Critical Thinking and the Internet: Opportunities for the Social Studies Classroom

Using the Internet to Create Primary Source Teaching Packets

“…The open-ended information found en mane on the Internet tends to bypass such filters. That places the responsibility for critical evaluation squarely on the shoulders of the classroom teacher and makes it imperative that teacher and student become practiced in how to evaluate materials gleaned from the Internet (Eaton 1999; Shiveley and VanFossen 1999). The selection of one's own primary source documents from the Internet also presents the task of packaging the material in a contextually accurate manner.…”

The Internet and Information Literacy: Taking the First Step toward Technology Education in the Social Studies

“…He stated, "We are driven to fill our lives with the quest to 'access' information." The Internet has quickly become n primary conduit for students' acquisition of information, but instant access and nearly unlimited quantities of information are the Internet's primary drawbacks (Shiveley and VanFossen 1999). The ephemeral nature of the Internet and its plethora of Web sites plunge many students into a "surfing mode:' which results in a significant investment of time with few actual results.…”

Pre‐service elementary teachers’ beliefs about use of the Internet in the social studies classroom

“…Likewise, according to current data provided by the Turkish Ministry of National Education, 86% of high schools and 45% of elementary schools have high-speed Internet access in Turkey, which provides Internet access for 10 million students through 300,000 computers The increasing availability of access to the Internet in schools has lead scholars to study the use of the Internet in social studies education. Many researchers (see Bennett and Pye 1999;Larson 1999;Shiveley and VanFossen 1999;Cassutto 2000;Dils 2000;Hicks et al 2002;Hicks and Ewing 2003) in the field of social studies education emphasise the role of the Internet in gathering written and visual information, which helps students to acquire multiple and global perspectives, think, analyse, synthesise and make informed decisions.…”