CAN INTEGRATING THE INTERNET INTO THE TEACHING OF AMERICAN HISTORY IN THE 4TH GRADE

ENHANCE STUDENTS’ LEARNING?

Georgia A. Konstantinou

EDT 896 Research Report Iona College, 2002

konstantinougeorgia@hotmail.com

Abstract

The goal of this study was to investigate whether an experimental group of fourth grade students, who were taught a selected unit in American History using the Internet, performed better on a post-study test than a control group who were taught the same unit with the traditional methods. Simultaneously, a questionnaire was administered to both groups before and after the study to measure students’ attitudes and thoughts towards History. The study provided varied and surprising results. The results from the post-study test indicated a slight improvement in the experimental group but the t-test reported that the results were not significant. On the other hand the results from the questionnaires were surprising for both groups. The students from the experimental group presented a statistically significant change in attitude towards History after the study whereas their fellow students from the control group did not. The use of the Internet at the specific fourth grade class seemed to improve students’ attitudes and thoughts towards History but did not change significantly their academic achievements.

Statement of problem

The Internet is a powerful new means of communication. It is global, it is fast, and it is a trail-

blazer. The World Wide Web is becoming an abundant and ever-growing resource for History

teachers and students. Furthermore it has progressed to the point where everyone has access to the

great museums of the world, the great literature archived for quick electronic retrieval, and

historical documents available at the click of a mouse. For education, the World Wide Web is

making it possible for more individuals than ever to access knowledge and to learn in new and

different ways.

Schools should seize this excellent opportunity and embrace the Internet by incorporating it into

their curricula. However the important question that currently arises is if the Internet really has the

power to improve students’ academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to answer this

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question by examining whether the integration of the Internet into the teaching of American

history at the fourth grade can enhance students’ learning. The research study tested to see if an

experimental group of fourth grade students, who were taught a selected chapter in History using

the Internet, would perform better on a post-study test than a control group, who were taught with

the traditional methods. A web site customized for the exact topic was developed for the

experimental group.

The subjects for this study were two intact fourth grade classes from the Holy Trinity Elementary

School. The researcher was limited to selecting these two classes to participate in the study as they

were the only two 4th grade classes available at the school. Furthermore, it was not possible for the

researcher to compare the academic level of the two classes as the students were from different

third grade classes and their grades could not be traced.

Since the teacher for both the control and the experimental classes was the same and presumably

had a solid and equal bond with both classes, the validity of the experiment was increased. Also

the environment of the classroom was the same in order to avoid any external influence on the

results. The researcher was not present during the study so that the results would not be affected

by her presence. Presumably the students from both groups were not informed about the

experiment and their behavior did not affect the results.

However there were many factors that were beyond control that may affect the results and

students’ performance, such as family or personal problems with each individual student. Other

factors may also involve the stress that students might have from other classes or about the

upcoming exam. Furthermore, problems accessing the web site / web Quest due to technical

problems could have influenced students’ attitudes towards the Internet and arouse obstacles to the

completion of the study. These issues could not be predicted and eliminated.

A delimitation of this study was the apparent boundary of the limited number of participants. The

conclusions of this study can not exceed beyond the sampled population of the two fourth grade

heterogeneous classes. Thus, the results and outcomes of this study cannot be generalized beyond

the characteristics of their groups.

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Significance of problem

Online connections appear to be critically important if students are to grow up literate in the 21st

century. However online access alone may not be sufficient to bring about improvements in

students’ learning. Other factors, such as integration of computers into the curriculum, teacher

training, and ongoing support are also important for success. There is an urgent need for research

evaluating the effectiveness of the Internet on learning. This research can also reveal what kinds of

support are required for curriculum integration, training, and online use for the success of this new

medium in schools.

The present study is a small contribution to this vital need. Examining the effectiveness of

incorporating the Internet into the teaching of American History in the 4th grade can really

contribute to the existing literature in this area. Analogous research studies have been conducted

by several teachers in their effort to incorporate the Internet into their curricula. These studies gave

positive results but also highlighted issues about the creative and resourceful integration of the

Internet into the curriculum (Alberts, 1997). Also CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology),

a major organization, carried out a similar study in 1996 with positive outcomes and a great deal

of observations about Internet integration at schools (CAST, 1996).

This pressing need has also been recognized by the Congress when in 1999 it established a Web-

based commission to develop policy recommendations for maximizing the educational use of the

Internet in pre-K, elementary, middle, secondary and post-secondary learning. Chaired by Senator

Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, its members were appointed by former President Clinton, Education

Secretary Richard Riley and the Democratic and Republican leadership of Congress. Since

November 1999, the 16 members of the Commission have met with many education, business,

policy and technology experts. The report, "The Power of the Internet for Learning: Moving from

Promise to Practice" was recently published (2000). Based on findings, the Commission issues a

call to action in this report to:

make powerful new Internet resources, especially broadband access, widely and equitably available and affordable for all learners; provide continuous and relevant training and support for educators and administrators; build a new research framework of how people learn in the Internet age; develop high quality online educational content that meets the highest standards of educational excellence; revise outdated regulations that impede innovation and replace them with approaches that embrace anytime,

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anywhere, any pace learning; protect online learners and ensure their privacy; and sustain funding via traditional and new sources that is adequate to the challenge at hand.

Review of literature

The use of technology to enhance the present day classroom experience has become a widespread

tool used to promote education. Although there are some teachers who view its inclusion in the

curriculum with great skepticism, it is difficult to ignore the value technology has as a tool for

instruction. One of the most “talked about” technologies is the Internet. This “network of

networks” allows students and teachers around the world to access countless amounts of

information on a variety of subjects. Social studies education is one subject area that can be

greatly enhanced by the integration of the Internet into the curriculum.

The Internet has moved into schools in the U.S. at a remarkable rate. Internet connections in

schools were virtually unheard of at the beginning of the 1990’s. By 1994, a national sample

survey reported that 35% of all public schools were connected. In 1999 the results of a new

national survey suggested that by the end of that year, 100% of U.S. public schools will have

Internet access. (Solomon, 1999). The National Center for Education Statistics published a report

in May 2001 that revealed that by the fall of 2000, almost all public schools in the United States

had access to the Internet; ninety eight percent of the schools were connected to the Internet

(National Center for Education Statistics, 2001).

A study conducted by the Market Data Retrieval (1997) on the Internet usage of educators (grades

3-12) projected that two million teachers were using the Internet at the time of the survey in winter

1997. The findings were collected from a survey distributed nationally to educators including

teachers of all subjects, computer coordinators, and school librarians from grades 3-12. From the

educators who participated in the national study, 38.6% reported that they used the Internet at

school with their students. From these respondents, 62.2% reported that social studies was the

curriculum area best supported by the Internet (Market Data Retrieval, 1997). In a posterior survey

conducted at the Spring of 1998 to approximately 2,250 teachers, a majority of teachers (68%) use

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the Internet in their effort to find information resources for use in their lessons, and more than one-

quarter of all teachers report doing this on a weekly basis or more often (28%) (Becker, 1999).

Many outcomes are expected to emerge from Internet use including the decreased isolation of

schools from the outside word, increased student motivation and achievement, and increased

equality of educational opportunity. (Shade, 1999). The World Wide Web has the power to

generate novel learning strategies which will eventually be embedded in cognitive, social, and

cultural contexts (Khan, 1998).

As the challenges of the 21st century draw near, it is fitting that developments in technology and

especially the Internet become more responsive to the highest aims of education. The World Wide

Web can nowadays present as much content as teachers and text together and do so in an attractive

format. Students are free to explore areas of interest at their own pace, on their own, in groups, in

class and at home (Hackbarth, 1996).

Integrating the Internet into the curriculum can also enhance students’ learning and improve their

academic achievement. A national study conducted by CAST (Center for Applied Special

Technology) revealed that students with online access score higher on measurements of

information management, communication, and presentation of ideas than those without online

access. This study offers evidence that using Scholastic Network and the Internet can help students

become independent, critical thinkers, able to find information, organize and evaluate it, and then

effectively express their knowledge and ideas. It is one of the first studies that isolates the impact

of online use and measures its effects on students’ learning in the classroom (CAST, 1996).

Furthermore the Internet can transform our world into a small community and give students the

opportunity to communicate and learn from their peers in other cultures. International schools in

Africa, Asia, and South America already demonstrate their stories of integrating technology into

the curriculum. Students from these schools share their collective and international experiences in

a dynamic and universal form – through the use of Web sites and Internet projects (Foster, 2001).

With proper use the Internet can provide students a more in depth study in all content areas. Proper

Internet and technology integration allow students to reach an application and analysis stage,

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which enhances critical thinking and offers educators the opportunity to provide relevant and

authentic instruction.

Many teachers have embraced this new technology for numerous reasons. Bard Williams (1996)

suggests six great reasons to use the Internet in your classroom: “1) the Internet presents real-

world examples of integrated knowledge; 2) the Internet facilitates collaborative learning; 3) the

Internet offers opportunities for telementoring; 4) the Internet is all about communicating; 5) the

Internet can cater to different learners in different ways; and 6) the Internet is culturally, racially,

physically, sexually blind medium”.

Over 700 empirical research studies show positive gains in achievement on researcher constructed

tests, and national tests. There is however evidence in these studies that learning technology is less

effective or ineffective when the learning objectives are unclear and the focus of the technology

use is diffuse (Schacter, 1999). Computers are powerful and flexible tools that can enhance

teaching and learning in innumerable ways. However, the value of a computer, like that of any

tool, depends upon what purposes it serves and how well it is used. Computers can be used in

positive ways – such as to help make learning more engaging, to better address the needs of

individual students, to provide access to a wealth of information, and to encourage students to

explore and create; or in negative ways – such as to play mindless games, access inappropriate

materials, or isolate students (Gordon, 2000). These fears have been a central subject to recent and

old debates and the theme of numerous articles (Crystal et al, 2000) and studies (Grimm, 1998).

One cannot take extremes and either just embrace the Internet and welcome it into the classroom

as a teaching/learning supplement, or just shun it completely as being evil! Teachers must have a

plan and use appropriate search tools that are designed for student use. These search tools will

open the World Wide Web to the students in a safe and enthusiastic way (Leu, 1999).

One important goal of Social Studies education should be to allow students to acquire as much

information as possible in order to understand the world around them and comprehend that the

same facts can be interpreted differently from people in other cultures. Social studies teachers

should therefore be pioneers in regard to integration of the Internet in the curriculum. It would be a

great disservice to students if this knowledge were withheld. In order for students to become active

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citizens they must be able to make choices based upon exposure to a wide variety of world views.

The Internet allows students to view these varied perspectives.

Hypothesis

History is by its nature a very peculiar subject; it is often strongly associated with the word

“memorizing” which usually invokes extreme points of view from the students. With the

exception of highly motivated and innovative teachers, the teaching of History is frequently a

monotonous parade of facts that makes students tiresome and unresponsive. In addition, most of

them perform poorly in the classroom because they are passive and they see the lesson as a

citation of facts that has nothing to do with them.

The main starting point of this study was that the Internet could give life to these forgotten facts

and prompt students to take action. This action could not only help them to learn and understand

what has happened, but also to interact with one another in order to present and gather

information. The integration of the Internet into the teaching of History hopefully could

demonstrate, according to the researcher’s expectations, that History is not a static and forgotten

past but a living present.

Thus, this study sought to determine if an experimental class of fourth grade students who were

taught a lesson in American History using the Internet would score better in an exam than a

control group who were taught the same lesson in the traditional way. In general it was assumed

that the integration of the Internet into the teaching of American history in a fourth grade class

could not only make the lesson more appealing but it could also improve students’ performance.

Methods

In order to evaluate the effects of online use on students’ learning, a unit of study was taught in

both experimental and control classrooms of Holy Trinity Elementary School, New Rochelle. The

subjects were two intact fourth grade classes taught by the same instructor in order to eliminate

potential differences in teaching skills, competence or even behavior towards students and

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increase the validity of the experiment. These two classes were randomly assigned to control and

experimental groups. The control group had 21 students and the experimental group had 24

students. Both groups were taught the same section/unit from their American History book; this

unit was dedicated to the Explorers of the “New World”, 4th chapter of their History book. The

experimental period lasted four weeks during which the students met four times a week.

Before the experimental period the students from the experimental group were familiarized with

the various functions of Internet browsers. Their instructor explained to them the functions of the

browser window and introduced them to all the utilities they needed to manipulate (email

facilities) in order to complete their projects. She also divided them into small groups and assigned

them a small task in order to practice their skills and get used to working with each other.

During the experimental period the students from the control group/class were taught with the

traditional way (use of blackboard and textbook) whereas the students from the experimental class

were divided into small groups (of 3-4 students) and they were asked to visit a specific web site /

web Quest and follow the instructions found there.

This Web Site/web Quest ( www.gkonstantinou.com/explorers/index.html ) was constructed by

the researcher to organize students’ research. It explained the procedures to be followed and linked

students to specific web addresses where they could gather the necessary information in order to

complete their assignments. The site also provided a template with questions to be answered in

order for the specific unit to be covered; students had the opportunity to print out this template and

use it as a guide for their research. Furthermore, each student in the group was assigned by the site

a different role (hold the mouse and follow the links, read out loud for the rest of the group, select

images that they could be used in their projects, decide which information to use, and so on).

Each group of students from the experimental class visited the same web sites, saw the same

pictures and read the same information but they were asked to create a different writing activity.

They had the ability to choose among the following:

a) create a very small book with pictures and information found from the web sites

b) write a newspaper article

c) compose a PowerPoint presentation

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d) write a small essay

e) form a collage with pictures and facts from the websites they visited.

After the completion of their research / web Quest, on the last day of the fourth week of the

experiment, the students from the experimental group gathered together to discuss the information

they found on the Internet. During this meeting their teacher had the opportunity to review with

them the information they found, and evaluate it. Most of the groups had done a very good job; the

information they found was well organized and accurate, creating a full picture about the specific

unit (e.g. who, what, when, where, why, and how were sufficiently answered by the students).

Suggestions were made by the groups and the teacher about the presentation of the facts and

discussions were held about their importance. During this meeting all the students had the

opportunity to present an aspect of the study and express their opinion about it. Information had

been exchanged between the groups and misinterpreted facts had been corrected.

At their next meeting each group presented its work/writing activity to their peers. According to

their teacher the groups’ presentations were “well organized, accurate, creative and interesting.”

The students used effectively the information they found on the Internet and made excellent use of

the images gathered from the sites they had visited. Their presentations were not only well

organized but also colorful. After the meeting their teacher posted the presentations to the class’s

bulletin board and asked them to use their notes to study for the upcoming exam.

Throughout the study the students from the experimental group had the opportunity of using their

email accounts to exchange thoughts, ideas and information about their projects. They also used

this opportunity to email questions to their teacher and have immediate answers to their problems.

During the experimental period the students from the control group were also taught the same unit

from their History textbook with the use of traditional methods. Their teacher used the blackboard

to give an outline of the chapter and discuss the facts with them. After the completion of the

chapter she asked them to use their textbook to read for the upcoming exam.

At the completion of the experimental period students from the experimental and control classes

took the exam (Appendix B). All of the 21 students of the control group took part in this exam

whereas only 21 of the 24 students from the experimental group took the exam. The exam/test was

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the same for both experimental and control groups and it was constructed and scored by their

teacher. A t-test was performed on mean scores from the tests of the two classes to determine

whether there was a significant difference between them.

Furthermore, in order to measure/observe students’ attitudes and thoughts towards history a

questionnaire (Appendix A) was administered to both experimental and control classes before and

after the study. The pre-study questionnaire had been administered even before the period that was

familiarizing students with the use of the Internet browsers, whereas the post-study questionnaire,

which was exactly the same with the pre-study questionnaire, had been administered immediately

after the completion of the experimental period and before the students had the opportunity to

learn their grades. A t-test analysis was performed on the differences between the pre-study and

post-study questionnaires to determine if there was a significant difference between them.

Results

Test Analysis At the completion of the experimental period the students from both groups, experimental and

control, took the exam. The results from this exam were carefully gathered and analyzed by the

researcher. The following table (Table 1) presents the students’ scores at this exam.

Table 1

Experimental and Control Group Grades

Number of Students Experimental Control

1 50 45 2 27 6 3 26 26 4 36 50 5 11 26 6 39 0 7 16 38 8 45 35 9 50 38

10 5 16 11 45 38 12 22 50 13 19 26

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14 0 18 15 26 18 16 32 0 17 50 18 18 16 6 19 33 38 20 45 17 21 38 50

Students’ grades were entered into the SPSS software and were analyzed. An examination of the

descriptive statistics indicated that the results for the experimental group were better than the

scores for the control group. The experimental group averaged a 30.05 (out of 50) on the exam

with a standard deviation of 15.12. The control group on the other hand averaged a 26.62 (out of

50) and a 16.22 standard deviation (Table 2).

Table 2

Afterwards, a t-test was performed on the means of the scores from the two groups. The t-test

using a 95% confidence interval reported a significance level of 0.483 which indicates that the

results of this exam were not significant. The results of the t-test led to the acceptance of the null

hypothesis, which stated the assumption that the mean scores of the experimental group would not

differ significantly from the mean scores of the control group. These results imply that the

integration of the Internet into the teaching of American History at this fourth grade class did not

produce a statistically significant increase in achievement in the experimental group. The results of

this t-test analysis are interpreted from the following table (Table 3).

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Table 3

However, the researcher did observe a slight improvement in the performance of the experimental

group. Figure 1 depicts a comparison of the means of the two groups.

Figure 1

Experimental & Control Group Grades

Comparison of the Means

Control Group

Experimental Group

Questionnaires

In addition to the students’ tests, the questionnaires (Appendix A) that measured students’

attitudes and thoughts towards History were also analyzed. In contrast to the analysis of the tests,

the analysis of the questionnaires gave positive results which in combination with the teacher’s

observations and the students’ comments led to interesting conclusions.

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In order to be effectively evaluated, all the questionnaire items were constructed on a four-point

rating scale of 1 (strongly disagree/low) to 4 (strongly agree/high). Five questions1 from these

questionnaires were combined/ added to get a composite assessment of students’ attitude towards

History. Then the differences between the pre-study and the post-study scores of these questions

were calculated (post-study scores minus pre-study scores). After that a t-test analysis was

performed on the differences between the pre-study and post-study questionnaires; the t-test

reported a significance level of 0.000 which indicates that there was a significant difference. That

means that according to the t-test, the change in attitude of the experimental group was

significantly different from the change in attitude of the control group. According to these results

the control group did not change their attitude, yet the experimental group did. These results led to

the rejection of the null hypothesis, which stated the assumption that there was no difference in the

change in attitude towards History between the experimental and the control groups after the

study. They also implied that the use of the Internet into the teaching of American History at the

specific fourth grade class produced a statistically significant improvement of attitude towards

History in the experimental group. The following table (Table 4) clearly illustrates all the results.

Table 4

The researcher used SPSS software to construct the following bar graph (Figure 2) that gave a

visual representation of this change in attitude in the experimental group and also the slightly,

almost imperceptible, retreat of the positive attitude towards History in the control group.

1 Questions : 2, 4a, 4b, 4c, 4m

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Figure 2

Experimental and Control Group

Attitude towards History (Negative:0 - Positive:19)

Post-Study ControlPre-Study Control

Post-Study ExperPre-Study Exper

Mea

n18

17

16

15

14

13

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The analysis of the results of the questionnaires coincided with the teacher’s testimonies about the

students’ comments and behavior throughout the study. The teacher said that “the kids not only

enjoyed the activity and presented interesting and well organized writing assignments, but they

also asked if they could do such activities more often.” According to her observations the students

wanted to gather as much information as possible, visiting all the sites available to them from the

web Quest site and comparing the information they found. They even tried to compare the

information they found on the Internet with books from the library. According to their teacher, the

Internet seemed, to “stimulate them to seek for more information.” Throughout the study the

students discussed their activities and assignments with one another and their teacher, even

throughout their school breaks. They even used their email accounts to send information to one

another about the study.

According to the teacher’s testimonies, the students worked efficiently together and a spirit of

positive competition developed among them during the study. Each student in the group had an

assigned role (hold the mouse and follow the links, read out loud for the rest of the group, select

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images that they could be used in their projects, decide which information to use, and so on) which

helped him/her to be more cooperative and productive. In general the activity was challenging for

them and made them more enthusiastic about the lesson and eager to learn.

Discussion

As the researcher reflects upon this study, it is clear that the integration of the Internet into the

teaching of American History at the specific fourth grade class did not improve students’ academic

achievement. Although the researcher had anticipated a positive and significant difference in

achievement scores in the experimental group, there was no evidence of such a significant

improvement during this study. On the other hand, the results from the analysis of the

questionnaires and the teacher’s observations suggested that the students from the experimental

group did change their attitude towards History after the study. Such contradicting results might

suggest that the integration of the Internet does not make a difference in students’ achievement,

but it can improve students’ perceptions and attitudes towards the specific subject.

Undoubtedly there are a lot of factors that should be taken into consideration before one can draw

such conclusions. First of all, even if there were no negative or contradicting factors, this study

has the apparent boundary of the limited number of participants. Thus, the conclusions of it can

not exceed beyond the sampled population of the two fourth grade heterogeneous classes.

Therefore, the results and outcomes of this study cannot be generalized to all fourth graders.

Also, the effectiveness of technology in general and therefore the effectiveness of the Internet,

which is an integral part of technology, depends on numerous factors that are related to the

implementation and integration of it into the curriculum. In order for the technology and the

Internet to bring valuable and impressive results, it should be integrated efficiently into the

teaching. The role of the teacher should consequently change but that does not mean that he/she

should be replaced by the Internet. Thus, visiting web addresses and gathering information from

various web sites is not sufficient enough by itself to make a difference without teacher’s

guidance, support, discussion and continual observation. Maybe the Achilles’ heel of this study

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was that it focused too much time in research on the Internet and not enough time in discussion

with the teacher and the peers about the results.

Furthermore, this study had other insuperable limitations that may have affected the results and led

to assumptions that could not be concluded otherwise. The researcher had no control over the

selected groups of students nor had the opportunity to examine their academic level since they

came from different third grade classes and their grades could not be traced. So the academic level

of the two classes could not be determined and therefore the results could not take into

consideration this important factor.

In addition, at the beginning of the experimental period, difficulties arose at the use of the web

Quest / web site that had been constructed for the experiment. The web site had been uploaded to a

free web server ( www.geocities.com/gogoula/explorers ) that was giving – as the researcher

discovered later on – a small amount of data transfer (which is 3 gigabytes). Thus when the

students tried all together to access the site, the web host turned it off to keep the bandwidth within

the limit. And although these obstacles were immediately surpassed by the researcher who

uploaded the site to a different server, they may have affected students’ confidence in the Internet.

Considering further this experimental study, the researcher also feels obligated to point out that the

age of the students and their luck of familiarity with the Internet may have affected their

performance and hindered them from understanding or manipulating the information they found

on the Internet with more confidence and dexterity.

Moreover the experimental period was limited to four weeks. A longer study might make students

more capable of using Internet browsers and present more valid results about the Internet’s

integration into the curriculum.

Finally, since motivation and enthusiasm are closely linked to achievement, perhaps – over the

long term – the improved attitude of these students towards History will improve their

achievement. Motivation and enthusiasm are two of the most important factors of learning. Our

outlook towards a lesson depends on the opinion we have about it. Given that the Internet has the

ability to improve students’ thoughts and attitudes towards History, in a longer term study,

theoretically, it could also improve students’ academic performance.

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All of the above theories/factors are sufficiently supported from the results which arose from the

analysis of the questionnaires. The indisputable change in attitudes towards History from the

students of the experimental group after the completion of the study may lead to interesting

theories and conclusions. It is unquestionable, not only from the questionnaires but also from the

observations of the teacher, that the students enjoyed this activity that had created a different

climate from the monotonous school classroom. As History is a lesson that could invoke extreme

attitudes, the results from the questionnaires may imply that the Internet could give students the

lead, transform passive students to active ones, make lessons more appealing to them, encourage

them to search for information, and to discover things for themselves. In his book “To Understand

Is to Invent” (Piaget, 1973) Jean Piaget said that the basic principle of learning can be expressed as

follows: "to understand is to discover, or reconstruct by rediscovery, and such conditions must be

complied with if in the future individuals are to be formed who are capable of production and

creativity and not simply repetition." According to this famous educator, the teacher must have

confidence in the student's ability to learn on his own.

Keeping in mind the words of Piaget, maybe we can understand students’ change of attitude

towards History after the completion of the experimental period. The Internet encourages active

learning and, despite the results of the tests, the researcher believes that if implemented correctly

by sagacious teachers, eager to work hard and support their students’ learning, it (the Internet)

could even improve students’ academic performance as other major studies have revealed in the

past (CAST, 1996).

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< http://www.cosn.org > Web-Based Education Commission. (2000). The Power of the Internet for Learning: Moving from Promise to Practice. Retrieved September 22, 2001 from < www.webcommission.org > Williams, Bard (1996). The Internet for teachers, 2nd edition. Chicago, IL: IDG Books Worldwide Inc. p 28

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APPENDIX A STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE

Please Check the box with your answer

Class ______________________

1. Gender: Male Female

2. History lessons are: A. Exciting B. Interesting C. Boring D. Other, Please specify_______ 3. Please rate the things we should do to make History lessons more interesting. Choose one response for each row. History lessons will be much more

interesting, if we could: Strongly Disagree Disagree Agree Strongly

agree A use video tapes B use multimedia presentations (e.g. power point) C use the Internet for research and study D incorporate materials from daily life E do nothing. They are excellent as they are. F other, please specify ___________________ 4. Please rate the following sentences. Choose one response for each row.

Strongly Disagree Disagree Agree Strongly

Agree A I enjoy learning about our history B I think history is important for us to study. C I think learning about our past is a waste of

time.

D We should live in the present, not study the past.

E I enjoy history more if I read about it in a textbook.

F I feel I learn more if I read about history in a textbook.

G I enjoy history more if I hear a teacher or speaker tell about it.

H I feel I learn more if I hear a teacher or speaker tell about it.

I I enjoy history more if I participate in projects and activities

J I feel I learn more about history if I participate in projects and activities.

K I enjoy history more if we use the internet for research and study.

L I feel I learn more about history if we use the internet for research and study.

M If social studies were only offered as an elective I would take it.

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APPENDIX B

Social Studies Quiz : Explorers

Name___________________________ Date______________________

Match each explorer on the left to his accomplishments on the right. Write the letter on the line next to the explorer’s name (30 points) ___1. Christopher Columbus ___2. Giovanni da Verrazano ___3. Jacques Cartier ___4. Samuel de Champlain ___5. Henry Hudson

a. French explorer who traveled the St. Lawrence River interested in fur trade. b. Sailed into New York Bay, hoping to find a waterway that was a passage through the continent. c. Tried to find a route to Asia by sailing west from Europe. d. First European explorer to visit New York sailed into New York Bay. e. Built a settlement named Quebec along the St. Lawrence River. Quebec became a major fur trade center.

Choose ONE explorer from the list above that you know the MOST about. Write a paragraph describing the explorer’s accomplishments and contributions to New York history. (20 points) __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________

(Use the back!)