Brief Description Objectives Materials and Resources Activity Description Internet Resources

• Grade level: Middle/Upper Elementary, High School

• Subject Area: Social Studies

Brief Description

    Student task forces complete their profiles by creating Web pages about their community agencies. Students' Web pages are compiled in a central site and the projects are announced on various electronic forums.

Objectives

Students will:

• Gain familiarity with Web authoring techniques.
• Explore the contributions that community agencies make to the good of the community.
• Gain experience in making professional contacts with organizations.

Materials and Resources

    In developing our lessons and activities, we made some assumptions about the hardware and software that would be available in the classroom for teachers who visit the LETSNet Website. We assume that teachers using our Internet-based lessons or activities have a computer (PC or Macintosh) with the necessary hardware components (mouse, keyboard, and monitor) as well as software (operating system, TCP/IP software, networking or dial-up software, e-mail and a World Wide Web client program, preferably Netscape, but perhaps Mosaic or Lynx). In the section below, we specify any "special" hardware or software requirements for a lesson or activity (in addition to those described above) and the level of Internet access required to do the activity.

1. Special hardware requirements: A scanner if students will be including visual materials in their profiles.
2. Special software requirements: A word processing software and an HTML editor.
3. Internet access: A medium-speed (28,000 BPS via modem) or high-speed (greater than 1 MBPS via network) for visiting Web sites.
4. Internet resources: See our list of Internet resources below.

Activity Description

• Students draft their profiles on paper before entering the text into word processing software, such as Microsoft Word or WordPerfect. During the rough draft phase students should concentrate both on the content of their profile and how they want to lay out their profile (i.e. in what order they want to present their written information and where and what type of visual information they want to include).

• Students type up their written information using a word processing software. Once type written drafts are finished task forces exchange papers and peer edit their drafts. The teacher also reviews papers and makes final comments.

• Students create final drafts of their papers and convert their written text into HTML documents (see our list of Internet resources for information on how to convert text into HTML format).

• Publicize the profiles that students have created via electronic forums. See our list of Internet sites for help in finding places to announce the projects.

• Have a final group discussion for students to reflect on what they have learned. Things to focus on: how the agencies they profiled work to help better the community; how agencies have been established; how agencies are run; and experiences students had while interviewing and volunteering.

• Invite parents and members of the agencies that students profiled to an "opening" of the Website.

Internet Resources

The following are a brief list of some sites where you might submit a notification about social science related essay exchange projects.

• Intercultural E-mail Classroom Connection
  [http://www.stolaf.edu/network/iecc/]
  St. Olaf College site lists a number of places where you can join e-mail discussion lists to connect with classrooms around the United States and the world.

• Humanities Net e-mail discussion list on hypermedia
  [H-MMEDIA@MSU.EDU]
  Send e-mail to this address to join a discussion list moderated by a history professor interested in integrating computers and multimedia.

• Humanities Net e-mail discussion list for history teachers
  [h-teach@MSU.EDU]
  Send e-mail to this address to particatipate in H-Teach. H-Teach is a list dedicated to teaching history on the college-level.

• Humanities Net e-mail discussion list for Teaching Social Studies in Secondary Schools
  [H-HIGH-S@MSU.EDU]
  Send e-mail to this list to participate in discussions on secondary social studies.

• Ednet
  [ednet@noc1.oit.umass.edu]
  This e-mail discussion list is a general education list that led the way in educational e-mail discussions.

• Edweb Discussion List
  wwwedu@elanor.oit.unc.edu
  An e-mail discussion list run by Andy Carvin, based at Edweb.

The following sites are places you can go to learn about making HTML documents.

• Setting Up A Website For Your School: An On-line Presentation
  [http://bigdog.fred.net/nhhs/html2/present.htm]
  A site developed by George Cassutto which explains terminology and outlines steps you can take to establish your own Website.

• Beginner's Guide to HTML
  [http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html]
  A good place to start learning about html.

• Web66
  [http://web66.coled.umn.edu/]
  The sections on technology and information offer help on issues such as setting up a server, getting started with e-mail, and other Internet needs.

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