The Internet can be increasingly incorporated as a teaching tool at the college level. The field of political science is especially suited for using the Internet for teaching due to the large and ever-increasing volume of political information being placed online. Since most college campuses have an abundant supply of Internet-ready computers, students have ready access to the Internet. This essay is designed to show instructors some quick and easy ways to begin using the Internet as an effective teaching device.

PRELIMINARY STAGES

1. Setting Your Strategy and Goals

The Internet's potential as a teaching tool is a function of technology, selection of materials, and creative applications. There is a wealth of political information on the Internet in many user-friendly formats. The key is deciding what information will serve students best and then making sure that students know how to locate and use that information. The first step instructors should take when considering the Internet as part of their course is to conceptualize how using Internet will augment the goals of the course.

• Is the Internet going to be used as a primary resource, like a textbook, or is it a supportive tool that will be used sparingly?
• Will students have specific assignments requiring the use of the Internet, or will they simply be encouraged to use the Internet where it seems helpful for doing research?
• How will students' use of the Internet be evaluated or graded?

I have found that it is best to let students know right at the start that the Internet will be actively used in the course.

2. Getting Your Students Started

Students are required upon entering my classes to have access to the Internet and to have some basic familiarity in using the Internet for locating information and for sending and receiving email. I have found that making this clear at the beginning is important because it ensures that students have active computer accounts and that they develop strategies for getting on-campus access. Most of my students are commuters who need to familiarize themselves with the university computer system. By requiring Internet usage, I ensure that students prepare to do so in the first week, saving me many headaches later in the term.

Alerting the class right at the start also allows students uncomfortable with using the Internet to make themselves known to me so that I can get them started. Students that do not have access can also locate computer labs or other access points where the Internet is available.

To ensure that students have access and know how to use the Internet, there are many simple exercises that they can do. Have them visit your homepage or the homepage of your department and write a simple evaluation of its layout. Assign a simple essay exercise that they have to submit electronically. Ask them to locate a website oriented to politics and write an evaluation that they will share with the class during a class session. Have them examine the web site of a major institution, such as the White House or one of the cabinet agencies. These are but four examples of simple exercises that you can use to get students started. There are any number of simple exercises that you can create. Simply go online yourself and find something that you think would be of use or interest to your students. Then create an assignment where they have to find that bit of information or others like it. The important thing is to have a few exercises ready and to use them early in the course.

DEVELOPING USEFUL WEB EXERCISES

Students often claim that my political science course provides enough reading with the basic text(s) used in the course. My own experience with a variety of traditional introductory American government texts is that students may indeed suffer from information overload, without accounting for Internet-based information. So that students do not make negative associations with the Internet, I try to assign exercises that require more surfing than reading. I send students to locate simple information using a variety of sites rather than have them look for government reports and documents, which are often far too long and complex to occupy student interests. Two assignments I use with my students, one on the Congress and the other on the media, illustrate the kind of exercises I am describing.

I assign Internet-based exercises on a regular basis, at least once every two weeks. This ensures that students continue to practice using the Internet as well as recognize that Internet resources are available on every political science topic.

Overcoming Common Problems

Two main problems often come up when using the Internet in the classroom. The first is keeping the assignments focused while ensuring that students access the Internet broadly. The Internet contains thousands of sites devoted to political subjects. Each site may contain dozens or hundreds of links to related sites or pages. To avoid overloading your students and to discourage wasteful browsing, try to create assignments based on what you have found useful. I often start with a particular document or site and then work backwards. I try to create an assignment that will lead students to the target site. Usually, I also ask them to describe how they might have located that site using an alternative route, as well as to identify other sites they might examine to find similar information. In both cases, I am as interested in having the students conduct targeted searches as I am in having them locate the target document or site.

The second common problem is dealing with the "I can't find it" question. This question is related to the updated version of "my dog ate my homework," which is "my computer powered off while I was printing my paper and now it is lost." Students will often come to me complaining that the information I have asked for is unavailable. Since I create assignments backwards, starting with information I have already found, I know that this is not likely to be true. What is more likely is that either students have not looked carefully, or they do not know how to look. In either case, when a student says, "I can't find it," he or she is actually saying, "I need help." When assigning Internet exercises, be prepared for these requests and be patient. Most times students need either a gentle push in the right direction or a crash course on using the Internet.

I have found that students complaining that they cannot locate information are often suffering from a lack of Internet skills, which only comes out after we have discussed how they are searching for the information. For example, a student came to me and said that he could not find information about his Congressman. Since there are any number of places to locate information about members of Congress, I suspected that his problem was that he was unsure of how to look rather than that the information was unavailable. Therefore, I used the remainder of our meeting to walk him through the basic steps required to find the information he was looking for. In the process, I give him a basic lesson on using the Internet, which he admitted afterward was what he needed most.

USING THE INTERNET AS A COMMUNICATION TOOL

Instructors should also consider using the Internet for communication within the setting of the course. Instructors can construct newsgroups for their classes, or they can simply encourage students to use email for communicating back and forth with the professor or with classmates. For smaller classes or classes that are divided into small discussion groups, conferencing software such as Firstclass might be useful. Firstclass provides networking communication capabilities with a variety of class management tools. I will be using Firstclass for online discussions, homework, and general communication with my students. I use Firstclass to let them students know of relevant news programs and new books or movies, and to pose questions for them to consider. If a question is raised in class that I cannot answer, I can also use email to follow up on the question after I have researched it.

The Internet will continue to grow, providing greater opportunities for instructors with each passing day. Successful incorporation of the Internet into the classroom depends on providing the appropriate balance between structure and flexibility. Structure is provided by developing and using simple exercises that get students to use the Internet for a variety of simple tasks. Flexibility is provided by assigning students tasks with clear objectives while letting them develop and report their own strategies. The biggest mistake you can make as a professor regarding the Internet is to avoid using it at all. The second mistake is to use it in a way that limits its range and scope. Be creative and innovative, and most of all, let the students be their own guides as much as possible!