What it is: Welcome to the Web is an interactive website that teaches students all about the Internet through challenges and activities. There are seven sections of activities and learning on Welcome to the Web. The first section teaches students how to use the site. Section 2 teaches students about the basic concepts involved in the Internet, it also gives some valuable practice navigating and visiting websites. Section 3 is all about staying safe online by following SMART rules, student understanding is tested using interactive activities and fun quizzes. Section 4 helps students learn more about their web browser and its features. In section 5 students will learn how to search effectively and safely in search engines. Section 6 helps students understand copyright. The last section invites students to compete in a challenge that requires them to use all of the skills they learned to catch the creator of a computer virus. When the challenge has been completed, students can print out a certificate of completion. Each section of this site comes with accompanying worksheets to be used with the site. These don’t have to be used in order to use the site effectively. Throughout the site, students can ‘hover’ the mouse over an underlined word and a definition will pop up.
How to integrate Welcome to the Web into the classroom: Welcome to the Web is an excellent road map to the Internet. Every computer lab should use Welcome to the Web to help students understand the Internet and use it effectively. The way the site is broken down into sections is extremelly helpful for a computer lab setting where students may not be able to get through the entire site in one day. Start each class for 7 periods with Welcome to the Web. If you don’t have a computer lab, students can learn about the web as a class using an interactive whiteboard or projector. Encourage all students to participate on the journey. Make a big deal of completing all of the sections on this site. I like to make my students an Internet Driver’s licenses when they have shown their understanding of Internet safety rules. This would be a great site to tie into other computer lessons!
Tips: Welcome to the Web is part of Mark Warner’s excellent site Teaching Ideas.
Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Welcome to the Web in your classroom.
