A study of emerging teacher practices in internet-based lesson plan development

In this paper we describe two aspects of an Internet-based lesson plan development project called “Science On-Line-Earth and Space Science for the Classroom.” First, we discuss the design of the Science On-Line (SOL) Project, which focuses on building a community of practice, appropriate task and setting, and contact with the scientific workplace. Second, we examine strategies teachers used as they approached the task of creating Internet-based science lesson plans for the World Wide Web. Based on the analysis of data gathered during the various project phases, results show that the teacher-developed strategies have varying degrees of effectiveness in facilitating Internet-based lesson plan design, information-gathering, and organization. We describe how the strategies began to evolve into formulated practices for Internet-based lesson development within the SOL teacher community. The SOL investigation develops a case study of the strategies and emerging practices in the context of the creation and pilot-testing of Internet-based lesson plans. This case study may serve as an exemplar of tested Internet-based lesson development strategies and practices for the educational community.