PNLA Quarterly, Vol. 63 No.1 Fall 1998

Teaching the Internet in 50 Minutes

The obvious question Hansen dealt with first is, how can anyone teach anything in 50 minutes. The obvious conclusion is that this is a difficult though not impossible task. Hansen then continued her thorough presentation by suggesting how one can get the teaching done. The first question the instructor has to think through is not "what will I teach" but "what do they NEED to learn". Careful planning of all aspects is necessary to accomplish your objectives. A caution to remember is that less is often more when teaching skills in a short time frame. You need to plan the hardware and software necessary and determine the teaching methods to use such as presentation, hands-on work, small group work, etc.

It is useful to have some idea of your learners experience and expectations. Remember that students, including adults, learn best through active and cooperative learning. Research data shows students learn and understand more if they do active, cooperative work. Plan for as much hands-on and/or small group work as possible. When planning also plan ways for learning to be extended through handouts, exercises, and other integrated assignments. Cooperative work is harder to do with distance learners, but it is possible in part due to current technology. An example of an objective might be to have the learner understand and input Boolean statements correctly into Hot Bot and Alta Vista. It is then easy to determine in a hands-on situation whether you accomplished your objective.

Hansen also dealt with teaching information literacy skills on the Net. Using cooperative learning activities she suggested that teaching critical evaluation skills could be your objective. To accomplish this provide students with a list of evaluative criteria and several web sites to evaluate.

Lastly, Hansen provided web sites to help the trainer. These include: http://library.weber.edu/carol/idaho.htm and http://library.weber.edu/libinstruct/list.htm.

In conclusion, the overflow crowd enjoyed Hansen's presentation and based on the questions and discussion that followed found it very thought provoking and useful.