1. Use of the Internet

Here at ASIJ Elementary School, we have adopted�gresource based�hteaching. This means we no longer use textbooks to define the content we teach the students. Instead, we identify broad subject areas for each grade level. Using fourth grade as an example: all students study the Middle East, China, Japan, and the USA for social studies. In science, fourth graders study simple machines, cells, forces within the earth, and weather.

With no textbooks, where do the students get the information to study and learn? This is Where�gresource based�heducation come in. We use books from our library, books from classroom book collections, CD-ROM disks, and increasingly, the Internet. Every fourth grade student has used the Internet to find information on some or all of the above general topics this year.

To assist students in finding�ggood�hInternet sites that contain information relevant to the subject at hand, the teachers and the Technology Specialist work together to find good sites prior to having the students begin their search. Then the teachers and/or Technology Specialist create local (on a network server) web pages containing links to these sites. When the students begin finding information they are assured of finding pre-screened Internet sites with relevant information. In essence, the Internet takes the place of textbooks. There is even an Internet page that includes room for all the potential links needed. This is a�gcurriculum links page�h

(http://www.asij.ac.jp/elementary/links/currlink.htm)

There are advantages to using the Internet as an information resource. First, even with the sites pre-screened, the reading level varies, as does the presumption of audience. This means the students are practicing dealing with�greal world�hinformation. Textbooks are carefully written and edited to be easy for students to read and understand. The real world is not so kind.

Second, students are exposed to the concept of primary versus secondary sources of information. Dealing with primary sources of information requires much higher degree of intellectual functioning. ASIJ Elementary is also committed to having students use analysis, synthesis, and evaluation in addition to simply knowing and understanding. Using the Internet as a resource allows ASIJ to meet that goal more easily. The only drawback to resource based education is that the content learned may vary from class to class or even within a classroom. Students studying China, for instance, will not all come away with the same knowledge base about China after study. At ASIJ, this is acknowledged as an outcome of the Information Age, where more and more information is being created and it is being disseminated faster and faster.

In addition to using pre-screened sites for students to use as information resources, the students in grades three through five are also instructed in how to choose search terms (key words) with which to search at search engines such as Yahoo, Alta Vista, or Hotbot. This can be frustrating for students because no one can predict what a given search term will produce in terms of results. However, having students identify key words and learn the simple Boolean terms of AND and OR is another way to encourage students to engage in higher order thinking skills.

All the above represents use of the Internet as an information resource. At ASIJ, the Internet is also viewed as a place to publish some student work. Every grade level from first grade to fifth has created some web stack that is on the Internet site. The web stacks vary from first grade Australian Animals, to second gradeĠs Material World, Japanese Cultural Dictionary, Poem rewriting, Earth Week project, and JapanĠs Geography. Third grade created a choose-your-own-adventure story with the rain forest as a setting. Fourth grade created a stack detailing a visit to a Japanese school. Fifth grade created stacks on the American Revolution and light and optics.

2. Problem and Results

An partial listing of Internet usage at ASIJ Elementary would include: first grade finding information on Australian animals, second graders finding information on fish, Africa, and Japan, third graders finding information on animals of the polar regions and information on rain forests, fourth graders finding information on volcanoes and earthquakes, the Middle East, China, and Japan, and fifth graders finding information on light and optics, indigenous peoples, and the Oregon trail.

In addition, many web stacks were published. The web editor of choice was Microsoft Front Pad (Frontpage Express) which comes free with Internet Explorer 4.0. Every grade level produced one or more stacks that were published on the ASIJ Internet site.

The World Wide Web has become more and more appropriate for use as a resource at ASIJ. In conjunction with the library, resource based teaching is becoming easier and easier.

Unfortunately, the World Wide Web also includes many sites students shouldn�ft see for one reason or another. In order to use the Internet as a resource, constant supervision needs to be employed. Students can very innocently stumble into pornographic sites or silly personal pages that use a word in a comic way�gSakura�has a search term can find sites about sakura festivals both here and in the USA. But,�gsakura�halso is used in a number of pornographic sites here in Japan.

3. 100 Schools Project

ASIJ Elementary school is an international school with 450 students. Some 43 nationalities are represented among the student body. All instruction takes place in English, however, and an American curriculum is used. We use PCs with English systems and this makes it very difficult to communicate with other schools in the 100 Schools Project. Converting text from JIS format to ASCII and back and then translating from Japanese to English and back is often too much of a barrier to communication. Therefore, regretably, ASIJ Elementary school has had a minimum contact with other schools in the project.