Lesson Plan: Defining the Internet

Lesson Plan

Before Exploring

Ask the students to write a short paragraph that describes what they think the internet is. Have a sampling of students read out their responses. Brainstorm and record a list of all the things for which students use the internet. Tell the students that they will be creating a collage illustrating what the internet is and how it is tied into our daily lives.

Outline the Opportunity

Have students pair up and visit the topic Inventing the Internet Age on the CBC Digital Archives website.  Have them first review the additional clips "Peter Gzowski learns to surf" and "Year of the Internet" and then view the clips titled "Envisioning a global network", "'A computer network called Internet'", "Free for all", and "The internet goes multimedia".  Students record notes to define the internet, who uses it, and where and why people use it. Partners then organize their results into categories of their choice and create a visual display, such as a web or a collage, to summarize their findings.

Revisit and Reflect

Post the displays in the class and have each pair of students explain the rationale for their method of summarizing their results.

Extension

Students write a synopsis defining the internet and describing how it has become integrated into our lives.