You can enhance the following activities from the Instructor's Resource Manual by incorporating the resources available on the World Wide Web.

Subject-centered and Student-centered Curriculum

The Instructor's Resource Manual suggests making this assignment to students:
For each of the different types of curricular formats described in the chapter, give examples of courses or programs that school districts have used. If possible, gather sample curriculum guides that are representative of these subject-centered or student-centered formats.

Your students can visit web sites of school districts, individual schools or state departments of education to collect curriculum materials:

American School Directory
This directory links to the web sites of 108,000 K-12 schools. Users must search by name of school.

National Center for Education Statistics
The NCES "School District Locator" can help you contact schools districts to request their curriculum guides.

State Departments of Education
State departments of education may create statewide curriculum guides or standards. ERIC provides a handy map-based way to link to all of the state departments of education.

Instructional Innovations

The Instructor's Resource Manual suggests:

• Provide examples of how some local districts are using the instructional innovations described in the chapter. Ask district personnel to identify what they consider to be innovative practices underway in their district. With the students, critique the strengths and weaknesses of these innovations.
• Have a specialist in instructional media and educational technology report to the class and, if possible, demonstrate the latest developments in instructional technologies. Afterward, write a reaction paper in which you discuss what you liked or disliked about the new approaches. Would these technologies be helpful to you in teaching your subject specialization? Why or why not?

You can reach schools, school districts, or state departments of education via the sites listed above for obtaining curriculum materials. If you do not have access to a specialist in instructional media or educational technology, consider assigning students to do research on recent developments. There is a huge amount of information available on the web. Some places to start include:

AskERIC
AskERIC offers small collections of well-chosen resources for a variety of topics related to educational technology, including multimedia education, instructional planning, computers, and more.

Schrock Guide
Several sections in Kathy Schrock's immense collection of education links can help students find information about trends in technology.

Teach for Tomorrow
This site is intended to promote innovative uses of educational technology. Users must register.

Educational Technology Journals
This is a linked list of academic journals reviewed by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Instructional Technology.