Teaching Your Students About The Internet? Ideas For You
Students often take the internet and having access to it for granted. They may not even know of a time when Wi-Fi and data plans did not exist and smartphones were not so prevalent. If you are trying to teach your students about the internet, its history, and how it benefits their lives, you may be looking for creative ways to teach those lessons. Get to know a few ways that you can go about teaching your students more about the internet and its history. Then, you can try applying these strategies to your classroom right away.
Challenge Them to 24 Hours Without Internet
Challenge your students to try to go 24 hours without the internet. Have them write down or otherwise log every time they "accidentally" use the internet in that 24-hour period without thinking about it.
You could even just challenge them to go without the internet for the class period and learn the old-fashioned way. Ask them to assess how they felt going either 24 hours or one hour without access to the internet. Ask them how they think the internet impacts their life. These are ways to show students just how much the internet is integrated into their lives without them even knowing it.
Have Them Research Key Figures in the Internet's Inception
The history of the internet is fascinating and complex. It is important that students understand just how amazing the advent of the internet was and still is. One way to do this is to have your students research key figures in the internet's inception and dissemination.
For example, assign your student a research project on the inventor of the optical amplifier, which is vital in amplifying signals. Have them look up information about the inventor of the optical amplifier. Have them research the optical amplifier itself and how it works. Then, have students present that research in a class presentation or in a term paper or other creative type of project.
The idea is to have students understand that this information about the inventor of the optical amplifier directly impacts their lives and the internet as they know it today. Knowing about the inventor of the optical amplifier will shed light on the fact that the internet was not just something that was discovered but was built on the shoulders of scientists and great minds.
Now that you know more about teaching your students about the internet and its history, you can put these methods to use in your classroom right away.