The Internet is maturing and it is becoming easier to locate resources useful in the classroom. A number of educators have received funding to create searchable indexes to Internet resources. Instead of searching the millions of web sites, you can search the evaluations of highly rated resources. Then you can visit the best matches to see if the sites fit with your class objectives. Remember that the Internet is one of many tools you can use with your students. Help your students decide when books, videos, CD-ROM, first-person interviews, etc. might be a better choice for specific research problems.
Study Web (http://www.studyweb.com/), a service of American Computer Resources, was created to provide access to research-quality information via the Internet. Over 29,000 links are categorized by approximate grade level and include a visual content rating.
Classroom Connect is a commercial business that provides Internet related teaching resources to K-12 educators. G.R.A.D.E.S. (http://www2.classroom.net/databases/grades/edufind.html) is their collection of exemplary Internet sites. They use a Filemaker Pro database to gather "high-quality, hand-picked sites that K-12 educators and students will want to use." There is a paragraph describing the educational value of each site so you can quickly decide whether it is worth you time to explore.
ED's Oasis (http://oasis.syr.edu/search/index.html) is funded by AT&T's Education Foundation, and sponsored by the California Instructional Technology Clearinghouse. ED's Oasis "provides links to what educators around the country recommend as the most engaging student-centered web sites, AND examples demonstrating effective classroom Internet use from successful teachers." It provides some of the most in-depth evaluations of sites and includes specific ideas on their use in the classroom. My only complaint is that it takes a couple screens to get to the recommendations.
The Evaluation and Development Institute (EDI) sponsors the Awesome Library (http://www.neat-schoolhouse.org/searche.html). It attempts to recommend the best and most current "child-safe links useful for teachers, students, parents, or librarians" that contain "Real Stuff" (Actual documents, projects, pictures, and discussion groups)." It includes over 10,000 sites and has a star rating for the top 2%. There are brief annotations, and grade level ratings for some of the sites. Many lesson plan sites are part of the database, a search on a topic with "lesson" will often find useful materials.
Yahooligans (http://www.yahooligans.com/) is a 7 to 12 year-old version of Yahoo. This is a commercial site and entries are based on criteria other than educational value, in Yahooligan's words "... interesting, for whatever reason."
Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators (http://www.capecod.net/schrockguide/), while not yet searchable, is an excellent "classified list of sites on the Internet found to be useful for enhancing curriculum and teacher professional growth."
HeightsNET Subjects listings (http://tiger.chuh.cleveland-heights.k12.oh.us/Subjects/Subjects.html), while not as comprehensive or up-to-date, list sites that HeightsNET teachers have found useful for specific reference or collaborative projects.
The Internet Scout Project (http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/index.html) is "sponsored by the National Science Foundation to provide timely information to the education community about valuable Internet resources." Each week, experts recommend and describe in detail, the most valuable and authoritative new on-line resources. Scout Report Signpost (http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/index.html) is a searchable version of these listings using Library of Congress Subject headings. I have found many exceptional resources here that were not easy to find in other places. Sites tend to be at the high school and college level but are great background sources at all levels. The Scout Toolkit includes current information on Internet and networking issues as well recommended sites by discipline. A high school student guide has recently been started.
The Librarians' Index (http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/InternetIndex/index.html) to the Internet is a searchable, annotated, subject directory of close to 3,000 Internet resources chosen by a team of 15 Librarians for their usefulness to the public library user's information needs. It began at the Berkeley Public Library in California and is now funded by Sun Computer.