Surfing the Internet

What Every Kindergarten Teacher Should Know

1. Links can and do change. A link that used to lead to a collection of lesson plans or a student activity could now lead to pornography. One way this happens is when an individual or organization registers a domain, creates useful educational content, and places it on the Internet. Many people link to and enter the site. Time passes and the original owner of the site forgets or declines to renew the domain. The domain becomes available and is purchased by somebody else who is free to post whatever type of content they like, so a link that led to chemistry teacher resources or primary undersea activities yesterday could lead to pornography today.

2. The best original content for kindergarten teachers can be found on practicing kindergarten teacher’s Web pages. However, most practicing kindergarten teacher’s Web pages do not include a large amount of original content. Many of the sites with significant original content are hosted by providers that set limits on the number of visitors, provide relatively slow connections, and insert pop-up ads. If a site includes a lot of pictures it loads at an even slower pace. Despite these minor inconveniences practicing kindergarten teacher’s Web pages are the primary resource for kindergarten teachers because of the quality and relevance of the content found on these sites.

3. Kindergarten teachers can retrieve practical curricula such as lesson plans, thematic units, and literacy centers on the Internet. They can also retrieve many other types of useful content via the Internet, including full-text education research, theory, and practice; classroom management and organization; booklists; professional development resources; standards; teacher tools; pictures of bulletin boards, word walls, and literacy centers; technology integration; worksheets; assessment; etc. For instance, the ERIC Digest site includes nearly 2000 full-text reports covering a wide variety of topic of interest to kindergarten teachers.

4. The intent of most commercial Internet educational content providers is to make money. Over the past seven years a significant portion of free Internet educational content either disappeared, began to charge a fee for access, or began to include advertisements. What is available today might not be available tomorrow. What is free today might not be free tomorrow. What is ad free today might not be ad free tomorrow.

5. Don’t overlook kindergarten related listservs as a source of practical ideas and curriculum. Many commercial and noncommercial sites facilitate this type of information exchange. Even if you don’t participate, the archives of various listservs can prove invaluable because topics covered were selected by people in the field and content provided was (in general) created by people in the field. Try to find a listserv that specifically addresses your interest. As with anything else on the Internet, use caution when providing personal information. Also remember that listservs and chat rooms are often undermonitered/unmonitored and inappropriate messages are sometimes posted.

6. The most efficient path to Internet content is through sites specifically developed for kindergarten teachers. The next most efficient path is through sites specifically developed for early childhood education (generally recognized as birth through age eight), preschool, and kindergarten through second grade. Due to the design of most sites, a significant portion of kindergarten related content is accessed via sites targeted specifically for either preschool or kindergarten through second grade. Please remember that education sites targeted for prekindergarten through twelfth grade education, such as Gateway to Educational Materials, and sites not targeted for education, such as Google, can (if used correctly) provide a wealth of kindergarten related content including lesson plans.

7. Many kindergarten teachers depend on listings of items (directories) to access Internet content. Search engines are an overlooked avenue to Internet content. Search engines generally allow you to search by entering keywords rather than scanning a listing of items. Lesson plans and education research, theory, and practice can sometimes be found most efficiently via search engines if the user has a basic understanding of appropriate search terms and search strategies. Please see Kindergarten Topics for a listing of possible search terms. See Search Engines (Education) and Search Engines for possible search engines and related search strategies.

8. On almost all occasions kindergarten teachers surf the Internet in order to access full-text materials. They want the entire unit plan or journal article online rather than a citation for a particular item. On some occasions it might be appropriate to surf the Internet for items that are not available in full-text online. Access to both the ERIC Database and the Library of Congress Online Catalog can be gained via the Internet. They provide citations for and descriptions of more than a million education journal articles, books, and reports. If something has been published on an education related topic it will probably be included in one of these datatbases. The databases can be used to access information that can make teaching more fulfilling and more productive. The databases are somewhat complex and even though this Web site provides potential topics and instructions on how to use the databases you will need to spend some time searching them in order to use them proficiently. Also, you will need to record the citation and contact a local university, college, or public library to obtain the item directly or via interlibrary loan. Even though this process is much more involved than finding something full-text on the Internet it is sometimes worth the work. You can access Kindergarten Topics, the ERIC Database, and the Library of Congress Online Catalog via this Web site.

9. Sites that target kids like Yahooligans and Ask Jeeves Kids include information and activities that may be appropriate for inclusion in the kindergarten curriculum.