By doing so, teachers will be well on their way to having students develop critical thinking and problem solving skills. It is true that teachers have always had students do this kind of task with print material. Students can develop written communication skills readily by using the Web too. The argument is that when students have a real audience to write to and have a purpose in writing to that audience, they will be more conscious of their vocabulary, syntax, and grammar. Teachers who design projects or assignments that incorporate this feature of the Web will be giving their students an ideal opportunity to develop their writing skill.
Teachers can also foster development of collaborative skills with the Web.
This is typically done by structuring group projects where members are in different geographic locations, yet have a common goal to reach or problem to solve. The Birkbeck College Principles of Protein course is illustrative, as an example of how collaborative projects can be structured. For K-12 students, many global collaborative projects exist. All rely on e-mail as the underlying Internet tool, although the Web is fast becoming the starting point and location for archives of global discussions. A recent visit to the Web site revealed the announcement for Blue Print Earth, a collaborative project where students were challenged to invent social and political scenarios to make the Earth a better place to live for future generations.