WWW: Beyond the Basics

6. Education

6.4 Realistic and effective applications

Now we know more about the milieu of the educator, and have seen the course charted by typical current WWW applications for education, it is time to examine what realistic and effective applications are possible. We will present some basic guidelines first, followed by a few examples.

6.4.1 Characteristic features

Given the typical environments and teaching methodologies discussed in the foundations section, what can we infer as being the characteristic features of realistic applications, i.e. those which can be implemented in the educational milieu previously described?

First and foremost, it should have relatively modest technology requirements. This is because not only does sophisticated and extensive technology typically not exist in many classrooms, but, also, the infrastructure and skills base is not yet there to support complex technology and applications. If a teacher has only text-based access to the WWW through the lynx browser on VAPEN, then there is little point designing highly graphical Java applets. Similarly, if the educator has only a 14400 baud modem connection to the Internet, it is not feasible to deliver digital video and audio over such a low-bandwidth link, ruling out such applications as video teleconferencing. The available technology and bandwidth should be ascertained prior to designing applications, so that they are feasible within the environment they will be used in. Although the situation is improving, available bandwidth and technology are often relatively poor.

Secondly, any application or planned activity should require a negligible learning curve and preparation. Classroom teachers have notoriously little spare time. Typically, teachers have only a single 45 minute period per day for planning. As well as planning lessons, this time is also taken up with teacher and parent conferences, along with sundry other administrative tasks. There is precious little time left over for anything else, let alone the daunting task of learning an unfamiliar and often bafflingly arcane area like technology. (Evans-Andris, 1995)

Whilst it is true that most teachers are forced by lack of time to do much of their planning and preparation at home, this is often not feasible in the case of educational technology which frequently requires hands-on use of equipment. This is especially true when browsing the WWW and bookmarking sites of interest. If a proposed application requires special hardware, software, or connectivity, and the teacher does not possess these requirements at home, or cannot easily borrow what is needed, he or she will have no option but to find the time at school to learn how to use it. Finding the time in an already busy schedule may be very difficult, at best.

It is important that teachers can see a ready return on their investment, especially as to how it is relevant to their classroom endeavours; a steep learning curve can deter many from seeing things through. Applications which build upon existing skills, such as using e-mail, Usenet, or browsing the WWW, are ideal candidates.

Realistic applications must be reliable. Teachers soon lose faith in technology that lets them down (Collins, 1991). If a lesson has to grind to a halt because the hardware or software crashes and someone has to be found to fix it, or the connection to a remote site goes down, then the teacher is going to be much more wary in future about using it. Reliability is an issue of trust. If the teacher cannot trust the technology, it will not find favour in the classroom. Complex hardware and software systems (especially software in alpha and beta release), tenuous remote links, and ephemeral online documents are to be avoided, if possible, at least in the early stages.

Designers of realistic applications must address the pragmatic concerns arising from the limited availability of computers and time versus many students. The low computer to student ratio found in many classrooms will usually necessitate a more hands-off than hands-on approach to educational technology applications. Also, students typically have fairly poor keyboarding skills, and so it is often inefficient for them to key in information themselves. Similarly, when lesson time or available connect time is limited (as with short-persistence modem connections), applications will have to be more offline than online; data gathering should be planned so that it takes place more outside class time (e.g. via e-mail requests for information), with the class period being reserved for the important task of evaluating the information gleaned.

As well as being a huge source of information, the Internet is an invaluable outlet for publishing information. Constructivism places emphasis on engaging in real-world tasks, and a basic requirement in the real world is to be able to convey information to others in an understandable fashion. Effective WWW applications will therefore include a component in which students are both producers and consumers of information. Not only does this improve communication skills, but it also makes the activity more engaging and adds a greater focus. Alas, the teacher is not viewed as a real-world audience by students. However, knowing that their work may be read and judged by hundreds, thousands, or more of readers all across the world, leads to greater care being taken over presentation of material. Writing also becomes a more relevant task when the student knows he or she may obtain feedback from a vast potential audience from a huge variety of backgrounds.

Finally, we must remember that the computer is a tool and not the focus of educational technology or the classroom. It is their skill in interpretation and explanation that makes them invaluable. If people were able to learn solely by reading books, one could simply distribute a reading list, or put the material up on the WWW (as is done with the EI "paperless classes" at Virginia Tech), and people would become masters of the subject simply by reading it; there would be no need ever to attend classes or hire teachers and professors. Of course, we know that notion is nonsense, and it is the interpretative skill that teachers bring to a subject that makes them a necessary adornment to any classroom; their ability to restate concepts to fit the student's world-view, thereby making the material accessible and understandable to that student. Thus, educational technology should be seen as being in a supporting role to this endeavour, and not a replacement. Computers lack the sophistication and flexibility to manipulate and convey concepts in the way educators can.

6.4.2 Guidelines and examples

What are good guidelines for projects featuring the characteristics outlined above? One theme arising from our discussion so far is that flashy, advanced technology misses the point when it comes to effective classroom use. As far as the Internet is concerned, its great value in the classroom is as a very rich and copious supply of up-to-date information. This information exists in many forms. It may be as archived "knowledge" in WWW pages, Usenet newsgroups, gopher sites, and Internet databases, or it may be in a less tangible form such as cultural contact.

The Internet has vastly shrunk the world. It is now possible for individuals to contact and discourse easily and directly with individuals and organisations across the globe. Previously, such contact was usually unidirectional, in the form of films and videos, passively observed, which deliver only a very high-level impression (usually lacking in context) of what the culture is really like. They miss the richness of detail that direct contact can bring. After all, if one could know what another country was like just from reading a travel brochure or watching a video, there would be no need for people to go on holiday there. But of course we do, so we can gain the benefits that accrue from direct experience.

One way to use the WWW effectively in the classroom, therefore, is to involve it directly in every lesson as a source of information. Textbooks are usually inadequate in terms of being up to date and in their depth and breadth of coverage. When local information resources are inadequate, one can turn to the Internet by posting a query to an appropriate Usenet newsgroup, or searching the WWW using a search engine. The Internet is also an ideal outlet for timely and ephemeral information that likely would never appear in textbooks, or would take years to do so. One example of this is the impact of the Shoemaker-Levy comet on Jupiter in 1995. The Internet had contemporaneous digital video of this event, available over the WWW, along with supporting information. Many sites also carried images of the Hyakatuke comet when it made its close pass of the Earth in 1996.

Another rich source of information, especially for the social studies curriculum, is the large amount of international news and statistics available on the Internet. Many newspapers across the world are now finding their way onto the Internet, and these can be usefully employed by teachers to highlight the different coverage of current events across the world, as well as obtaining a better insight into the daily existance of other cultures.

Another popular source of such cultural information is in the establishing of "keypal" networks, in which students discourse with students in other countries via the Internet. This is usually via e-mail but, if technology and bandwidth allow, it can be via interactive talk or Internet video-teleconferencing. One thing to remember with synchronous forms of communication is that it may not be feasible to use due to time-zone differences. For example, there is at least a five hour time zone difference between eastern USA and western Europe. However, video-teleconferencing and Internet telephony are useful adjuncts in the study of foreign languages, for example, as they allow discourse to take place directly with native speakers. (Mohn, 1995)

The Internet is a great source of real-world data, and many interesting projects can be planned around data collected and presented on the Internet. A global perspective can be introduced into the curriculum. For example, on the Internet we can undertake comparisons of social problems, consumerism, language usage, history, and so on, around the world. Once we devise a project, human contacts can be sought from online sources such as Usenet. Such projects are often gold mines of tangential discoveries and spin-off lessons that result. For example, a project run by a local educator comparing social problems asked people around the world what they considered to be the greatest social problem in their country, the students having outlined what they considered to be theirs.

A reply from Hong Kong stated housing costs as the biggest problem there, with even small apartments costing huge sums of money. When asked the possible causes and solutions by the teacher, the students assumed that a shortage of land was the root of the problem. In fact, the Hong Kong respondent said land hoarding is the cause. Property developers buy up tracts of land and leave them undeveloped so their more favourably-placed areas will accrue in value through artificial scarcity. The students suggested the government should step in and outlaw this practice, and require developers to build on their land within a certain time period after acquisition, which, coincidentally, was the solution suggested by the Hong Kong contact. This led to an impromptu discussion of the role of government and society versus private enterprise and capitalism, within a highly relevant framework, none of which was envisaged when the project was devised.

Another important aspect of Internet projects in the classroom is to include the production as well as the consumption of information. In this way, students will have to exercise their communication skills before diverse real-world audiences. It is important to contribute as well as consume. Students should organise and present their findings. This can either be as a posting to Usenet or to a mailing list, or, better still, on a WWW page for a more persistent outlet. However, publication is not limited to the Internet: presentations are another fertile outlet for student research. For example, one class project on violence in society eventually culminated in a student presentation by ten and eleven year olds at a Virginia regional library conference.

A language arts project investigating the restricted speech pattern known as Cockney rhyming slang gathered examples from around the world and compiled a dictionary of Cockney rhyming slang. The dictionary was then made available to other educators around the world. Students became aware of how far their work had permeated when, months later, a postal letter arrived from Australia. It was from a teacher there who had no Internet access, but who had obtained a printout of the dictionary from another Australian educator. The dictionary reminded the teacher of the rhyming slang used by his grandfather, and, since he had found the students' rhyming slang dictionary useful, he sought to return the favour by sending them an Aussie rhyming slang dictionary. Although this collaboration was unsolicited and unplanned, it was very natural, with both parties acting as both producers and consumers of information for the other.

Publication of information need not be limited to the written word. The WWW offers the possibility of full hypermedia. One proposed project involves students effecting the virtual preservation of a community. Riner, Virginia, is a community in flux. Its cultural makeup is changing rapidly, and its old identity is becoming lost forever. The student project seeks to preserve this on the WWW by creating a "virtual historical Riner" online. Students would be assigned the task of gathering information on Riner, e.g. by consulting courthouse records, interviewing residents and obtaining oral histories, taking photographs of important buildings and landmarks, and so on.

This information would then be placed online on the WWW in the form of a hyperbase. As well as documenting the results of their investigations, students would also digitise photographs, snippets of audio (to provide examples of regional accents, for example), and video. This would require students to become familiar with many aspects of information technology within a very directly relevant context. It is also a project that can be inherently ongoing, with successive classes of students augmenting the online history. To do this, previous students would need to make their work accessible enough that it can be understood and extended, thereby further exercising their communication skills.

Finally, one may wonder whether anyone is actually using these techniques. The answer is yes. In fact, more and more people are realising that using the Internet in the classroom does not require a lot of hardware or complexity, and that it can reap rich rewards. But can the Internet be integrated successfully into the classroom and the curriculum? To attempt to answer this question, a federally funded study began recently in a fifth grade class in rural Riner elementary school, here in Montgomery County. The project seeks to determine, via a three year longitudinal study, whether a technology-rich environment and integrated curriculum have a positive impact on the learning of students. Although it is taken as an axiom by computer scientists that technology can improve education, the phenomenon of technology refusal reminds us that this assertion is far from proven. This study will be of great importance to the ongoing status of educational technology, and its eventual deployment on a large scale in the future. Many interested parties will be keeping a close eye on its progress.

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Copyright © 1996 Paul Mather, All Rights Reserved

Paul Mather <paul@cs.vt.edu>
Last modified: Sun Nov 24 23:20:30 1996