Abstract
In an effort to address national
and state technology standards, the computer teacher at Midland School
decided to teach seventh grade students how to use Nicenet, an Internet
Classroom Assistant. For one marking period during spring of 2002, students
used Nicenet to find assignments and follow online instructions, send
and receive e-mails, post appropriate Internet links for classmates,
contribute to threaded discussions, and collaborate with classmates
on a group project. At the conclusion of Nicenet instruction, a researcher
administered a survey to students to learn their perceptions regarding
Nicenet use. Among other findings, survey results showed that most students
(85%) liked using Nicenet; 25.5% of the students found Nicenet to be
very helpful or useful, and 83% of the students said Nicenet improved
learning at least moderately. The article suggests ways to improve instruction
using Nicenet or similar Internet Classroom Assistants in the future.
Introduction
The International Society
for Technology in Education (ISTE) developed National Educational Technology
Standards (NETS) for K-12 students in an effort to highlight the technology
literacy skills students need to become lifelong learners in an information
society. Among these skills are the abilities to: use technology tools
to enhance learning; use telecommunications to collaborate with and
interact with peers; use technology to locate and collect information
from a variety of sources; and use technology for informed decision-making
(ISTE, 1998).
Many states have developed
technology curriculum standards that parallel the ISTE standards. The
New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards, for example, specifically
describe needed technology skills as part of the Cross-Content Workplace
Readiness Standards. Among the technology skills described are the ability
to access information on specific topics and the ability to use technology
to make decisions (New Jersey Department of Education, May 1996).
In an effort to address the
above curriculum standards, the computer teacher at Midland School in
New Jersey decided to employ what Judi Harris (1998) has termed "educational
telecomputing activities." Thus, the computer teacher introduced
her seventh grade students to an Internet Classroom Assistant (Nicenet,
www.nicenet.org) for Web-enhanced
instruction during one marking period in the spring of 2002. The computer
teacher decided that by the end of the marking period, students should
be able to: explain the components and uses of Nicenet; find assignments
and follow instructions using the Class Schedule feature of Nicenet;
send and receive e-mails using Nicenet's Messaging feature; post appropriate
Internet links for classmates; contribute to threaded discussions using
the Conferencing feature; and collaborate with classmates on a group
project using the Conferencing and Document Sharing features.
At the conclusion of Nicenet
instruction, a collaborating researcher administered a student survey
to ascertain students' perceptions of Nicenet use in order to improve
future instruction. The purposes of this article are to describe the
uses of an Internet Classroom Assistant at Midland School, to summarize
the results of the Nicenet student survey, and to make recommendations
for the use of Nicenet or other similar sites in the future.
Background
Midland School is a public
school in Bergen County, New Jersey that serves about 500 students grades
pre-K through eight. Per pupil expenditures at Midland exceed the state
average. The average class size at Midland is below the state average,
as is the student/faculty ratio. Students at Midland perform better
than the state average on required statewide proficiency assessments.
The Computer Lab at Midland is reportedly "state of the art,"
with all computers connected to the Internet. Most students at Midland
school have computers with Internet access in their homes (New Jersey
School Report Card, 2000).
Nicenet (www.nicenet.org),
an Internet Classroom Assistant (ICA), was founded in 1995 and offered
free of charge by a non-profit organization of Internet professionals,
with server space donated by the Searle Center for Teaching Excellence
at Northwestern University. Nicenet offers Conferencing, Scheduling,
Document Sharing, Personal Messaging, and Link Sharing features in a
low graphics environment. One of the best features of Nicenet is its
ease of use. Anyone can set up a class in a very short time (about two
minutes) and with little technical expertise; class administrators are
assigned a class "key" to supply to students so that students
can create their own accounts. The class key, username, and password
protect entrance to the ICA so that only class members can participate.
Students need only find a computer with Internet access and a Web browser
to use Nicenet; no software, server space, or knowledge of HTML is required.
Nicenet contains no advertisements.
Uses of Nicenet at Midland
School
Kleiner (1998) suggested
that instructors first use the ICA as a support tool for students in
on-campus courses. In that way, students can learn how the system works
before using it at a distance. Accordingly, the computer teacher at
Midland School decided to use Nicenet primarily for on-campus support
with two classes of seventh graders during the last marking period (about
8 weeks) of the year. She told students they would be learning about
a special Web site designed to facilitate communication, research, and
decision making. She then explained and demonstrated Nicenet's features
and showed students how to log on. Students' first task was to log themselves
onto Nicenet and then to email the instructor of their success. All
assignments were posted under Class Schedule, requiring students to
use this feature to keep up with course expectations for each class
session.
For the first assignment,
the computer teacher showed students how to add a document and a Web
site to Nicenet. She asked students to think of their favorite form
of entertainment (e.g., video, TV, movies, music, etc.) and then to
use the "Add a Document" feature of Nicenet to describe why
that form of entertainment was their favorite. Additionally, she asked
students to find a Web site related to their favorite form of entertainment
and to submit that URL under the Link Sharing feature of Nicenet. All
students were encouraged to read what other students had posted and
to pursue links of interest to them.
