Learning Transfer

This may come across as optimistic, but in the world we live in today, and especially in the world we will live in very soon, I believe that Internet and other technology skills are critical to a young child's education.

Grade: 3rd-4th

Topic: Using Internet search engines to find and identify valid information/Basic Internet safety

To start out with, I would essentially teach students what a search engine is and how to use one. I would teach about search terms, how to broaden or narrow a search term, how to determine possible if a website is credible (and why this is important), and how to make smart choices about what kinds of links and files NOT to click on.

Once these skills have been introduced, I would revisit them throughout the school year. My overall intention would be to facilitate positive transfer of this skill, offering students a doorway into a universe of resources that can help them learn and explore new topics and ideas throughout their educations and lives. To avoid negative learning transfer, I would be careful not to let students begin using the Internet as a crutch, or a means of having all the answers without actually learning anything. I would offer examples of websites that give obviously false information (things that children at this age will know is wrong) and I will make it very clear that anyone can create a website and write anything they want to on it, whether it's true or false. I will try to get students to understand that it is important to know and to learn and remember because a computer wont always be available to look up information, and even when it is, you need to know enough about your topic to tell when something is utter nonsense.

To facilitate near learning transfer, I would plan opportunities for students to use their Internet search skills to conduct projects or compose papers in other subject areas, i.e. Science, History, etc. I would want students to see how useful the Internet can be in an academic, research-centered context. In contrast, I would want to facilitate far learning transfer by demonstrating ways the Internet can be used to find information relevant to daily life. On the first day of the week, I may assign a student the task of looking up the weather forecast for the week, and marking it appropriately on a weather chart in the classroom. As a class, we can then see how accurate different online weather services seem to be. If the class is going on a field trip, or recognizing a national holiday in our lessons, we could do preliminary research to learn a thing or two about the place or event we'll be exploring. I can help students learn how to find helpful resources for subjects or general tasks they have difficulty with as well, such as tutoring websites for Math or Science, or tutorials on how to fix a bike or build a bird house.