Internet Workshop

"Internet Workshop (Leu & Leu, 2000) consists of an independent reading of information on the Internet around a topic and a location initially designated by the teacher; it concludes with a short workshop session where students can share and exchange ideas and strategies they discovered during their work on the Internet. Internet Workshop permits students to learn from one another about content information, critical literacy skills, and the new literacies of Internet technologies."

Doesn't this sound incredibly intriguing? Internet Workshops can be used as a directed learning experience, simulation, center activity, or with many other instructional practices teachers already use. The steps involved include:

1.	Find a site on the Internet that has content related to one of your units of study and bookmark it.
2.	Design an activity; feel free to invite your students to use the site as they look for content (you can even have them develop independent inquiry projects).
3.	Complete the research activity.
4.	Ask students to share their work, any questions they may have, and new insights at the end of the week during a workshop session.

The author suggests bookmarking the site to prevent random surfing and to select several central sites for each subject area. The activities created by the teacher should be open-ended to allow for more critical thinking. Leu also suggests teachers create a schedule so students have Internet access for one hour each week--30 minutes alone and 30 minutes with a partner.

I love this idea, for a lot of reasons. First, an "Internet Workshop" can fit into a daily classroom routine just about anywhere--Reader's and Writer's Workshop, Math, Science, Social Studies--so no more complaints about not being able to fit technology in during the day. Second, it's fun for kids and gives them some authentic learning experiences. finally, it helps develop critical thinking skills and a more global awareness. I'm going to share this strategy with teachers at my school at our next staff meeting!

Image credit: http://www.positscience.com/games-teasers/brain-games-kids/memory-attention/abc-gulp