Arithmetic

.................................(Background Readings)...........................................
Home   Internet   Fieldtrips | Collaboration | Global Barriers | Research | Publishing | School Day

Longer School Day

Traditionally, the school calendar has attempted to dodge the needs of the community while trying to allow some time for learning. Agricultural demands on student labor suggested students would be in the field at harvest rather than in a classroom. School generally starts "after" breakfast and ends before dinner. However, society seems to want schools to play more of the family role than ever.

The Internet has the potential to cut into the time away from formal classes and intrude into the afternoon and evening times with some powerful instructional opportunities. As more and more families have access to the Internet through home computers and devices like WebTV, school personnel will begin to explore the rich opportunities of learning through Internet activities.

As an aside, several years ago I worked with a program that sent computers home without a monitor. The idea was to get parents to hook the computer to the TV and study with the child. One of the benefits of the program was to divert family activity off regular TV programming and squeeze in some family time in an instructional activity. Almost all of the families that participated indicated a willingness to change their family behavior to something more instructional. You may not be old enough to remember when TV was touted as being a wonderful educational tool.

Consider some of the instructional possibilities that are available if only 75% of the families in a school had Internet access at home. The number is increasing annually, so it is reasonable to expect a saturation of computers in a few years similar to TV and radio.

Homework
Textbooks are sometimes brought home and students work on assignments from those books. Sometimes the telephone is used to facilitate collaborative assignments, but more often the phone is used to verify the assignments or just to socialize. Occasionally, the assignments will require a trip to the library or some parents may purchase reference books for the home in the event they might be needed. Time is spent outside of the school hours on homework, but generally not too much.

Suppose a few teachers gave assignments like this.

Visit the following five web sites and compare the information on the causes of the Civil War. Find at least two other sources of information on the Web whose opinion concerning the causes of the Civil War agree with these five. Find at least two other sources that offer divergent opinions. Bring the URL's to class tomorrow.

Look in your email tonight and find the story I have begun. It contains at least 5 grammatical errors. Correct those errors and email me your corrections.

Check the weather in your assigned city tonight and log that data into your daily log. Send me your updated weather log by email. Check with your two partners on the regional weather report and add your data to their reports. Be ready to submit the city and regional report on Friday.

Check on my web site tonight after 7:00 and I will have the supplementary assignments posted. I need to look over these papers and review my emails prior to making my assignments. Contact me prior to 6:30 as I will begin posting at 6:45.

On the surface, these assignments aren't too different from traditional assignments. However, they do offer some advantages. By having the student email homework, the teacher knows before class begins the next day which students have completed the assignments. The grammatical error correction assignment could offer insight into adjustments in tomorrow's lesson plan BEFORE the class meets. The weather assignment offers the potential of keeping up with who is making progress and who is not. A gentle email to the parents might solicit help in finding the weather station web site. If you find that emails to you are being generated at 2:30 AM, you may have some insight into the causes of classroom behavior.

From the student's viewpoint, the chance to email the teacher to confirm something is excellent. Rarely do teachers publish their home numbers. Some even secure unlisted numbers to prevent calls from students. It would be helpful to be able to ask for clarification and still have time to do something about the assignment.

Collaboration
Some international collaborations will hit the time zone issues. You can get a message through and a reply only if you are up at 10:30 your time. Your fellow partners will be waking up or going to bed. Some real time communications will require you be available on your computer during a time block, say 8:00 - 9:00.

Chats
Schools are regularly bringing "experts" into their classrooms through the Internet. Talking with an expert via telephone and seeing the individual through your TV can be accomplished entirely through your computer and a camera on both ends. Who's to say we won't see more of these devices in homes and you will be able to look your students in the eyes as you converse over the Internet? The same technology could let them discuss topics with experts in their fields. Would many students give up watching MTV for a few minutes in order to talk to an astronaut about a lunar mission? There are many community-minded individuals who would be willing to give a few minutes to give vocational advice to students if it didn't interfere with their work. This means these chats will take place on times not considered part of the school day.

Subscription Sites
For decades there have been correspondence courses you could take at home. Generally, assignments were mailed and homework submitted in the same way. Recently there are beginning to be Internet sites where you can sign up for courses you take through the Internet. If there was a good, viable way to increase your SAT scores, many families would join immediately. If there were viable ways to get good tutoring at a reasonable price, Internet classes would be filled. Students can and do obtain enrichment courses on the Internet now. Universities offer online courses to their students with graduation credit awarded to the participants.

Eclectic Learning
Have you ever been on the Internet and found yourself following links to areas of interest? These links led to other links and before you knew it, you had spent several hours. Students will experience the same set of time warps when life centers around a rectangular screen for several hours and learning, pleasure, recreation all seem to blur into one.

Each of these are only a few examples of ways the Internet will continue to move into the time we currently call "after school" as the school day lengthens.