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LEU, D. L JR., & LEU, D. D. (2000). 
Teaching with the Internet: Lessons from 
the classroom (3rd ed.). Norwood, MA: 
Christopher-Gordon Publishers (pp. xv, 
384). NZ$95.00jUS$38.95 (paperback). 

There can be few teachers today who are 
not aware of the Internet, although many 
may still wonder how it can be used in 
their classrooms to enhance teaching and 
learning. Donald and Deborah Leu wrote 
this book with Internet beginners in 
mind. This book is deSigned to help 
teachers and learners feel comfortable in 
the "new learning environment"; to 
ntinimize the time it takes to find 
useful learning tools for students and to 
show how the Internet can be used in 
classrooms to support learning. It 
contains many practical, interesting and 
common-sense suggestions for getting a 
class started with the Internet. 

Donald and Deborah Leu begin with an 
explanation of the Internet and E-mail 
and how communication can be 
enhanced not just between teachers 
and students, but between students 
themselves. Their book, which is 
extensively illustrated with web pages, 
comes with a CD and is laid out in a way 
that will provide teachers with ready 
access to sites they can consider for 
the enhancement of lessons in their 
classrooms. There is an extensive section 
on the use of the Internet to support 
Language Arts and Literature, another 
chapter on Sodal Studies, followed 
by chapters on the h1ternet and 
sdentific thinking and one on "thinking 
mathematically." Each of these chapters 
contains a section called "Lessons from 

Book Reviews 

the Oassroom" in which the authors 
provide readers with an analysis of 
preceding case studies of classroom 
Internet applications. Each chapter 
provides teachers and students with 
instructional resources on the Internet 
in these and related areas as well as 
practical suggestions for classroom 
Internet projects. Of particular interest to 
many classroom teachers considering 
using the Internet to enhance their 
teaching will be the authors' details 
on "central sites" in Language Arts, 
Mathematics, Sdence and Sodal Studies. 
These sites provide teachers with a solid 
basis from which to consider the use 
of the Internet in their classrooms for 
different subject areas. 

I found the chapter on "Effective 
Instructional Strategies" for using the 
Internet to be particularly good value. I 
noted a suggestion from this chapter that 
when a teacher is still trying to "figure 
out" somethin~ his or her classroom 
problem could be posted on the Internet 
with an invitation for others to respond. 
This seems to me to be an excellent way 
of making use of this global collaborative 
technology for teaching and learning. The 
emphasis on sharing and collaborating 
that is likely to arise from classroom use 
of the Internet may lead to consideration 
of different instructional strategies. 

This is a book that is likely to have value 
in almost any classroom. There is a 
chapter devoted to "Spedal Ideas for 
Younger Children" and one on "Using 
the Internet to h1Crease Multicultural 
Understanding." One of the most useful 
parts of this book to me though is 

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the section on how to integrate the 
Internet into a classroom, including 
the development of class homepages. 
However, the authors point out that 
"When the Internet is used without 
direction and guidance, students will 
often be diverted from thoughtful 
integration and analysis of information 
and engage instead in random, 
unconnected surfing experiences" . 

The Internet can expand the horizons of 
learners, provide new pathways and 
introduce young people, and teachers, to 
new areas of knowledge. The integration 
of the Internet into a classroom has to be 
planned and used judiciously to be of 
maximum value for learning. Ultimately, 
the Internet is likely to break down the 
insularity of the traditional classroom 
and encourage new relationships 
between teachers and learners within and 
between schools. In this process, not 
only will new teaching and learning 
relationships be fostered, but telelearning 
will become integral to classroom life. 

Ken Stevens 
Memorial University of Newfoundland 

Newfoundland, Canada 

PERRATON, H. D. (2000). Open and 
distance learning in the developing 
world. Routledge Studies in Distance 
Education. London: Routledge (pp. x, 
228). NZ$61.00. 

The scale of problems faced by distance 
educators and educational planners in 
the developing world are of a magnitude 
not known in developed countries. 
While distance educators in many parts 
of the developed world are working with 
expanding ranges of hardware and 
software and discovering ever more uses 
for the Internet in teaching, learning 

and the networking of schools and 
universities, it is sobering to realize 
that these are very much first-world 
educational phenomena. There is a 
growing technological gap between 
have and have-not societies in what 
Perraton refers to as the North and the 
South. Levin and Lockheed (1993) 
almost a decade ago observed that 
there were considerable differences in 
distance education in developed and 
developing societies: 

Schools in developing countries often 
lack the most basic resources needed 
for education such as qualified 
teachers, facilities and textbooks. 
Double and triple shifts of a few 
hours are the norm in some regions; 
the number of days in the school year 
has been reduced; and teachers' 
salaries have declined so much that 
fully qualified teachers are often a 
luxury and teacher turnover and 
attendance are problematic. 

At a time when open and distance 
learning are becoming mainstreamed in 
both schools and universities in 
developed societies though on-line 
teleteaching and telelearning, mass 
computing and a steadily increasing 
range of software, it is timely to consider 
the role of distance learning in the 
developing world. Although information 
and communication technologies are able 
to link teachers and learners in a range 
of ways, permitting both synchronous 
and asynchronous learning, these are 
not options for most people in the 
developing world. 

At a time when we are becoming used 
to the idea that technologies can link 
schools with other schools and link 
universities with one another to form 
new partnerships, Bates and Escamilla 

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50 



de los Santos (1997) point out, these 
developments reflect the north-south 
export trade, reflecting the gap between 
technological development (and its 
distance education applications) in 
developed and developing countries . 
Through technological enhancement, the 
teaching and learning capadty of 
distance education institutions in 
developed countries can be extended 
to overshadow distance learning 
institutions in developing sodeties. 
Perraton observes that: 

.. . as rich-country universities have 
gained expertise and legitimacy in 
distance education, so they have 
sought to extend their influence 
through consultancy, sales and 
enrolments. (p. 153) 

As research director of the hlternational 
Foundation for Open Learning and 
someone who has worked in 
international education for thirty years, 
Perraton is well placed to comment on 
the provision of education in the 
developing world and to provide readers 
with a global view of distance education. 
This book provides an overview of how 
many developing countries have used 
distance education as a response to what 
the author calls "the critical educational 
problems of numbers, resources and 
quality." He notes (p. 145) that: 

It is possible to develop a whole 
course in a variety of media, make 
this available through the Internet 
and use the same technologlj for 
contact between student and tutor 
and among students. Computer 
links, in principle, make it possible 
for students in any location to be 
treated as a single group- once any 
language barriers are overcome. T71e 
most highly developed countries are 

from the north .... constraints on this 
type of enrolment are no longer a 
matter of geography but of access 
to the Internet and the ability to 
pay the enrolment fees and the 
costs of communication. There are 
beginning to be examples of this 
in the south, though more often 
within a framework of north-south 
cooperation than of indigenous 
southern development, or, indeed, 
south-south cooperation. 

One of the most spectacular 
developments in distance education in 
developing countries in the last quarter 
century has been the rise of open 
universities. A chapter is devoted to 
these institutions, with statistics that 
provide insights into the scale of distance 
learning in developing sodeties. Another 
chapter explains "non-formal education" 
as "the light that never shone." 

This book will be of interest to students 
of comparative education, the economics 
of education and to those interested in 
the problems of education in developing 
countries. For people in developed 
countries who are now looking to 
new approaches in telelearning and 
teleteaching using an expanding range 
of hardware and software and, of course, 
the Internet, this book is a timely 
reminder that a lot of the world is not 
able to consider teaching and learning 
this way, at this time. 

The global analysis of distance education 
in the developing world presented by 
Perra ton will probably not be familiar to 
most readers in developed countries. For 
me, this book provided an explanation of 
the roles of many distance education 
institutions throughout the world whose 
names were familiar but whose functions 
were not fully appredated. However, the 

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51 



lasting value of this book for me has 
been the awareness it has provided of the 
gap between distance education in 
developed and developing countries. 

REFERENCES 

BATES, A. W., & ESCAMILLA DE LOS 
SANTOS, J. G. (1997) . Crossing 
boundaries: Making global distance 
education a reality. Journal of Distance 
Education, 12, 1-2. 

LEVIN, H. M., & LOCKHEED, M. E. (Eds.) . 
(1993). Effective schools in developing 
countries. London: Falmer . 

Ken Stevens 
Memorial University afNewfoundland 

Newfoundland, Canada 

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