Book details of 'Net Lessons: Web-Based Projects for Your Classroom'

Title	Net Lessons: Web-Based Projects for Your Classroom
Author(s)	Laura Parker Roerden, Sheryl Avruch
ISBN	1565922913
Language	English
Published	March 1997
Publisher	O'Reilly & Associates

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Reviewer Rob Slade wrote:
Doing Internet training, you will find lots of books (and people) that tell you to promote the Internet to the audience because you can use the net to find out everything you want to know about volcanoes. Trouble is, most people don't want to know all that much about volcanoes (or any other single topic). ("So what about this book?" Patience, patience.) As a card-carrying (RAVC, mostly) member of the computer antivirus research community, I, like my colleagues, see endless postings with queries along the lines of, "So, can you tell me everything about computer viruses?" These questions, for some unfathomable reason, seem to show up in great flurries around October or February. ("The book?" Yes, yes, I'm coming to that.) Let me say that I am, first and foremost, a teacher. I have waded through dozens of tomes on technology directed at the education market. Most of them are of poor quality, lacking in understanding of the basics of that which they presume to teach, long on enthusiasm, and very short on useful information. So, I was delighted to see "Net Lessons" from O'Reilly. These are the people who can make a good book out of the use of the net by real estate agents. I was a tad startled to find that the CD-ROM included with the book was an America Online starter kit. This book is lacking in the basics of the technology, long on enthusiasm, and short on useful information. "Not so!", its defenders will cry. "This is a compilation of unit plans! Nothing is of more value to teachers!" Yes, it *is* a compilation of unit plans. Some of them may be of value to you if you are in a bind for time, and your class is already familiar with the net. Those queries for help? Almost every unit plan involves a "Call for Collaborators". Most of them are simply collaborative work on a large scale, using email penpals. Internet Research resources are skimpy, perhaps one per unit. Some of the units have no appreciable net involvement: "Letters to Felix" throws in email sharing of stories as an afterthought, and doesn't say whom you would share them with. The early chapters of the book laud the Web, but cite "success stories" that use email. The plans will require lots of outside preparation in a variety of fields, and the use of the Internet is hardly central to any. (Some may object to that statement, since email plays a central role in a great many plans. Yes, email is used, but it could be replaced by mail, and dozens of plans are really only variations on the "write to your penpals about.." theme.) Sorry, this is not the ultimate net education book. Maybe, though, it simply isn't possible. The Internet is the ultimate discovery learning resource. It doesn't do well on worksheets. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1997
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