Week 6 - Discussion

Greg Mileski
Week 6 Discussion
Oct. 13, 2010
Dr. Horitz

After reading the chapter this week and reflecting on the application question at the end of the chapter, I feel that the Internet and World Wide Web will have impacts on education. To what degree, I am still uncertain. I am however going to give my thoughts in this discussion on each of the three categories of K-12 education, Higher education, and Adult education.

The impact that the Internet and Web will have on K-12 education, I feel will vary depending on grade level. I think that at the younger grade levels of K-5 that it will have the least impact because learners need to learn the basics before they can really utilize their functions. Learners at this age need to know how to spell and read before they can perform searches effectively. However, any type of video or audio media that is available from these technologies could impact their education. The majority of their educational time in school though is used to teach the basics of writing, reading, spelling, and arithmetic. I do know that there are things available on the Internet and Web to help with these areas, but most are for remediation and are used by a smaller population of students. I do believe that the Internet and Web will have a major impact the grade level 6 -12 especially at the upper parts of these levels. At this level students will be able to access all sorts of information and even use it to communicate and collaborate with students. The technology also allows for educators to develop more authentic assignments and make what the students are leaning connected to the real world. Thus, answering that famous question that us teachers get from our students, “Why do we have to do this?” The reason I said that it will impact the upper level even more is because it makes it possible for students to take classes online that may not be able to be taught within their school building. This also will allow students to create their own curriculum track as long as it meets state and federal mandates for education.


As far as the impact of the Internet and Web on Higher education (community colleges, colleges, and universities), I believe it will have a major impact because it will allow students to take classes from anywhere on earth. It also allows students to do the majority of their research without having to go to the library. A go example of this is our current class. You can get a whole degree online without ever stepping on a college campus. I have a colleague that just graduated with a masters from the University of Phoenix and the only time he was on campus was when he went out their for graduation. I did a search on the Internet for how many people are enrolled in online college classes and here’s the results I found: In the U.S., 3.5 million students were enrolled in one or more online college courses during the 2006-2007 academic year. That number equals one fifth of the population of college students. http://www.america.gov/st/educ-english/2008/January/20080108101202attocnich0.4027674.html
I would say that this is quite a major impact.


I also see the Internet and Web having a major impact in adult education (in businesses, government, and/or the military. People in the business sector use the Internet to reach clients and to research business opportunities. Companies also use it to provide training for there workers. It is cheaper to do online training than it is to bring in a professional that needs to be paid. Also you don’t need to pull someone off of the job they are doing to train someone else and productivity stays up higher. As far as the government, most their paper work and documents are stored on a server on the web. This speeds up their productivity. The military uses the Internet extensively for communication and satellite feeds. These I am for sure will continue to be used more and more.


I do think that you can’t totally eliminate the human experience from education. You still need to have interaction between people. There is that social need inside us where we need to see and experience a persons nonverbal communication skills. I’m interested to read others thoughts on this topic.