n. Curriculum planning consists of two components: the content and the process for its delivery. The WWW provides teachers with new ways to deliver instruction as well as new resources for content. This study identified three broad dimensions of the WWW as a resource for curriculum.
Curriculum guidance. The WWW is a ready reference for National, State, and Local Education Standards and/or frameworks. Four categories were identified for this dimension: National Mathematics and Science Education Standards; mathematics standards which emphasize problem solving, communication, reasoning, and relationships; new science curriculum which emphasizes concepts, theories, ideas, inquiry, and interrelationships; and State Education Standards that provide local interpretation of the National Education Standards.
Curriculum support. The WWW can support a variety of instructional classroom strategies. Four categories of curriculum support were identified:
Curriculum resources. The WWW offers many types of curriculum resources that support classroom teaching. Two categories were identified:
All dimensions assessed in the report are critical to the success of the integration of the WWW in the classroom. The importance of the dimensions may shift as the WWW grows in popularity in the classroom and other learning environments.
Web-based NASA educational materials (NASA Dryden Flight Research Center materials and also Web-based educational materials from other NASA Centers) were reviewed to classify the type of materials that are available to K-12 teachers and their students for their benefit.
Databases included sources of current data that students can manipulate and examine to learn about scientific concepts. These include
Information and resources refer to text, pictures, and staff available to help teachers gain information. The following types of information and resources were found:
Lesson plans are prepared learning activities that can be used in classrooms. They were grouped by grade levels: K-4, 5-8, and 9-12.
Projects refer to ventures between teachers and students and NASA staff or data.
Student activities refer to interactive games and manipulatives provided for student use and were grouped by grade levels: K-4, 5-8, and 9-12.
A tool refers to a software program that can expand one's WWW "surfing" skills and includes search engines and downloading tools.
References and links refer to NASA and non-NASA Web sites that are hyperlinked to NASA sites.
A tutorial refers to a Web-based lesson for teachers or students.
The most critical dimensions are lesson plans because they are written in a style that is easily infused into the curriculum and therefore reach the students quickly; student activities because they also are easily infused into the classroom; and databases because they allow teachers to search large bodies of information to find what they need to supplement their own curriculum.
Incorporating Web-based lessons and activities is one way teachers can utilize computer technology to enhance learning. In reported best practices, teachers are using the WWW to facilitate learning through collaborative activities with individuals inside and outside the classroom. These teachers are challenging students to use the WWW to research content areas that support lesson goals. Students also are using the WWW to create new or manipulate existing data to support lesson objectives.
The goal of this assessment was to identify best practices of Web-based instruction and learning. The research included looking at how the WWW was being used as well as reviewing examples of lessons and sites being accessed. The findings suggest that there are several ways that teachers are using the World Wide Web to enhance the learning environment and implement instructional activities.
Use of the WWW during instruction. This dimension focused on how teachers used the WWW in their lessons. The WWW may be used as the sole delivery mechanism for the lesson or it may be used as a collaboration tool to share experiment results with other students completing experi