Web-Based Learning in K-12 Classrooms: Opportunities and Challenges

Make sure your students get the most from their online learning experiences

Even though nearly every K-12 public school in the United States has broadband Internet access,
the Web’s vast potential as a teaching and learning tool has still not been realized. Web-based learning opportunities have been expensive, slow to develop, and time-consuming to implement, despite pressure on schools to adopt technology solutions that will cure their educational ills. Web-Based Learning in K-12 Classrooms: Opportunities and Challenges chronicles the up and downs of online learning and offers unique insights into its future, providing a comprehensive, curriculum-wide treatment of K-12 content areas (reading, science, mathematics, social studies), special education, counseling, virtual schools, exemplary schools, implementation issues, and educational Web sites.

The Internet represents a powerful, complex set of technologies that offers your students access to unlimited knowledgebut that access doesn’t replace the human interactions found in classrooms. Placing a student in front of a computer monitor is a supplement to classroom learning, not a substitute for it. Academics and education professionals address questions surrounding the key issues involved in successfully incorporating the wide range of Web-based learning opportunities (formal courses, demonstrations, simulations, collaborations, searches) into the classroom, including technology, content, and implementation.

Web-Based Learning in K-12 Classrooms examines:

• inquiry-based learning
  
• online interaction
  
• displaying student work online
  
• Internet accessibility for students with disabilities
  
• initiating school counselors into e-learning technologies
  
• the role of government in virtual schools
  
• Web-based schools in California, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Texas
  
• a 13-category classification system for online educational resources
  
• the ATLAS model for program implementation
  
• evaluations of more than 1,000 pieces of online information (articles, research, reports, news, and statistics) and 900 Web applications (tutorials, drills, games, and tests) with evaluation criteria

Web-Based Learning in K-12 Classrooms is a vital resource for educators interested in online learning applications across the K-12 curriculum.

Jay Blanchard,, James Marshall