University of Nebraska at Omaha

Social studies and economics teachers will find useful economics information readily available on the Internet at World Wide Web and Gopher sites. Less well known are the economics lesson plans and other resources for K-12 economics teachers, including economics activities such as game simulations for students, offered on the Web. For example, consider the interactive civics site at UC-Berkeley's Center for Community Economic Research (CCER). Here students can experiment with the on-line National Federal Budget Simulator that lets them become an economic advisor to the President (or Congress).1  They can try their hand at balancing the U.S. budget by changing the expenditures for specific government programs or by changing taxes of various kinds, providing a classroom opportunity to discuss the roles of government in the economy. Expenditures, taxes, transfer payments, public goods, fiscal policy, the costs and benefits of various government activities, opportunity costs of taxation, and other issues can be explored. The actual U.S. budget is also available to be graphed and studied along with the students' proposed changes.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss some of the economics and social science materials available on the Web, and to suggest some ways to use this information in the K-l2 classroom.2  It is not our purpose, nor is it possible in this paper, to provide technical details on the Web. However, it is appropriate to provide an overview (Section 2) and to mention some helpful sources of technical information. If any information source has grown as rapidly as the Internet and the Web itself, it is the books and magazines covering its use. Section 3 discusses economics information and resources for teachers available on the Web, Section 4 shows curricular resources available, and Section 5 suggests some ways to use these resources in the classroom. In Section 6, we conclude and discuss possible future directions of the Web.

Since its rudimentary beginnings in 1991 at CERN (European Laboratory for Particle Physics) in Geneva Switzerland, the global network of hypertext documents known as the World Wide Web (or just Web) and the browser software used to access them have been called the “killer app” of the Internet. The Internet is a global network of computers, or more appropriately, network of networks of computers. Information can be exchanged in a variety of ways on the Internet, for examples, e-mail, direct file transfers, and most recently the Web.

A Web page is a “hypertext” document, which means there are embedded links to other sections in the same document or to other Web pages external to the document. For example, a Web page, as it appears on a monitor, might consist of a bullet list of links to sources of economic information. The links are “hot spots” on the screen, and usually appear highlighted or in different colors. A mouse click on this “hot spot” takes the reader from the current page to the linked page, which could be located at the same site or at a site on the other side of the world.

Web browsers, such as Netscape and Mosaic, are the software used to read and navigate the Web. Netscape is available (free to educators) at hffp://netscape.com, and Mosaic at hffp://www.ora.com. Most on-line services such as America On-Line, Compuserve, and Prodigy, as well as local access providers, also furnish Internet and Web software tools. Web browsers are very easy to use and do not require heavy learning time. Numerous books about the Web and browsers are available in libraries and the computer sections of bookstores(for example, Branwyn, 1995a, 1995b; December and Randall, 1994; Pfaffenberger, 1995; Turlington, 1995). Turlington’s Walking the World Wide Web (1995), or for more detail, December and Randall’s The World Wide Web Unleashed (1994) are excellent books for getting started. Addresses for numerous interesting Web sites are included in all of these books, but in addition, specialty books are published just to provide addresses (e.g., Hahn and Stout, 1995).

Since most of the resources discussed in the remainder of the paper are on the Web, a brief introduction to Web addressing standards might be useful. However, we emphasize that most Internet ‘’surfing’’ seldom requires the addresses to be typed or remembered. The reasons are, first, that links in the documents take you from site to site with a mouse click, and second, that browsers have a feature called “bookmarks,” which permit you to add the address of a site to a list that will always be available to you with a mouse click.

Internet addresses are referred to as URLs, or Uniform Resource Locators. These URLs specify the type and location of Internet resources. When used in Web pages in the form of links to other documents, URLs inform the Web browser what the document is, and where and how to retrieve it. An example should help to clarify this. The address of EcEdWeb is http://ecedweb.unomaha.edu/. In this address, the term http says to use the HyperText Transport Protocol, the Web protocol for transmitting a hypertext document. The rest of the address gives the location of the document. The domain name is unicron.unomaha.edu. This specifies that the server is the computer unicron at unomaha (University of Nebraska at Omaha) which is an educational institution (.edu) in the U.S. Addresses in other countries have a country code in place of .edu, such as .ja for Japan, .ca for Canada. Other institutional categories you can recognize in the U.S. are government as .gov, commercial sites as .com, and non-commercial organizations as .org. The remainder of the EcEdWeb address is the file location and name on the specified machine, i.e. subdirectory dept, subdirectory econ, filename econed.htm. Most filenames end in .html (or .htm, depending on the operating system of the server) to indicate a document written in hypertext markup language.

Although Web exploration can be done without typing in URLs, occasionally you will be given an address to explore and will want to tell your browser software where to look. You can use the menus, for example in Netscape, to select File then Open Location and type in any valid hppt://... address. URLs should be typed in exactly as specified. Since most Internet computers are running the UNIX operating system, addresses are upper- and lower-case sensitive. Duplication of the exact capitalization provided is crucial.

The Internet has numerous Webs and Gophers with economics and other social science (particularly government), information. Since rapid change is a characteristic of the Web, the pages discussed will probably have more and different links by the time you investigate them. This section will focus on economics information, and will begin our journey through the major links at the siteEcEdWeb (http://unicron.unomaha.edu/dept/econ/econed.htm.) This page at this address provides links to the following additional Web pages of information, also located at unomaha:

• Economics Resources for Teachers

• Links to Other Economic Education Sites

• Links to General Economics Information and Data

• Links to Information on Funding Sources

• Economic Education in Nebraska

To locate economics information, click on item three, Links to General Economics Information and Data. The first section of this Web page consists of links to major economics sites, and will be of interest to economics and social studies teachers.5  Look for the following list of information and

• Resources for Economists on the Internet by Goffe.

Bill Goffe’s current hypertext guide has links to all known economic information on the Internet (Goffe, 1994). To use this guide, click on the site or type of information you want. The first click takes you to a section of the Goffe document that describes this site. Within or following his description, there is a link to the site itself. Thus you can go to any economics location from the Goffe pages. Goffe also describes the economics listserv discussion groups on the Internet (PolEcon, Femecon, Tch-econ, Econ-ed, etc.), along with the addresses to join. (Listservs are e-mail discussion groups that require signing on with an e-mail address to participate.)

• Sam Houston State University Gopher.

George Greenwade maintains the largest and most comprehensive Gopher source for economics information. From this list of over 150 items, most of the economics material on the Internet can be reached. This site also archives the discussions of the listserv Pol-Econ, a group which has very interesting debates on economics issues.

• Economic Bulletin Board: Department of Commerce Gopher (from University of Michigan).

The Department of Commerce provides a data source for the statistics published in Current Business Statistics and Survey of Current Business. The University of Michigan downloads these data and provides the files at no cost in a Gopher site on the Internet. These data come in several different forms, and information on file formats is also available on the Michigan Gopher. Teachers use this information source to get the latest government economic data, for example, unemployment rates, inflation rates, or GDP, when preparing for classes.

• Fed World Information Network

FedWorld is the U.S. Government online information source, introduced by National Technical Information Service (NTIS). According to its description, “It provides a comprehensive central access point for locating and acquiring government information. The goal of NTIS FedWorld is to provide a one-stop location for the public to locate, order and have delivered to them, U.S. Government information.”

• World Bank WWWServer

The World Bank Home Page has information about the Bank activities in various countries around the world.

• Bureau of Labor Statistics LABSTAT

The Bureau of Labor Statistics public database, LABSTAT, provides current and historical data for 26 surveys of labor market and related conditions, and press releases.

• Federal Reserve Board

This directory contains data on money supply, interest rates, flow of funds tables, industrial production and capacity utilization, and other data from the Federal Reserve Board.

• Social Science Information Gateway Gopher

Worldwide Social Science Resources and U.K. based resources are both provided here. This is a searchable (by keyword) gateway for social science topics.

• U. S. Bureau of the Census Home Page

This server provides a huge amount of information on population, households, economic indicators, sectors in the economy, Statistical Abstracts, and much more.

• Financial Economics Serverfrom U. of Texas

This Web site provides up-to-date information on a wide range of financial information .

• Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform

The Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform was established by President Clinton in November of 1993 to recommend long-term changes to America’s entitlement programs and tax structure. You can find out about the Commission’s activities and download an interactive computer program to explore reform options for the U.S. government budget.

• THOMAS: Library of Congress Legislative Information

The Library of Congress Web site provides the full text of legislation for House and Senate bills searchable by keywords or bill number, the full text of the Congressional Record, daily accounts of proceedings on House and Senate floors, and the text of How Our Laws Are Made by Edward F. Willett, Jr., House Law Revision Counsel. More generally, the Library of Congress Web pages also provide historical collections and descriptions of some of the Library’s special collections, and several exhibits. Also very useful is LOCIS, the Library of Congress Information System, which is searchable by keywords.

The Web document titled “Economic Resources for Teachers,” is the heart of the curricular materials provided by EcEd Web and also includes links to materials from other sites. Some of the most useful materials and links are presented here in summary form:

• Description of Curricular Materials from Univ. of Florida Center for Economic Education

• Description of Curricular Materials from Univ. of Missouri-St. Louis Center for Economic Education

These two selections list and describe a wide range of economics curricular materials available from these Centers for Economic Education. Addresses and ordering information is given, along with the small price for the materials.

• The International Money Museum from University of Missouri-Kansas City

The International Money Museum is an interdisciplinary teaching unit designed to stimulate students’ interest in exploring and understanding our global economy. Examining international coins and currencies sparks students’ interest in the countries of the world. Student outcomes and sample activities are also described.

• The Senior Economist

The Senior Economist is a publication of the National Council on Economic Education which features an essay by a prominent economist with three complete lesson plans for classroom use. The Senior Economist is published four times per year—September, November, February, and April. The Senior Economist provides current events activities to supplement the teaching activities in Capstone: The Nation’s High School Economics Course and United States History. Eyes on the Economy, also from the National Council on Economic Education.

• Wishes and Rainbows. Federal Reserve Bank, Boston (.pdf)

A Teacher’s Guide to classroom use of Wishes and Rainbows booklet from Federal Reserve bank of Boston. A captivating fairy tale to teach economics to elementary school students. Includes a student glossary of economics terms, discussion questions by student age group, activities, and the “color money” game. 6

• Great Economists and Their Times (.pdf)

This page is a brief description of economics schools of thought, and a decade by decade list of prominent economic events.

• My Money (for elementary level), Fed Reserve Bank, Richmond (.pdf)

This document teaches students in elementary and middle school about money. Lessons and classroom procedures are provided, along with discussion materials, evaluation exercises, etc.

• The Relevance of Adam Smith, Federal Reserve Bank, Richmond (.pdf)

A discussion of the contributions of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nation’s

• Virtual Economics Library #l (.pdf)

The Basics of Interest Rates discusses the supply and demand for funds, Federal Reserve and financial markets. It is from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Grade Levels 9-12.

The Key to the Gold Vault is all about the past and present role of gold, including inflows and outflows, and characteristics and functions of money. It is from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Grade Levels 9-12.

• The Budget Game

This is a creative and interactive page presented by UC-Berkeley’s Center for Community Economic Research (CCER). A new on-line National Federal Budget Simulator lets anyone on the World Wide Web attempt to balance the budget. Your choices and the actual budget can be shown graphically also.

• Economics and Business Education ~ssocia~ion (EBEA) Web from UK

EBEA represents teachers of economics, business, and related subjects in schools and colleges in the UK. The Web page seeks to enhance the mission of providing professional support in the classroom, and developing economics and business education within a broadly based curriculum.

• Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement & Tax Reform:
Download interactive “Budget Shadows. “

“Budget Shadows” is interactive software that lets the user explore U.S. Government budget alternatives.

• Personal Finance Web from Global Network Navigator

The description of this site is “The Personal Finance Center (PFC) is a Net-based forum for personal money management issues. Within the PFC, visitors will find original articles, columns, interviews with personal finance experts, and scores of links to personal finance and investment resources on the Net.”

• The Whitehouse.

The White House Web site provides text of releases on economic policy, environmental policy, foreign affairs, jobs, healthcare, science and technology, and other current news items. The speeches of the president, proposed budget for 1996 are also on this site.

• City.Net. International Guide to Communities around the World

City.Net is a comprehensive international guide to communities around the world. City.Net provides timely access to information on travel, entertainment, and local business, plus government and community services for all regions of the world. A great source for information about other countries and cities.

• Chicago Mercantile Exchange

The CME is the first futures and options exchange on the World Wide Web. Here you can find daily settlement prices of all CME futures and options, marketing page with product information, educational programs, and more.

• Demographic Profiles of US States, Cities, Towns

Demographic Profiles of Cities and States are available for all states, metro areas, counties, and cities with population greater than 10,000.

• Exchange Rate Information. Koblas Currency Converter.

At this Web site the exchange rates of all national currencies are presented in terms of the U.S. dollar. You can also change the basis from the U.S. dollar to another currency of your choice.

• Security APL Stock Quotes (15 minute delay)

Quoteserver provides free quotes (just type in the ticker symbol of the stock you are interested in). Also found here are investment tools and the current NASDAQ Composite Index data.

• .Journal of Economic Education

This is the home page of the leading journal focusing on economic education. Along with information about submission and subscription, tables of content are provided to assist you to find the topic of interest.

• Einet Galaxy Social Sciences Educational Web

Einet is a huge source for information on education, with topics such as curriculum and instruction, adult education, higher education, K12, history and philosophy, and much more.

• AskEric Educational Virtual Library

The Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) is a national information system, supported by the U.S. Department of Education, with large quantities of information on a host of educational issues and topics.

• Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian

On the Smithsonian Natural History Web, you will find pages on National Museum of Natural History research and the national collections, selected from scientific specimens and cultural artifacts from around the world. Museum programs and projects “supporting the Museum’s mission of understanding the natural world and our place in it” are also presented on these pages.

• National Council on Educational Technology, United Kingdom

NCET is a charity funded by the Department of Education in the United Kingdom whose mission is help teachers, lecturers. trainers and learners take advantage of technology. If you want to know more about using technology in education, the NCET pages could provide useful information about what has been done and what works.

• Web66. Learn to Create a Web Page, and much more

Web66, a name meant to conjure up Route 66 and its role as an artery linking the nation, is full of information for K12 schools, “a highway fashioned from vision and ingenuity.” The goals of this project are to help K12 educators learn how to set up their Internet servers, to link Web servers and educators and students, and to help K12 educators find and use appropriate Web resources. As a wonderful bonus, Web66 has the oldest and most comprehensive list of K12 Web servers on the Internet. See what others are doing!

• Electronic Magazine for Kids in the Middle Grades

Midlink Magazine, the electronic magazine for kids in the middle grades (generally ages 10 to 15) is a Web publication with art and writing that seeks to link middle school kids all over the world. Published bi-monthly.

• National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN) General Information

The home page of the National Public Telecomputing Network’s World Wide Web site. NPTN is the parent organization and support provider for community “Free Net” computer networks world wide. Academy One (next selection) for K12 is a part of this site.

• Academy One for K12 from National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN)

Academy One from NPTN is an international online “cybercasting” educational resource for students, educators, parents and administrators of grades kindergarten through twelve.

• Kids Web

A World Wide Web digital library for school kids from all over the world. Site includes links for kids by subject categories: Arts, Social Sciences, etc..

• Information for Teachers: The Well

The Well is a Gopher site with extensive links to other education Gopher sites.

• KIDLINK Global Networking for Kids 10-15

KIDLINK presents a series of projects which are intended to help youth age 10-15 get involved in a global dialog through e-mail and other telecommunications exchanges.

• U.S. Department of Education Gopher

This gopher has extensive material on the activities of the U.S. Department of Education, such as updates on legislation, budget, and activities of the Department, department-wide initiatives (Goals 2000...), vocational and adult programs, educational research, and statistics, etc.

• k12net

K12net is a loosely organized, decentralized network of school “electronic bulletin board systems” (BBS’s) throughout North America, Australia, Europe, and the USSR. Curriculum-related conferences or “echo forums” are held and made available to students and educators at no cost and usually on a local phone call. Millions of teachers, students and parents throughout the world can meet, exchange information, and share resources on a global scale.

The final link on the Resources for Economics Teachers page is to a widely known site named Yahoo. The link shown is to the searching page of Yahoo, so that web information worldwide can be searched with keywords to build a bibliography of Web locations, or to locate that last tidbit of information to complete your class activity plans.

Having discovered all this economic material right at your fingertips, on the World Wide Web, you may experience some frustration deciding how to integrate the Web into classroom activities. The technical revolution may be here, but it will take a while before the necessary computer hardware is readily available in individual classrooms throughout school buildings. Schools that have Internet connections may be limited to just one computer station, usually in the library or media center. Teachers should if at all possible make plans for students to experience for themselves the search for information on the Web by assigning groups or pairs to find information on the Internet. Even if the assignment involves adding an Internet source to writing projects or bibliographies, encouraging students to see the Internet as expanded library will be an easy task once they have made the effort. Teachers could assign students to obtain current information from a foreign country or a library in another state very easily. Assigning a scavenger hunt for economic information using the Gopher and Web sites listed previously in this paper could be effective for students even if they have Internet access only from the library.

The most valuable characteristic of the Web is its ability to provide the most up-to-date information for the classroom. No longer do charts and overheads used by teachers have to become dated. The amount of economic information available from various government sources makes it possible to use the very latest GDP or census figure in class. Teachers can quickly access budget

information or currency exchange rates from the Internet or assign students to look them up and revise graphs. Historical data and primary sources documents may also be available from library, which can add to the richness of history lessons.

A first step in integrating Web sources into teaching materials might be to examine your current classroom lessons with an eye to making them more applied. For example, the National Council on Economic Education (NCEE) publishes various teaching guides dealing with K- 12 economics.7  A standard lesson introduced at all grade level is the reasoned approach to decision

making. The NCEE model involves five steps:

• Stating the problem or issue.

• Determining the criteria for judging alternatives

• Considering possible alternatives.

• Evaluating the alternatives.

• Making a reasoned judgment.

Teachers could use this basic decision making model and integrate Web searches to have students explore real world issues by assigning groups to locate information on the Web for the various alternatives being evaluated. Students in upper elementary grades could evaluate and compare natural resources available in different parts of the United States, Canada, and Mexico or plan trips to various parts of the country using real economic data to make their decisions. Most states and many cities have Web sites or census information that is readily accessible.

Some Web sites or listserv groups might offer students opportunities to chat with other students in a pen pal arrangement, a perfect way to exchange real economic data. Older students could compare economic data from the stock market or the Board of Trade or gather information from the Federal Reserve Bank to analyze investment decisions or to predict the future business cycle. Exploring historical data might help them use the decision making model to explore the impact of different decisions than were actually made. Newspapers archives may provide opposing sides to important issues in our history. Environmental issues could be debated by teams armed with real facts from states or regions. Newspaper and direct testimony from hearings could be used to bolster each side with the class making an informed choice in energy or pollution issues. All of these resources are available on the Web.

In the U.S., each state has a Council for Economic Education affiliated with the National Council for Economic Education, and several post-secondary institutions throughout most states also have Centers for Economic Education affiliated with the statewide Council. The mission of these Centers is to provide teacher training and materials to K-12 schools to increase the quantity and quality of teaching of economics. Centers welcome contacts from any K-12 teacher who would like to learn more economics, or who would like to learn about materials that can be used to teach economics, either alone or in conjunction with other subjects. If you do not know the address of your nearest Center, use the EcEdWeb page link State Councils for Economic Education to locate the state-level addresses and telephone numbers.

The World Wide Web is the network that is making the Internet approachable and valuable for everyone, from computer novice to expert. The growth of Web pages, Web software and tools, and Web surfers is unprecedented. A disadvantage of the Web is that it requires a fast connection to the Internet, a connection many schools have not installed. Since the Web, or its future successors, will be (already is) a very important method of acquiring information, it is very important to provide access for all of our students and teachers as soon as possible.

For most of us, the difficult part about working with Internet resources on the Web is just getting started. The act of learning how to learn is one of the most valuable activities teachers can model with their students. The speed with which information has changed in the past few years provides ample evidence that teachers must begin to use more current information than is printed in textbooks and encyclopedias. We have used economics and social sciences information that is readily available on the Internet and Web to show how teachers can update and revise favorite classroom economics and social studies lessons. Similar contributions of the Web to any subject matter can be demonstrated. Once teachers and students get started, the difficult part about working with Internet resources on the Web is moving on to other activities!

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