The crass commercialism of much of the Web can be off-putting: the advertisements, the get-rich-quick schemes, the porn lurking just around the next corner. Corporate Web sites are often glorified banner ads. It's a good idea to keep a tight grip on your credit card.
The original and still fundamental spirit of the Web, however, is one of co-operation, community spirit and, not least, creativity. It is, perhaps, in schools' Web sites that this original spirit is best seen at work.
Using Ireland On Line's free Web space, nearly 1000 Irish primary schools have established a Web presence. The list of schools can be seen in the Ednet directory at (www.iol.ie). Ednet was set up by Michael Hallissy and John Hurley, formerly of Scoil Mhuire, Lucan.
It will be revamped over the summer, enhancing its status as a central educational service.Primary school sites vary in size and sophistication but each one proudly announces an Irish school to the Web community - a few of the schools which caught the eye are listed in the Panel.Computimes found that the best sites are those where the children's own work is emphasised rather than the history of the school or of the locality. The art, poetry and special projects done by the children are full of energy and originality.
The best of all are those where the children's drawings and writing are scanned in and captured in all their colourful glory. Small rural schools are well represented on the list; it's not dominated by any geographical area or school size. A school may use FrontPage, Claris Home Page or raw HTML to set up their page; it's just a means to an end. Kathryn Crowley the IT Official of the INTO emphasises that the opportunity to see his or her own work on the Web is a boost for a child's self-esteem; Their work can be displayed for a long time on the Web site and is accessible by family and friends and any passing browser.
Kathryn also mentioned two ways in which the Internet can be used by schools in a creative way. A co-operative newsletter is produced by the West Dublin Teachers Support Group: each of 15 schools contributes an article to be used in the newsletters of the other schools; in this way, 15 newsletters are produced every few weeks, using Desk Top Publishing software of course.
The same group has pioneered the "rotating story": each school adds a new paragraph to the story as it evolves organically - a great use for email.
The INTO is committed to using computers to support the curriculum, not for the "wow factor" of technology itself. Jennifer O'Connell of the North Dublin National School Project, which was the first school to have a Web page, stresses the need for all teachers to participate in the use of computers and thus to integrate computers into the daily school routine.
Teachers, using the support networks they have set up, assess educational software strictly on the basis of whether it supports teaching of the curriculum; it's a mature, practical view of using computers, no nerd or geek need apply. An ongoing EU-funded project, named CABIT, piloted last year, has produced a 20-hour online teacher's manual.
Another initiative is the INTO/Telecom Eireann Information Age Magnet project, taking place this summer also; it will use tutorials in selected venues across the country to instruct teachers from 49 schools (34 initially) in `IT skills necessary for curriculum teaching'.
If you're nervous of video-conferencing at work, consider that some of our primary school puplis are already familiar with it. The Classroom of the Future, linked to Telecom Eireann's Information Age schools initiative and developed by Broadcom R&D company (jointly owned by Telecom Eireann, Ericssons, and TCD) involves 10 selected schools linking up using video-conferencing technology. Some schools use their own brand of video-conferencing, e.g. with CU-See Me software.
Jennifer O'Connell says that video-conferencing can suit children who are not adept at writing; they can act out stories instead.
Primary school computing is developing at a rapid pace, supported by dedicated teachers and group initiatives such as those mentioned. We've come so far that the children's folk tales of Scoil Mhuire, Lucan's Web site are used by other schools to teach Irish legends and a treasure trove of multimedia and interactive resources is maintained by Mayo primary teacher, Seaghan Moriarty at Teacher's Pets, www.homepage.tinet.ie/ seaghan. It's all a far cry from the days of a little BBC Micro standing forlornly in the corner of the classroom.