Module 1: What's out there?

Categorising Internet sites

Categorising Internet sites for classroom use
M1 Task 2 - Using categories
Other ways of categorising sites

In this section, you will be able to think about various ways of categorising Internet sites for classroom use, according to their content or other criteria. Methods of evaluating sites for quality are covered in Module 2.

Categorising Internet sites for classroom use

The sites you have been looking at are quite varied. Some are directly related to classroom activities and some are not.

M1 Task 2 - Using categories Categorise the Internet sites in Task 1 according to the following: background information that could be useful for curriculum development; curriculum outlines, materials or instructions addressed to teachers; learning sequences or instructions intended for students to read. You can print out a form to help you do this (M1 Task 2 Proforma). Here are some suggested categorisations using some of the sites from Task 1 (M1 Task 2 Suggestions).

Other ways of categorising sites

More comprehensive ways of categorising Internet sites have been devised. One that you might find interesting is provided by Blue Web'n. It is part of the Knowledge Network Explorer (http://www.kn.pacbell.com/index.html) and is 'a library of blue ribbon learning sites on the Web'. Have a look at the Blue Web'n categories at A Quick Definition of Application Types (http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/apptypes.html).

If you have time, investigate a few of their links and see how many relate to the study of Visual Arts.