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Teach a
Novel without
the Internet?
Never
Again!
By Elaine Insinnia, Eileen Skarecki, and Jarnail
Tucker
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Student learning can become exciting and authentic when students combine Internet
research with text readings.
Graphics
Source
Visit
the Cybrary of the Holocaust at www.remember.org
to learn more about the Holocaust.
Companion
Web Page
www.bhs.k12.nj.us/ww2
Elaine: Jarnail
suggested we create a Web page to include all of the
information
we had located and the class’ reviews of
Night. I asked
him if he might write up how he accomplished this. The
rest is his
account.
Jarnail: As
one who is very involved in the Web world today, this idea
of creating
a Web page was not a surprise to me. For me this was
nothing new
at all. I am currently on the school Web Team, and in my
free time
I create these spectacles.
In
our crusades in the computer lab, we got troubled many
times. Whether
it was a girl reacting to a horrid picture, or
someone’s disk
being too full, all of these caused us problems. Trying to
get as
much information as we could for this Web page, we filled
almost
15 floppy disks with information. This is only natural
considering
we didn’t know whether or not students saved multiple
copies
of the same document or the fact that some things were
unacceptable
for this project in particular. Either way, organizing the
information
took no more than a little time and patience.
Eventually
this page shall be finished and put up on the Internet for
everyone’s
view. In educating everyone I feel this experience brings
great
emotions to me and will to those who also choose to have
interest
in such a fragile topic.
Details
If
the computer jargon is known, making a Web page in essence
is just
like cooking a dish or preparing an essay. As long as you
have the
correct “ingredients” and you know how to add
them in
the right manner, this is a breeze.
In
gathering the materials, you need to make sure you have
more than
enough because you always end up omitting some materials,
whether
graphic or not relevant. In our case, because of such
involvement
of people in putting all this information up on the
Internet and
giving us resources, we definitely found more than we
needed. After
gathering all our “ingredients” we had to
organize everything.
This
was the hardest step, because of our overflow of material.
First,
you have to organize things by relative topics. (You must
look for
the ideas expressed mostly in all your material and choose
those
as your subtopics. Topics in our case could be Survivor
Stories,
Adolph Hitler, Statistics, Pictures, Nazi Death Camps,
etc.) After
deciding your subtopics and organizing all your material,
you start
the real work.
Now
you must actually start forming the Web page. This is
where all
the computer jargon comes in. All Web pages are either
created using
Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML here on in) or computer
software
designed especially for this purpose. I, personally, use
both hand
in hand to work my magic. Because of such quick advancing
in the
computer field, it is a must for me to use software. The
software
helps me work quicker and easier rather than writing my
HTML by
hand, but both are accessible to me. The program I choose
to use
is Dreamweaver 2 made by the Macromedia Company. There are
many
programs that can be used.
After
all of this is finished, you are ready to upload the page.
Conclusion
As
you can see, creating a Web page takes time and work. In
the end,
when it comes down to it, you know that the effort
you’ve put
into this project was worth it when you see your piece of
“art”
online for others to view and enjoy for any reason(s)
necessary;
you feel good inside. If you have any questions or
comments e-mail
Jarnail at peachuh@aol.com.
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Elaine Insinnia (elaine@columbia.bhs.k12.nj.us)
is a middle school English teacher in Berkeley
Heights, New
Jersey, and coauthor of Educators Take Charge:
Teaching
in the Internet Revolution—The Liberation,
Transformation,
and Metamorphosis of Two Teachers (ISTE,
1998).
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Eileen Skarecki (esp@columbia.bhs.k12.nj.us)
is the K–12 technology coordinator for the
district of
Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, and coauthor of
Educators
Take Charge: Teaching in the Internet
Revolution—The
Liberation, Transformation, and Metamorphosis of Two
Teachers
(ISTE, 1998).
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Watchung Hills Regional High
School freshman
Jarnail S. Tucker (peachuh@aol.com)
plans on venturing into a career as either a
criminal defense
lawyer or a financial consultant. Although writing
is just
a hobby, he may, in fact, see a career or at least a
side
source of income in that field. Even though Jarnail
has set
aside plans for his future, who knows what is to
come? For
now though, he enjoys spending time with his
computer, notebook,
and pen.
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Dr. Rose Reissman, (rreissman@yahooo.com)
L&L’s language arts editor, is
currently president
of the Association of Computer Educators, New York;
R&D
consultant for FutureKids Technology Literacy
Training Center;
president of the NYCATE; educational consultant for
the Museum
of the City of New York; and language arts standards
consultant
for CityLore/Multimedia Cultural Resource Center.
She has
developed media and technology courses for the
reading and
writing master’s program at Manhattanville
College. Contact
her at 110 Seaman Ave., 5C, New York, NY
10034.
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Copyright © 2000, ISTE (International
Society for Technology in Education).
All rights reserved.
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