The Sites Teachers Choose: A Gauge of Classroom Web Use

July 17, 2007

The pervasive nature of the Internet, both in society and in America’s schools, leads teacher educators to wonder how this dynamic tool is being utilized in the classroom and, especially, if it is benefiting students’ understanding. This study analyzed 127 Web sites self-reported by in-service teachers as excellent for teaching. From these data, a majority of K-12 educators view the Web either as a lesson planning tool or as a place to turn for additional information to teach a particular lesson. The majority of sites designed for use with students were passive in nature. This paper offers a qualitative data analysis of the attributes of the sites, as well as implications of the selected sites on K-12 teacher beliefs regarding student learning.

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