Facilitating Learning Through the Whacky Wild Web

Being in the special education field I understand the importance of going beyond the textbook to facilitate learning in children. The internet offers so many options that it can sometimes be daunting and challenging to bring the web to the classroom. I've found more than a hundred good websites and have organized it on my homepagestartup page, which can be found at:


http://sskariah.homepagestartup.com/


Initially the site was a project for a graduate class and I had to list five good websites for a content area targeting a specific population. So looked through and chose sites that were visual, auditory, age-appropriate and fun. Then I began finding sites to help support my kids learn in their other classes--like music. I also matched kids to websites that they were genuinely interested in.

One of my kids loved building things and he would always ask me if I knew a site so he could build things. I found google sketch but after playing with that for a while found it too complicated for myself--so that was a no go. Then I found a Bob the Builder website where you could put together pieces and build things but this was too childish for my kid. While he may only read at a 1st grade level, he's still a 6th grader at other levels. Finally I stumbled on City Creator and he loved it. At first I thought it might be too complicated for him but I let him try it out and he was doing things I didnt even know could be done. Well, the more I thought about my kids and what they would like and benefit from, the more my list of websites grew.

There are lots of great sites that categorized them by subjects, video content, educational games and more. Every week I'll try to review a few of the websites and rate them on their content, ease of use, special features and other categories. I'll also list an approximate grade level that the site is best suited for.


What You Can Do: Create Short, Simple, and Suitable lesson plans--and extension activities-- that can be taught in a 40 minute period.


I hope I can help others navigate the wild and whacky web and find some great websites for their children and students but also hope others can learn to incorporate those elements into a larger picture. The internet should complement but never replace great teaching practices.