The educational and curricular use of internet in primary education : a case study

Abstract

As we are moving towards an era where information technology is being emphasized more than ever before, we thought of analyzing the importance of Internet especially in the educational area. Our study is based on literature review, questionnaires for teachers and a case study which is aimed to launch the use of Internet in schools to improve the outcome of teaching and learning. After giving a brief idea of what Internet is and how it works, we argued that Internet is changing_ several societies around the world, no exception being Malta. The authors focused mainly on Internet in the classrooms and also tackled a local example of a primary state school which is aiming to use Internet as a new resource. This study draws the importance for the use of Internet as a method of facilitating learning, which gives course material to teachers to adopt a new methodology. Nevertheless, our research has shown that apart from teachers and pupils Internet can also be used in school administration, by heads of schools, librarians and school councils. Furthermore, importance was given to content filtering as children are able to access all type of information. Consequently, this leads us to point out the aims and objectives including its strengths and weaknesses, emphasizing the launching of Internet in Maltese schools. This will enhance an improvement in the students' learning_ outcomes and ultimately will provide successful integration within the curriculum.