Nettlesworth on the Net

Teething Troubles
Our experiences with the Internet began two years ago when we were asked by the LEA to trial Internet use in our primary school. We were provided with a modem, an RM Internet for Learning account and software to use on our A5000 computer.
     I had had some experience of surfing the web at a local university which was connected by cable and was convinced of its value for teaching and learning and was therefore very keen to get started.
    But this was when our problems began and we soon discovered why some people called it the World Wide Wait. The machine was not fast enough and the software was poor and therefore it would take up to ten minutes to download a site. Staff who had been very excited at first soon became disenchanted when they realised how much time they were wasting waiting for the sites to load. One mention of the word Internet and everyone used to run and hide with talk of books to mark, displays to put up, drawers to tidy etc.
    However the headteacher and I persevered with the equipment we had, downloading sites for children to browse off-line and caching sites to speed up access for the children. This practice continued for about one year until we acquired a stand alone RM Window Box PC. 


A Solution

In May of 1997 the PC was set up in my classroom and connected to the Internet via a modem with a dedicated phone line. This was when our use of the Internet really took off, access was much quicker and the software much more user friendly. There was also no problem with tying up the school phone line as the line used was free all day purely for Internet use. The Internet became an integral part of topic planning within the two junior classes and was used as a planning resource by all staff.
    We also established e-mail links with schools worldwide and began creating work to be published on the school's web site. The Net Club meets once a week after school and is attended by children from years 5 and 6 who are learning how  to write Internet web pages.
 


The School Web Site

 
In March of 1997 I started the first web pages at home on my PC. I surfed around to find what was out there to get ideas for my approach and then began to write. At first I wrote these from code copying tags and elements from a magazine article and studying other people's pages to get some idea of web anatomy and page construction. I was amazed by how easy it was and how good things looked as I improved my skills.
    Then I discovered Netscape Gold a WYSIWYG editor which made life much easier. Writing web pages became a hobby of mine and the site began to grow and grow.
    Earlier in the year the school entered the Microsoft Roads Ahead Competition and was given a complimentary copy of Front Page 98 which I now use to write my pages. It is simple to use and allows you to experiment with dynamic HTML and to add lots of exciting features to your pages without having to understand the technicalities.
    The school web site is an excellent advert for us. It provides us with a chance to share our work with the world and provides the children with a vast real audience for their achievements. We have made friends from all over the world and have received e-mail messages from present and past pupils and other schools and organisations who have visited our site.
 

Our ICT Page