes.com/tap/topic21.htm
http://www.educationworld.com/
http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/
|