Dr. David Raker Education Department Westfield State College Westfield, Ma 01086 413.572.5293 draker@foma.wsc.ma.edu

Dr. Jamie Callan School of Computer Science Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, Pa 15213 412.268.4525

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~callan/k12/

As more and more schools become "wired", educators and parents are looking to the Internet to become a more powerful tool for student learning. The reality of this can be seen in classrooms and libraries across this country as computers take the place of more traditional resources and important learning time is shifted to student interaction with on-line information. In addition, hardly a newspaper is printed, it seems, where the impact of and the hopes for computer related learning are not detailed. What is often lost in all the euphoria, however, is how students will learn to utilize these new resources and become effective consumers of electronic media. To accomplish these tasks students must be provided guidance and training as they explore the Internet and in turn utilize the information they find.

Project K-12 Search is an existing cooperative effort of Westfield State College and Carnegie Mellon University that provides K-12 teachers with technology training, classroom lesson plans, information resources, and content to teach elementary-school children these new electronic literacy skills. The project is currently funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), and project results have been very promising. Early success has shown that, with time and effort, students can grasp project related concepts and, in the end, are more effective consumers of Internet related information. As of this writing, approximately 50 classroom teachers and over 1000 students have been, or are currently involved in the project.

Project K12-Search resources consist of student lessons that help foster information literacy skills and a new type of Internet search engine interface that was developed to meet the specific needs and concerns of K-12 educators.

Three primary objectives give guidance to the project:

• To develop strategies that will help students better understand what the Internet is and how it works. (ISTE Standard: 1.1)
• To explore guided learning opportunities that will help students better find, evaluate, and utilize Internet resources. (ISTE Standards: 2.2, 3.1, 5.1, 5.3)
• To develop an Internet search engine that will better help students find and explore age and content appropriate materials throughout the Internet. (ISTE Standards: 1.2, 2.2, 3.1, 5.1, 5.3)

Lesson Plans

Project lessons were developed to introduce a number of Internet related topics which reflect and lead to the realization of the Project Objectives. Each lesson utilizes a dynamic, hands-on approach to learning and both student and teacher assessment is stressed throughout. Finally, many of the lessons require little or no actual Internet access. This allows schools with no or slow Internet connections to still introduce important electronic media based topics to their students.

* Please see our web-site for additional details: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~callan/k12/

K12-Search Engine Interface

The project search tool includes a new graphical user interface developed exclusively for K-12 schools and their specific needs. The interface guides students through the process of formulating and describing their information needs. The intent is to let children express their information needs in English, have the software transform it into a complex structured query, and pass it off to the Web search engine. Returned results are organized automatically, using clustering and machine learning techniques. Simply put, the K12-Search interface makes it easier to locate relevant and age-appropriate material on the Internet.

The sequence of lesson plans along with the unique attributes of the K12-Search engine combine to provide very powerful tools to teachers interested in integrating the effective use of the Internet into their classroom curriculum.

Specifically, the K12-Search presentation will include a demonstration of the various lesson plans and search attributes of the software illustrated above. In addition, particulars of how K12-Search materials and tools were developed will be described. Lastly, results of our experiences in schools will be shared.

Session attendees (particularly elementary and middle school educators) who have considered or are now using the Internet in school will have the opportunity to explore the new lesson plans, see K12-Search software in action, and examine how far the project has moved ahead in it's third year.

Project K12-Search is a joint effort of the Language Technologies Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, the Westfield State College Education Department, Javanet, and Merriam-Webster Inc. K12-Search is funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, Library of Congress, and Department of Commerce (award IIS-0096139 and cooperative agreement EEC-9209623).

Appeared in The Proceedings of the 2001 National Educational Computing Conference, June 25-27, 2001, Chicago.