For most of us, technology makes things easier. For a person with a disability, it makes things possible.
Introduction
* Education for students with special needs encompasses strategies for both those with physical and/or mental deficits and those with special gifts or talents.
* Although technology can be used to enhance education for both popluations.
* When an impairment limits an individal from performing an activity in a manner normally expected for human beings (communicating with others, hearing, movement, manipulating objects, etc.), we refer to this as a disability.
* A student who has lost the the function of his right arm has an impairment; this condition will have little or no impact on a variety of life functions.
* The fields of special education and rehabilitation have had a long-standing interest in technology.
* Historically, the emphasis on technology for individuals with disabilities has been thought of as assistive technology, that is, extending the abilities of an individual in ways that provide physical access and sensory access.
Issues and Problems in Special Education
* Special Education, more than other areas of education, is governed by laws and policies. This means that teachers, administractors, and special education technology specialists must be well versed in federal and state laws, policies, and procedures.
Implications of the No Child Left Behind for Special Education
* The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act is beginning to have a significant influence in special education, as it has in all other areas of education (see http://www.ataccess.org/resources/nochild.html).
* Perhaps one of the most important components of the law focuses on Annual Yearly Progress (AYP), which requires documentation that eash school is meeting specific performance criteria the law has established.
Need for-Trained Personnel
* Considerable effort has been devoted to identifying the knowledge and skills needed by teachers and specialists to use technology in special education.
* Despite efforts of most universities to improve the preparation of teachers to use technology in the classroom, most teachers begin their career with minimal experience in using technology in ways that (1) ehance their own productivity, (2) enhance the effectiveness of instruction and the success of all students, or (3) enable them to acquire and use assistive technology for students in need of performance support.
* Another issue regarding the adequacy of personnel trained in special education technology centers on the use of interdisciplinary teams for evaluating the need for assistive technology and decision making in the selection of appropriate devices and services.
* The sheer size of the high incidence population requires a rethinking of service delivery systems.
Requirements for Inclusive Classrooms
* During the 1990s, a major change occurred in how special education services were delivered.
* Rather than placing students with disabilitie in separate classrooms (self-contained special education) and allowing them to participate in selected classes in general education, a process called mainstreaming, efforts were made to include them in the general education classroom, an activity known as inclusion.
* Although students with disabilities have gained physical inclusion into general education, access to the general education curriculum is still limited.
* Likewise, when the bulk of subject matter content is contained in teacher-made materials and textbooks, a significant portion of the students do not have access to the information they are expected to learn.
Universal Design for Learning
* Principles of universal design have emerged from our understanding of the design of physical environments for individuals with disabilities.
* Originally designed to improve mobility for people with disabilities within our communities, curb cuts not only accomplish that, but also improve access for people with baby strollers, roller blades, bikes, etc.
* Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) feels universal design is a critical issue if students with disabilities are going to be able to access the general education curriculum.
* Teachers working with students in inclusion settings face a relentless demand to modify curricular, instructional, and assessment materials.
* This means that students with disabilities often experience a delay in obtaining information that is readily available to their peers without disabilities.
Technology Integration Strategies for Special Education
* This section provides information about general approaches to using assistive and instructional technology for students with special needs and describes specific products that are commonly integrated into curricula for helping achieve academic, behavioral, or social goals.
Foundations of Integration Strategies
* Special educators must be concerned with two types of technology: assistive technology and instructional technology.
* Historically, the emphasis on technology for individuals with disabilities has been thought of as assistive technology.
* The assistive technology evaluation process generally seeks to identify solution on a continuum involving no-technology ("no-tech"), low-technology ("low-tech"), and advanced technology ("high-tech").
* The obvious advantage to solutions involving no technology is that they are available in any environment at any time.
* These solutions tend to be relatively inexpensive but quite flexible fo renhancing individual performance.
* Professional practice in special education calls for the evaluation of potential solutions to begin with no-tech, and continue to low-tech, and then go to high-tech, as the needs dictate.
* Two common approaches for technology use by individuals with disabilities involve remediation and compensation.
General Integration Strategies for All Students
* All of the technology integration strategies discussed in the book have important applications for students with disabilities.
* However, an essential consideration for all educators when planning for the needs of students with disabilities involves ensuring that the curriculum is accessible.
Strategies for Students with Mild Disabilities
* Mild disabilities are considered to be the most prevalent type of disability and include learning disabilities, serious emotional disabilities, and mental retardation.
* Typically, the important issue for these students is not physical access to the technology, but reading, writing, memory, and retention of information.
* Reading skills. A characteristic associated with many disabilities is difficulty in learning how to read and develop grade-level reading skills.
* Writing skills. Many tools have been developed to support students who struggle in various phases of the writing process.
* Math skills. Calculators are an important intervention for students with disabilities.
Strategies for Students with Moderate and Severe Disabilities
* A variety of conditions may impair an individual's cognitive abilities. Such disabilities are often referred to as cognitive disabilities, developmental disabilities, or mental retardation.
* Teachers working with students with moderate and severe cognitive disabilities need to be familiar with an array of devices that provide an alternative means for accessing the computer since the typical keyboard may be problematic for many students.
* To simplify the physical or cognitive demands of interacting with the computer, alternative keyboards, such as the Intellikeys keyboard can be used to create customized keyboards.
Strategies for Students with Physical Disabilities
* Physical disabilities typically impact a person's mobility and agility. Difficulties in motor movements may involve gross- or fine-motor movement and frequently exist concurrently with other disabilities.
* Assistive technology for individuals with severe physical disabilities may take the form of a power wheelchair operated by a joystick, a device with a handle that moves in all directions.
* Switches are also commonly used for controlling and getting input to the computer as well as activating environmental control systems.
* Assessing the need for assistive technology involves a team of specialists including occupational therapists, physical therapists, rehabilitation engineers, and assistive technology specialists.
Strategies for Students with Sensory Disabilities
* Sensory disabilities involve impairments associated with the loss of hearing or vision.
* An individual is considered partially sighted if there is some visual acuity.
For the blind. For an individual who is blind, three kinds of technology facilitate independence and access to environments and information:
* Canes and sensor technology - these are used to provide the person with mobility and orientation information when navigating various environments.
* Tools to convert printed information - other essential tools convert printed information into audio so that a person who is blind can gain information by listening rather than reading. This is accomplished through the use of a scanner, optical character recognition (OCR) software to scan and translate print into a word-processed file, and speech synthesis.
* Screen readers-Screen readers work as utility software, operating in the background of the computer operating system and reading any text that appears on the screen, for example, menus, text, web pages.
For the partially sighted. Partially sighted individuals must have text information enlarged, or the contrast altered, in order to perceive printed information. When information is in printed form (e.g., books, magazines, flyers) a closed-circuit television (CCTV) magnification system can be used. Many partially sighted individuals can see print on a computer screen by simply activating the built-in screen magnification control panel.
For the deaf. Individuals who are deaf often can use most technologies without significant modifications. When designers provide essential information only in audio form, this information is inaccessible to deaf individuals. Individuals with hearing impairments need few modifications to be able to use computers. A new technology is finding increasing acceptance in classrooms: FM amplification systems. These systems involve the teacher wearing a wireless microphone, and students with hearing impairments and some students with learning disabilities involving auditory processing difficulties wearing receivers that amplify the teachers voice and serve to focus attention.
Strategies for At-Risk Students
* Students at risk for school failure are not considered disabled in the sense of the federal definition of disability.
* However, their lack of success in school often parallels the low performance of students with disabilities.
* The use of assistive technology by students with disabilities has helped the profession understand the types of academic challenges students face and the kinds of technology tools that allow them to be successful.
Strategies for Students with Gifts and Talents
* Heward (2000) says that, according to the Gifted and Talented Children's Act 1978, gifted and talented students are those "possessing demonstrated or potential abilities that give evidence of high performance capability in such areas as intellectual, creative, specific academic or leadership ability, or in the performing or visual arts, and why by reason thereof require services or activities not ordinarily provided by the school.
* The primary issue surrounding and shaping education for gifted students is how to identify students who merit these special "services or activities not ordinarily provided by the school."
* Electronic communities - communicating with people from distant and differing cultures and languages encourages and provides new avenues for expression.
* Research - using global resources (e.g., on the internet) to research topics allows gifted students to explore ideas and events more quickly and in greater depth.
* Interactive and multimedia presentations - developing presentations based on their research allows students to display their discoveries in ways that make them more independent learners.
Finally, when gifted students engage in cooperative group work on products such as websites and multimedia presentations, they are working in a motivational environment in which they can learn important social skills required for them to be effective and productive in the world of work.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Chapter 9: Technology in English and Language Arts Instruction
The internet and other forms of information and communication technology (ICT) such as word processors, Web editors, presentation software, and e-mail are regularly redefining the nature of literacy. To become fully literature in today's world, students must become proficient in the new literacies of ICT.
Introduction
* The "language arts" are those language-based processes by which we think, learn, and communicate.
* In elementary grades, the language arts curriculum focuses primarily on developing the fundamental skillsof reading, writing, listening, and speaking.
* Because literacy skills and processes are fundamental to success in most other disciplines, language arts instruction is often stressed in content-area courses.
Issues and Problems in English and Language Arts Instruction
* Reading, writing, and critically analyzing written texts are considered fundamental skills for a literate person.
* Specifically, we as teachers need to understand the importance of expanding the definition of literacy, exploring new instructional practices, making decisions on keyboarding instruction, creating social learning environments, working with diverse learners, motivating students, and teachers' growth as literacy professionals, all of which are discussed in the following subsections.
Expanding the Definition Literacy
* Students graduating from high school today use traditional hard copies of reading and writing materials, but they also use highly sophisticated electronic forms of literacy.
* These students are entering an era when they will spend the majority of their literacy time engaged in electronic forms of communication.
* Our charge as teachers is to recognize that traditional definitions of literacy are no longer sufficient and to shift our conception to new literacies.
Exploring New Instructional Practices
* There is a direct correlation between the emergence of new literacies and the need for new instructional practices.
* Teachers are expected to provide new forms of literacy instruction so that students know how to locate, critically evaluate, use, and communicate through technology resources.
* For instance, students need instruction on how to find appropriate electronic information sources to be incorporated into their research products and presentations, as well as how to access and use information stored in a variety of sources.
* Students also need knowledge about the hardware and how to use these devices to create and present mulitmedia products.
* In addition, there is a growing need for teachers to instruct students to comprehend language in the context of visual images since images play an increasing role in communication.
* Fortunately, a growing body of literature illustrates ways to implement new instructional practices.
Making Decisions About Keynoarding Instruction
* The most common way to write using a computer requires input through a regular QWERTY keyboard, so named because of the first six letters in the first line of a typewriter keyboard.
* Those against requiring keyboarding instruction as a prerequisite argue that too much student time and computer resources are spent on getting kids trained to type quickly, that students need only basic keyboard familiarization.
* Both arguments are legitimate and most teachers have resolved the issue, at least temporarily, by favoring keyboarding instruction if it is available and needed, but not preventing studnents from using the computer if they do not yet have good keyboarding skills.
Creating Social Learning Environments
* New forms of literacy are much contingent on social interactions with others than traditional literacies.
* One teacher emphasizes that technology has consented for student-teacher relationship.
* Another reason that new literacies demand a more social environment is because teaching and learning are no longer confined to a traditional classroom context.
* Networked technologies for literacy enable us to communicate with people around the world.
Working with Diverse Learners
* Our schools have more diverse student populations today than ever before.
* This cultural and linguistic diversity creates classrooms that are richer, yet more complex.
* Although we value and celebrate the opportunity to interact with students of different nationalities, races, and ethnicities, this creates new challenges and opportunities for English and language arts teachers.
* Students who typically experience this problem include children who begin school without a solid literacy foundation, learn English as a second language, live in literacy-impoverished homes, have attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or do not receive appropriate instruction in school.
Motivating Students
* The more students read, the better developed their language and writing skills become.
* However, we as teachers find it an ongoing challenge to motivate students to read - either fpr study or pleasure.
* Fortunately, one of the supporting finding from the research is that both students and teachers are highly motivated and interested in the new literacies.
* Teachers also find it an ongoing challenge to motivate students to express themselves in writing.
* Students especially resist the labor involved in revising research papers and compositions.
Teachers' Growth as Literacy Professionals
* Teachers who are skilled in the effective use of technology for teaching and learning,
* A literacy curriculum that integrates the new literacies of technology into instructional programs,
* Instruction that develops the critical literacies essential to effective information use,
* Assessment practices in literacy that include reading and writing with technology tools,
* Opportunities to learn safe and responsible use of information and communication technologies, and
* Equal access to technology.
Technology Integration Strategies for English and Language Arts Instruction
* Perhaps the most creative and prolific array of strategies and applications for enhancing teaching with technology us to be found in the English and language arts.
Language Skills Development
* Though technology uses in English and language arts clearly emphasize motivation and support for reading fluency and writing production, many programs are also in use to instruct or give practice in individual reading and writing skills.
Teaching decoding skills. We generally teach skills in decoding or "sounding out" words in the early primary grades, and according to a limited amount of research, students who have access to digitized speech support increase their decoding abilities.
*
Developing other reading skills. A variety of other technology resources support teachers as they work to increase students' fluency with phonics, comprehension, and vocabulary skills:
* Software-based and online systems - the editors of technology and learning (2003) recommend several software-based and online systems for providing instruction in phonics, decoding, comprehension, and vocabulary skills to young learners.
* Reference resources - electronic dictionaries and thesauruses, discussed in Chapter 5, provide support to students as they learn vocabulary and spelling skills.
* Electronic devices - these include battery-operated devices such as Educational Insights' GeoSafari Phonics Pad, which has a collection of phonics games for preK-2 grades.
Creating everyday teacher activities. The large point size allows the teacher to see student responses at a distance while monitoring the class.
*Spreadsheets likewise can be used as a method to keep up with vocabulary words, definitions, and sentence usages.
Literacy Development
When teachers look for ways to motivate and support students' literacy development, they usually try to tap into students' own interests, present books in ways that students find compelling, and engage them in "book talks" about authors and stories to help them visualize the people and places in books.
* Networked literacy projects - activities like the one in the chapter opener example use internet sites to engage students in reading books.
* Activities with interactive storybooks (electronic books) and talking books - as described in chapter 5, these tools are regular literature books that have been placed into electronic format, usually on CD, DVD, or internet sites.
* Use of tracking system - accelerated reader, a popular system from renaissance learning, is among the most studied tools in educational technology.
* Digital storytelling - kajder and swenson (2004) find that good readers create "a mental movie of images evoked by the story."
* Connection to online reading materials to engage students - finally, an often-used strategy that teachers use is to locate book, stories, and internet sites that match up with students' interests and reading levels.
* Writing in blogs - one strategy that is currently increasing in popularity is having students respond to blogs.
* Motivating writing with video projects - just as Kajder and Swenson (2004) found that creating a narrated video parallels the reading process, Scot and Harding (2004) say that "the process of creating a digital video parallels the writing process."
* Threaded discussions at a distance - finally, many teachers find that having students participate in discussion boards instigates both reading and writing.
The Process Approach to Writing
* In reviewing two decades of research of writing skills, Bruning and Horn (2000) found that teaching writing requires special attention to motivational aspects, including fostering engagement using authentic writing tasks and providing a supportive context for writing.
* Fortunately, numerous online resources are available to help teachers conduct process writing.
Prewriting. Getting started is often one of the most difficult aspects of writing, and young writers find it particularly onerous.
* All types of prewriting activities can be facilitated by using information organizing software such as electronic outlining and concept mapping programs.
* Electronic outlining - these are now integrated into almost all major word processing programs and are easily accessible as planning tools....automatically generate headings and subheadings from typed information.
* Concept mapping software - also known as webbing software, concept mapping software is popular as a prewriting planning tool.
* Drafting. Drafting is the stage of the writing process when students put ideas and information into words, sentences, and paragraphs.The term drafting for this stage implies an impermanence to the product and therefore reflects the notion that students will continue to plan, rethink, and reorganize their ideas, even while producing text.
* Revising and editing. Revising is the stage during which students make changes in the paper's content or structure that reflect decisions about how to improve its overall quality. One of the best ways for teachers to assist in this process is to project a students' typed draft onto a screen, then model the thinking and decision making that goes into analyzing and revising the text.
* Publishing. Reports, newspaper articles, brochures, slide shows, and web pages are all publishing formats available to students for sharing their written work with peers, teachers, and the larger community.
* Traditional (paper) publishing - students produce paper products such as reports, books, newspaper articles, and brochures. Desktop publishing programs are designed to facilitate the production of professional looking printed products.
* Electronic publushing - students can also share their writing in electronic forms such as websites, electronic books, multimedia slide shows, and news broadcasts. Electronic penpal (keypal) projects are growing in popularity and provide creative and authentic opportunites for communication.
Introduction
* The "language arts" are those language-based processes by which we think, learn, and communicate.
* In elementary grades, the language arts curriculum focuses primarily on developing the fundamental skillsof reading, writing, listening, and speaking.
* Because literacy skills and processes are fundamental to success in most other disciplines, language arts instruction is often stressed in content-area courses.
Issues and Problems in English and Language Arts Instruction
* Reading, writing, and critically analyzing written texts are considered fundamental skills for a literate person.
* Specifically, we as teachers need to understand the importance of expanding the definition of literacy, exploring new instructional practices, making decisions on keyboarding instruction, creating social learning environments, working with diverse learners, motivating students, and teachers' growth as literacy professionals, all of which are discussed in the following subsections.
Expanding the Definition Literacy
* Students graduating from high school today use traditional hard copies of reading and writing materials, but they also use highly sophisticated electronic forms of literacy.
* These students are entering an era when they will spend the majority of their literacy time engaged in electronic forms of communication.
* Our charge as teachers is to recognize that traditional definitions of literacy are no longer sufficient and to shift our conception to new literacies.
Exploring New Instructional Practices
* There is a direct correlation between the emergence of new literacies and the need for new instructional practices.
* Teachers are expected to provide new forms of literacy instruction so that students know how to locate, critically evaluate, use, and communicate through technology resources.
* For instance, students need instruction on how to find appropriate electronic information sources to be incorporated into their research products and presentations, as well as how to access and use information stored in a variety of sources.
* Students also need knowledge about the hardware and how to use these devices to create and present mulitmedia products.
* In addition, there is a growing need for teachers to instruct students to comprehend language in the context of visual images since images play an increasing role in communication.
* Fortunately, a growing body of literature illustrates ways to implement new instructional practices.
Making Decisions About Keynoarding Instruction
* The most common way to write using a computer requires input through a regular QWERTY keyboard, so named because of the first six letters in the first line of a typewriter keyboard.
* Those against requiring keyboarding instruction as a prerequisite argue that too much student time and computer resources are spent on getting kids trained to type quickly, that students need only basic keyboard familiarization.
* Both arguments are legitimate and most teachers have resolved the issue, at least temporarily, by favoring keyboarding instruction if it is available and needed, but not preventing studnents from using the computer if they do not yet have good keyboarding skills.
Creating Social Learning Environments
* New forms of literacy are much contingent on social interactions with others than traditional literacies.
* One teacher emphasizes that technology has consented for student-teacher relationship.
* Another reason that new literacies demand a more social environment is because teaching and learning are no longer confined to a traditional classroom context.
* Networked technologies for literacy enable us to communicate with people around the world.
Working with Diverse Learners
* Our schools have more diverse student populations today than ever before.
* This cultural and linguistic diversity creates classrooms that are richer, yet more complex.
* Although we value and celebrate the opportunity to interact with students of different nationalities, races, and ethnicities, this creates new challenges and opportunities for English and language arts teachers.
* Students who typically experience this problem include children who begin school without a solid literacy foundation, learn English as a second language, live in literacy-impoverished homes, have attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or do not receive appropriate instruction in school.
Motivating Students
* The more students read, the better developed their language and writing skills become.
* However, we as teachers find it an ongoing challenge to motivate students to read - either fpr study or pleasure.
* Fortunately, one of the supporting finding from the research is that both students and teachers are highly motivated and interested in the new literacies.
* Teachers also find it an ongoing challenge to motivate students to express themselves in writing.
* Students especially resist the labor involved in revising research papers and compositions.
Teachers' Growth as Literacy Professionals
* Teachers who are skilled in the effective use of technology for teaching and learning,
* A literacy curriculum that integrates the new literacies of technology into instructional programs,
* Instruction that develops the critical literacies essential to effective information use,
* Assessment practices in literacy that include reading and writing with technology tools,
* Opportunities to learn safe and responsible use of information and communication technologies, and
* Equal access to technology.
Technology Integration Strategies for English and Language Arts Instruction
* Perhaps the most creative and prolific array of strategies and applications for enhancing teaching with technology us to be found in the English and language arts.
Language Skills Development
* Though technology uses in English and language arts clearly emphasize motivation and support for reading fluency and writing production, many programs are also in use to instruct or give practice in individual reading and writing skills.
Teaching decoding skills. We generally teach skills in decoding or "sounding out" words in the early primary grades, and according to a limited amount of research, students who have access to digitized speech support increase their decoding abilities.
*
Developing other reading skills. A variety of other technology resources support teachers as they work to increase students' fluency with phonics, comprehension, and vocabulary skills:
* Software-based and online systems - the editors of technology and learning (2003) recommend several software-based and online systems for providing instruction in phonics, decoding, comprehension, and vocabulary skills to young learners.
* Reference resources - electronic dictionaries and thesauruses, discussed in Chapter 5, provide support to students as they learn vocabulary and spelling skills.
* Electronic devices - these include battery-operated devices such as Educational Insights' GeoSafari Phonics Pad, which has a collection of phonics games for preK-2 grades.
Creating everyday teacher activities. The large point size allows the teacher to see student responses at a distance while monitoring the class.
*Spreadsheets likewise can be used as a method to keep up with vocabulary words, definitions, and sentence usages.
Literacy Development
When teachers look for ways to motivate and support students' literacy development, they usually try to tap into students' own interests, present books in ways that students find compelling, and engage them in "book talks" about authors and stories to help them visualize the people and places in books.
* Networked literacy projects - activities like the one in the chapter opener example use internet sites to engage students in reading books.
* Activities with interactive storybooks (electronic books) and talking books - as described in chapter 5, these tools are regular literature books that have been placed into electronic format, usually on CD, DVD, or internet sites.
* Use of tracking system - accelerated reader, a popular system from renaissance learning, is among the most studied tools in educational technology.
* Digital storytelling - kajder and swenson (2004) find that good readers create "a mental movie of images evoked by the story."
* Connection to online reading materials to engage students - finally, an often-used strategy that teachers use is to locate book, stories, and internet sites that match up with students' interests and reading levels.
* Writing in blogs - one strategy that is currently increasing in popularity is having students respond to blogs.
* Motivating writing with video projects - just as Kajder and Swenson (2004) found that creating a narrated video parallels the reading process, Scot and Harding (2004) say that "the process of creating a digital video parallels the writing process."
* Threaded discussions at a distance - finally, many teachers find that having students participate in discussion boards instigates both reading and writing.
The Process Approach to Writing
* In reviewing two decades of research of writing skills, Bruning and Horn (2000) found that teaching writing requires special attention to motivational aspects, including fostering engagement using authentic writing tasks and providing a supportive context for writing.
* Fortunately, numerous online resources are available to help teachers conduct process writing.
Prewriting. Getting started is often one of the most difficult aspects of writing, and young writers find it particularly onerous.
* All types of prewriting activities can be facilitated by using information organizing software such as electronic outlining and concept mapping programs.
* Electronic outlining - these are now integrated into almost all major word processing programs and are easily accessible as planning tools....automatically generate headings and subheadings from typed information.
* Concept mapping software - also known as webbing software, concept mapping software is popular as a prewriting planning tool.
* Drafting. Drafting is the stage of the writing process when students put ideas and information into words, sentences, and paragraphs.The term drafting for this stage implies an impermanence to the product and therefore reflects the notion that students will continue to plan, rethink, and reorganize their ideas, even while producing text.
* Revising and editing. Revising is the stage during which students make changes in the paper's content or structure that reflect decisions about how to improve its overall quality. One of the best ways for teachers to assist in this process is to project a students' typed draft onto a screen, then model the thinking and decision making that goes into analyzing and revising the text.
* Publishing. Reports, newspaper articles, brochures, slide shows, and web pages are all publishing formats available to students for sharing their written work with peers, teachers, and the larger community.
* Traditional (paper) publishing - students produce paper products such as reports, books, newspaper articles, and brochures. Desktop publishing programs are designed to facilitate the production of professional looking printed products.
* Electronic publushing - students can also share their writing in electronic forms such as websites, electronic books, multimedia slide shows, and news broadcasts. Electronic penpal (keypal) projects are growing in popularity and provide creative and authentic opportunites for communication.
Chapter 8: Integrating the Internet into the Curriculum
The Internet has has a profound impact on the social, economic, and political life of America...we have seen enormous changes in the way we conduct research, make purchases, learn about the world, live our lives.
Background on Web-Based Learning Activities
* Web-based activities hve great potential to enhance learning, but they are time consuming to develop and implement and difficult to design in ways that have substantial, positive, impact on students' learning.
* They are, in effect, asking teachers to document the relative advantage of online activities in comparison with other strategies they might use to accomplish the same purposes.
* Why is the curriculum-related purpose of the activity? Using the internet should not be thought of as an end in itself. The activity should accomplish some objective or purpose in required school curriculum.
* Does the internet enhance the activity? The rule of thumb is that if the activity could be done without the internet, it probably should be!
* How will students use online resources (as opposed to just locating them)? The object of the activity should be for students to do something with what they locate on the internet.
* Do students have the necessary information analysis/information synthesis skills or am I including these in the instruction? To make sure the project doesnt become an "information locating" exercise, it should call for additional, higher level tasks after the students find the information.
* Do I have the necessary time and support for the activity? Harris points out that two problems are frequently cited in the failure of online activities. First, online projects can take longer than other learning strategies, and teachers do not allow sufficient time. Harris recommends doubling the original time estimate. Second, any number of technical problems can and do occur during an online project. Teachers must make sure they have technical support to resolve these problems in an efficient way so as not to slow down the momentum of the project.
Types and Examples of Web-Based Lessons and Projects
* Some of the most exciting distance learning applications call for students to use technology as a means of collaboration so they can address significant problems or issues or to communicate with people in other cultures throughtout the world.
* Interpersonal exchanges - students communicating via technology with other students or with teachers/experts
* Information collection and analysis - using information collections that provide data and information on request
* Problem solving - student-oriented and cooperative problem-solving projects
Harris lists strategies she calls activity structures that fall under these three categories. Lessons based on a given activity structure all follow the same basic design, even though their content and objectives may vary.
* Electronic penpals or "keypals." Teachers link up each student with a partner or penpal in a distant location to whom the student writes letters or diary-type entries.
* Electronic mentoring. Dyrli (1994) referred to subject matter experts who volunteer to work closely with students online as electronic mentors.
* Electronic (or virtual) field trips. An electronic field trip in its simplest form fills classroom screens with visual images of a place considered to offer some educational value and to which students would not routinely be able to travel.
* Electronic publishing. When students submit their written or artistic products to a website, it is called electronic publishing. This allows their work to be shared with other students and visitors to the site.
* Group product development. Teachers have developed many variations of online group development of products. For example, students may use email to solicit and offer feedback on an evolving literary project, sometimes involving advice from professional authors.
* Problem-based learning. Sage (2000) described problem-based learning (PBL) as "learning organized around the investigation and resolution of an authentic, ill-structured problem."
* Collaborative problem solving - this model involves several students or student groups working together to solve a problem. These kinds of lessons were dubbed webquests by Bernie Dodge and Tom March at San Diego University and became a model for teachers across the country to use in creating their own lessons.
* Parallel problem solving - in this strategy, students in a number of different locations can work on similar problems.
* Data analysis - these activities give students access to data from real phenomena such as weather or solar activity.
* Simulated activities - these are the web equivalent of simulation software. For example, Hartley (2000) describes sites with a variety of virtual "labs" in which students can learn chemistry, physics, and math principles.
* Social action projects. In social action projects, students are responsible for learning about and addressing important global social, economic, political, or environmental conditions.
Integration Strategies for Web-Based Activities
* These types of projects help address a variety of classroom needs, and it is this match of activity types with needs that defines and shapes integration strategies.
* Web-based projects are so rich in resources and learning possibilities that each one can usually be used with more than one of the integration strategies discussed next.
* Support for student research. Students frequently use websites and web-based video resources and videoconferencing to gain insights into topics they are studying and to locate information for research papers and presentations.
* Motivation for writing. As discussed in Chapter 7 under the email section, strategies that have students writing for distance audiences help motivate them to write more and to do their best writing.
* Practice for information literacy skills. Locating and using information on internet sources has become a key part of classroom learning.
* Visual learning problems and solutions. Many sites provide access to data, images, animations, and videos that help students understand complex problems and guide them in creating their own solutions.
* Development of collaboration skills. Web-based projects provide reich opportunities for students to learn how to work together to solve problems.
* Multicultural experiences. Many web-based projects focus on broadening students' perspectives on their own and other cultures and providing insights into how their culture relates to others in the world.
Website Support for Web-Based Learning Activities
* Harris (1998) pointed out that websites can perform several different functions to support distance learning activities.
Website function type #1: Project overview, announcement, and application. Sites can introduce the goals and purposes of existing projects and invite people to participate.
Website function type #2: Tutorial instruction. A website can serve to deliver actual instruction and information on a topic or project.
Website function type #3: Information summaries and exchanges. Students can use websites to add information to a collection that will be shared with others. For example, KIDLINK's Multiculutral Calendar database is a collection of descriptions written by students of holidays and festivals around the world.
Website function type #4: Communication and support. Websites can serve as a virtual meeting place to support students' communications as they work together at distant locations. These websites can be even more helpful if they build in streaming video or videoconferencing.
Website function type #5: Displays of past and current student work. Students can use sites as web publications centers in which students show examples of their poems, stories, pictures, and multimedia products.
Website function type #6: Project development centers. Finally, websites sometimes are set up for the specific purpose of inviting new distance learning projects.
Assessing the Quality of Web-Based Lessons
* Hundreds of web-based activities are available for teachers to use in their classrooms or join online; some work better than others.
* Although webquests represent just one of many possible types of web-based lessons, the elements of this rubric actually apply to most of them.
Resources for Web Page and Website Development
* Development personal, professional, school, and project web pages and websites has become an excellent way for both teachers and students to learn the power of the internet, to participate in cooperative projects, and to display the project results.
Web Page and Website Authoring Tools
* Only a few years ago, web pages could not be developed without program authoring languages and scripting tools.
* Program authoring tools include: Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Java, Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML), and Practical Extraction and Report Language (PERL).
* HTML is the internet standard for how web pages are formatted and displayed.
* Java is a high-level programming language developed by Sun Microsystems.
* VRML develops and displays 3-D objects on web pages.
* PERL and other programming languages. Developers can use PERL or another programming language to write Common Gateway Interface (CGI) programs that create dynamic documents.
Web development software. Web development tools generate HTML, CGI scripts, and other code so that users can devlop web page and website products without having to know programming languages.
Downloading, Images, Programs, and Plug-ins
* Several of the resources tat are useful in both developing and using web pages can be downloaded - that is, transferred from a website to your computer - free from company sites.
* Some of these are images, programs, (e.g., updated versions of browsers), and plug-ins or "player" programs that allow you to play audio and video clips in web pages.
Downloading images. The internet has been around in text format since 1969. However, it became the society-wide phenomenon we know today only when the first web browser, Mosaic, made it possible for the internet to appear on computer screens as images.
* Downloading an image from the internet is easy, but remember that many images you find on web pages are copyrighted.
* Several image formats, or ways of storing images, have been developed over the years to serve various purposes: either a certain computer or operating system required ir, or certain formats deal better with differences among image types (e.g., photos rather than drawn images or clip art).
* BMP - stands for "bitmapped."
* EPS - stands for "encapsulated postscript."
* PDF - stands for "portable document format."
* PICT - short for "picture" format.
* TIF - stands for "tagged image file."
* GIF - stands for "graphics interchange format."
* JPEG - stands for "Joint photographic experts group."
Images downloaded from web pages will be in either GIF or JPEG format.
Downloading programs and plug-ins. Web browsers made the internet visual, but subsequent developments gave it sound and motion. Special programs called plug-inshave been created to allow people to see and hear the multimedia features that make the internet increasingly lifelike.
*Updated browser versions - most new computers come with a browser program stored on the hard drive.
* PDF reader - this program lets you see portable document format files. These are pages stored as images so they may be printed out with a page appearance identical to the original document.
* Streaming video and audio player plug-ins - an exciting internet capability is being able to see action or hear sounds live on the internet. It is so called because it sends or "streams" images and sounds a little at a time so one need not download the files completely before using the contents.
* Movie player plug-in - videos that have been digitized and stored as movie files may be viewed through a plug-in.
* Animation plug-in - special programs that create animated content (e.g., sliding menus, games, movies) for the web also come with their own players.
File Transfer Options: Email Attachments and FTP Programs
* Two ways to transfer large written documents, graphics files, and programs from one computer to another include email attachments and File Transfer Protocol (FTP).
Sending files as email attachments. One easy way to send files is merely to attach them to email messages. Browsers and email programs have built-in options for selecting files to send as attachments option from a menu while preparing an email message.
Sending files via File Transfer Protocol (FTP). A common procedure for uploading files to serves on the internet, FTP requires software and a server set up to receive files.
Procedures for Developing and Evaluating Web Pages and Websites
Required Development Resources
Teachers and students can use two different strategies to create their own web pages and websites:
* Creating pages from scratch and linking them, or
* Downloadingor "grabbing" existing pages and modifying them for your own use.
* Web development software - although you can create pages by programming them in HTML code, teachers will find that using web page development software is preferable; it is easier and faster,a nd it requires much less technical skill.
* FTP software - after developing the pages for your site, you must transfer or upload them to a server.
* Server to house the website - your website must have a "home, " that is , a computer or server on which it resides.
Caveats When Creating Web Page Information
* Limit sharing of personal information - because so many people will have access to your website, you may wish to limit personal information such as pictures and telephone numbers.
* Limit photos and large graphics - these take a long time to load and can be frustrating to users who wish to see the information on your site.
* Address web page criteria - use the same criteria for your own page that you wish to see in other sites.
Recommended Web Page Development Sequence
The following eight steps are recommended as a development sequence.
Step 1: Plan and storyboard. Planning and design are the most difficult and important - and most frequently neglected - first steps in developing a website.
Step 2: Develop pages with text. The next step is to create blank web pages and insert text elements such as titles, paragraphs of descriptions, and any text labels that will later serve as links.
Setp 3: Insert images and media. Pictures, animations, photos, and movies come next. Images and animations must be in GIF and JPEG format; movies and sounds must be in MPEG format.
Step 4: Insert links and frames. After all pages are designed, insert links or "hot spots" from text and images to other pages in the site and locations on the internet.
Step 5: Insert interactive elements. If desired, make the web page "interactive" by inserting Java applets, interactive forms, and mail-to commands to gather comments from users who visit your site.
Step 6: Test in a browser. Many development programs have a built-in preview system, but it is essential to test the site with an actual browser to observe how it will work when it is published on the web.
Step 7: Publish (upload) the site. For others to see created web pages, developers must place them on a server.
Step 8: Gather evaluation comments, revise, and maintain the site. The best websites are those that are updated regularly based on user comments and the continuing insights of the developers.
Criteria for Evaluating Web Pages and Website Design
* Good structure and organization - the first page of the site indicates clearly how to get to its various parts. Some sites do this with an option bar that appears at the top, bottom, or side of every page in the site.
* Clear text and/or graphic links - branches are organized so that you can get back to the main page in no more than three clicks. One device for large sites provides a link to a site map or an at a glance guide to the contents.
* Good visual design - pages are designed for good readability. A limited number of colors and fonts are used; fonts are easy to read, and colors are selected for contrast with the background.
* Easy navigation - pages load quickly. It's easy to get around in the site. Links are provided so you can get back to the main page from any part of the site.
Criteria for Evaluating Student Web Products
* As students begin to create their own web page products, it is helpful to give them criteria in the form of rubrics that describe the quality they are aiming for in each of several aspects.
Background on Web-Based Learning Activities
* Web-based activities hve great potential to enhance learning, but they are time consuming to develop and implement and difficult to design in ways that have substantial, positive, impact on students' learning.
* They are, in effect, asking teachers to document the relative advantage of online activities in comparison with other strategies they might use to accomplish the same purposes.
* Why is the curriculum-related purpose of the activity? Using the internet should not be thought of as an end in itself. The activity should accomplish some objective or purpose in required school curriculum.
* Does the internet enhance the activity? The rule of thumb is that if the activity could be done without the internet, it probably should be!
* How will students use online resources (as opposed to just locating them)? The object of the activity should be for students to do something with what they locate on the internet.
* Do students have the necessary information analysis/information synthesis skills or am I including these in the instruction? To make sure the project doesnt become an "information locating" exercise, it should call for additional, higher level tasks after the students find the information.
* Do I have the necessary time and support for the activity? Harris points out that two problems are frequently cited in the failure of online activities. First, online projects can take longer than other learning strategies, and teachers do not allow sufficient time. Harris recommends doubling the original time estimate. Second, any number of technical problems can and do occur during an online project. Teachers must make sure they have technical support to resolve these problems in an efficient way so as not to slow down the momentum of the project.
Types and Examples of Web-Based Lessons and Projects
* Some of the most exciting distance learning applications call for students to use technology as a means of collaboration so they can address significant problems or issues or to communicate with people in other cultures throughtout the world.
* Interpersonal exchanges - students communicating via technology with other students or with teachers/experts
* Information collection and analysis - using information collections that provide data and information on request
* Problem solving - student-oriented and cooperative problem-solving projects
Harris lists strategies she calls activity structures that fall under these three categories. Lessons based on a given activity structure all follow the same basic design, even though their content and objectives may vary.
* Electronic penpals or "keypals." Teachers link up each student with a partner or penpal in a distant location to whom the student writes letters or diary-type entries.
* Electronic mentoring. Dyrli (1994) referred to subject matter experts who volunteer to work closely with students online as electronic mentors.
* Electronic (or virtual) field trips. An electronic field trip in its simplest form fills classroom screens with visual images of a place considered to offer some educational value and to which students would not routinely be able to travel.
* Electronic publishing. When students submit their written or artistic products to a website, it is called electronic publishing. This allows their work to be shared with other students and visitors to the site.
* Group product development. Teachers have developed many variations of online group development of products. For example, students may use email to solicit and offer feedback on an evolving literary project, sometimes involving advice from professional authors.
* Problem-based learning. Sage (2000) described problem-based learning (PBL) as "learning organized around the investigation and resolution of an authentic, ill-structured problem."
* Collaborative problem solving - this model involves several students or student groups working together to solve a problem. These kinds of lessons were dubbed webquests by Bernie Dodge and Tom March at San Diego University and became a model for teachers across the country to use in creating their own lessons.
* Parallel problem solving - in this strategy, students in a number of different locations can work on similar problems.
* Data analysis - these activities give students access to data from real phenomena such as weather or solar activity.
* Simulated activities - these are the web equivalent of simulation software. For example, Hartley (2000) describes sites with a variety of virtual "labs" in which students can learn chemistry, physics, and math principles.
* Social action projects. In social action projects, students are responsible for learning about and addressing important global social, economic, political, or environmental conditions.
Integration Strategies for Web-Based Activities
* These types of projects help address a variety of classroom needs, and it is this match of activity types with needs that defines and shapes integration strategies.
* Web-based projects are so rich in resources and learning possibilities that each one can usually be used with more than one of the integration strategies discussed next.
* Support for student research. Students frequently use websites and web-based video resources and videoconferencing to gain insights into topics they are studying and to locate information for research papers and presentations.
* Motivation for writing. As discussed in Chapter 7 under the email section, strategies that have students writing for distance audiences help motivate them to write more and to do their best writing.
* Practice for information literacy skills. Locating and using information on internet sources has become a key part of classroom learning.
* Visual learning problems and solutions. Many sites provide access to data, images, animations, and videos that help students understand complex problems and guide them in creating their own solutions.
* Development of collaboration skills. Web-based projects provide reich opportunities for students to learn how to work together to solve problems.
* Multicultural experiences. Many web-based projects focus on broadening students' perspectives on their own and other cultures and providing insights into how their culture relates to others in the world.
Website Support for Web-Based Learning Activities
* Harris (1998) pointed out that websites can perform several different functions to support distance learning activities.
Website function type #1: Project overview, announcement, and application. Sites can introduce the goals and purposes of existing projects and invite people to participate.
Website function type #2: Tutorial instruction. A website can serve to deliver actual instruction and information on a topic or project.
Website function type #3: Information summaries and exchanges. Students can use websites to add information to a collection that will be shared with others. For example, KIDLINK's Multiculutral Calendar database is a collection of descriptions written by students of holidays and festivals around the world.
Website function type #4: Communication and support. Websites can serve as a virtual meeting place to support students' communications as they work together at distant locations. These websites can be even more helpful if they build in streaming video or videoconferencing.
Website function type #5: Displays of past and current student work. Students can use sites as web publications centers in which students show examples of their poems, stories, pictures, and multimedia products.
Website function type #6: Project development centers. Finally, websites sometimes are set up for the specific purpose of inviting new distance learning projects.
Assessing the Quality of Web-Based Lessons
* Hundreds of web-based activities are available for teachers to use in their classrooms or join online; some work better than others.
* Although webquests represent just one of many possible types of web-based lessons, the elements of this rubric actually apply to most of them.
Resources for Web Page and Website Development
* Development personal, professional, school, and project web pages and websites has become an excellent way for both teachers and students to learn the power of the internet, to participate in cooperative projects, and to display the project results.
Web Page and Website Authoring Tools
* Only a few years ago, web pages could not be developed without program authoring languages and scripting tools.
* Program authoring tools include: Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Java, Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML), and Practical Extraction and Report Language (PERL).
* HTML is the internet standard for how web pages are formatted and displayed.
* Java is a high-level programming language developed by Sun Microsystems.
* VRML develops and displays 3-D objects on web pages.
* PERL and other programming languages. Developers can use PERL or another programming language to write Common Gateway Interface (CGI) programs that create dynamic documents.
Web development software. Web development tools generate HTML, CGI scripts, and other code so that users can devlop web page and website products without having to know programming languages.
Downloading, Images, Programs, and Plug-ins
* Several of the resources tat are useful in both developing and using web pages can be downloaded - that is, transferred from a website to your computer - free from company sites.
* Some of these are images, programs, (e.g., updated versions of browsers), and plug-ins or "player" programs that allow you to play audio and video clips in web pages.
Downloading images. The internet has been around in text format since 1969. However, it became the society-wide phenomenon we know today only when the first web browser, Mosaic, made it possible for the internet to appear on computer screens as images.
* Downloading an image from the internet is easy, but remember that many images you find on web pages are copyrighted.
* Several image formats, or ways of storing images, have been developed over the years to serve various purposes: either a certain computer or operating system required ir, or certain formats deal better with differences among image types (e.g., photos rather than drawn images or clip art).
* BMP - stands for "bitmapped."
* EPS - stands for "encapsulated postscript."
* PDF - stands for "portable document format."
* PICT - short for "picture" format.
* TIF - stands for "tagged image file."
* GIF - stands for "graphics interchange format."
* JPEG - stands for "Joint photographic experts group."
Images downloaded from web pages will be in either GIF or JPEG format.
Downloading programs and plug-ins. Web browsers made the internet visual, but subsequent developments gave it sound and motion. Special programs called plug-inshave been created to allow people to see and hear the multimedia features that make the internet increasingly lifelike.
*Updated browser versions - most new computers come with a browser program stored on the hard drive.
* PDF reader - this program lets you see portable document format files. These are pages stored as images so they may be printed out with a page appearance identical to the original document.
* Streaming video and audio player plug-ins - an exciting internet capability is being able to see action or hear sounds live on the internet. It is so called because it sends or "streams" images and sounds a little at a time so one need not download the files completely before using the contents.
* Movie player plug-in - videos that have been digitized and stored as movie files may be viewed through a plug-in.
* Animation plug-in - special programs that create animated content (e.g., sliding menus, games, movies) for the web also come with their own players.
File Transfer Options: Email Attachments and FTP Programs
* Two ways to transfer large written documents, graphics files, and programs from one computer to another include email attachments and File Transfer Protocol (FTP).
Sending files as email attachments. One easy way to send files is merely to attach them to email messages. Browsers and email programs have built-in options for selecting files to send as attachments option from a menu while preparing an email message.
Sending files via File Transfer Protocol (FTP). A common procedure for uploading files to serves on the internet, FTP requires software and a server set up to receive files.
Procedures for Developing and Evaluating Web Pages and Websites
Required Development Resources
Teachers and students can use two different strategies to create their own web pages and websites:
* Creating pages from scratch and linking them, or
* Downloadingor "grabbing" existing pages and modifying them for your own use.
* Web development software - although you can create pages by programming them in HTML code, teachers will find that using web page development software is preferable; it is easier and faster,a nd it requires much less technical skill.
* FTP software - after developing the pages for your site, you must transfer or upload them to a server.
* Server to house the website - your website must have a "home, " that is , a computer or server on which it resides.
Caveats When Creating Web Page Information
* Limit sharing of personal information - because so many people will have access to your website, you may wish to limit personal information such as pictures and telephone numbers.
* Limit photos and large graphics - these take a long time to load and can be frustrating to users who wish to see the information on your site.
* Address web page criteria - use the same criteria for your own page that you wish to see in other sites.
Recommended Web Page Development Sequence
The following eight steps are recommended as a development sequence.
Step 1: Plan and storyboard. Planning and design are the most difficult and important - and most frequently neglected - first steps in developing a website.
Step 2: Develop pages with text. The next step is to create blank web pages and insert text elements such as titles, paragraphs of descriptions, and any text labels that will later serve as links.
Setp 3: Insert images and media. Pictures, animations, photos, and movies come next. Images and animations must be in GIF and JPEG format; movies and sounds must be in MPEG format.
Step 4: Insert links and frames. After all pages are designed, insert links or "hot spots" from text and images to other pages in the site and locations on the internet.
Step 5: Insert interactive elements. If desired, make the web page "interactive" by inserting Java applets, interactive forms, and mail-to commands to gather comments from users who visit your site.
Step 6: Test in a browser. Many development programs have a built-in preview system, but it is essential to test the site with an actual browser to observe how it will work when it is published on the web.
Step 7: Publish (upload) the site. For others to see created web pages, developers must place them on a server.
Step 8: Gather evaluation comments, revise, and maintain the site. The best websites are those that are updated regularly based on user comments and the continuing insights of the developers.
Criteria for Evaluating Web Pages and Website Design
* Good structure and organization - the first page of the site indicates clearly how to get to its various parts. Some sites do this with an option bar that appears at the top, bottom, or side of every page in the site.
* Clear text and/or graphic links - branches are organized so that you can get back to the main page in no more than three clicks. One device for large sites provides a link to a site map or an at a glance guide to the contents.
* Good visual design - pages are designed for good readability. A limited number of colors and fonts are used; fonts are easy to read, and colors are selected for contrast with the background.
* Easy navigation - pages load quickly. It's easy to get around in the site. Links are provided so you can get back to the main page from any part of the site.
Criteria for Evaluating Student Web Products
* As students begin to create their own web page products, it is helpful to give them criteria in the form of rubrics that describe the quality they are aiming for in each of several aspects.
Chapter 7: Introducing the Internet and Other Distance Learning Tools
It is obvious that both teaching and learning...will be influenced in varying ways by "the death of distance."
Background on Distance Education
Distance Education: Placing the Internet in Context
* Technology has changed no aspect of society more quickly quickly and dramatically than its commications capabilities.
* Children today regard revolutionary technologies such as fax machines , cellular phones, and the internet as normal, everyday parts of the electronic landscape in which they live.
* If knowledge is power, as Francis Bacon said, then communication is freedom - freedom for people to reach information they need in order to acquire knowledge that can empower them.
* The internet burst on the scene in our society and in education a relatively short time ago, but quickly set fire to the interest and imagination of even the least technical teachers, students, and parents.
Defining Distance Learning
* This definition leaves open the door to more constructivist views of learning, including the possibility that, though learning is taking place, there may not be an instructor at all, and no formal or organized instruction may be offered.
Distance Learning Delivery Systems
* Although the Internet was the catalyst for an unprecedented interest in distance learning, it is by no means the only delivery system for distance learning.
* Distance learning has been done by correspondence study via postal mail (a.k.a. snail mail)since the 19th century.
* The first major change to correspondence courses came when presentations were placed on videotape and mailed along with print materials.
* Videoconferencing (live video and audio communications) via the Internet also is becoming increasingly popular in K-12 classrooms.
Types of Distance Learning Activities
* Once a rarity in education, distance activities have become a mainstream alternative to and supplement for face-to-face learning.
* Student research. Students use the internet to search for materials and information to support their research and production work.
* Online classroom materials. In this type of distance learning. teachers use online materials to help teach themselves and/or their students a topic or skill.
* Web-based lessons. In this type of learning, teachers use website resources to structure a curriculum lesson.
* Virtual courses and programs. Distance courses were popular in higher education long before they caught on at K-12 levels.
Current Issues in Distance Learning
* When communication became more global and accessible, many in education hoped it would mean better access to high-quality education for all students, regardless of location and economic status.
* Digital Divide issues. Recent studies show that while more students are using the internet and other distance resources, children from underserved popluation (e.g., low-income and some minority students) still have far less access at home and school than other students.
* Development and socialization issues. Spending too much time on computers has been cited as harmful to children's development of relationships and social skills.
* Positive and negative impact on education reform. Many educators predict that distance learning will reform teaching methods and increase access to quality education.
Virtual schooling issues. Although an increasingly popular strategy, K-12 virtual courses and programs present the following ongoing challenges:
* Curriculum alignment - to award credit, virtual school curriculum standards have to be aligned to state and local standards where the students reside.
* Teacher certification - to ensure they are qualified, online teachers must receive certification from a state agency.
* Accreditation - course credit can be granted either by the virtual school or the school district.
* Funding - lawsuits have arisen over whether or not virtual schools should be authorized to use public funds.
* Possible negative consequences - there is an ongoing dialog on the possible negative effects of virtual schooling on students' socialization.
Current Research in Distance Learning
* Although fueled by the popularity of the Internet, the current wellspring of support for distance learning seems unlikely be just a passing fad.
* Effectiveness of distance learning compared with face-to-face (FTF) learning. Some distance learning methods are among the most well studied in education. For example, course delivery via instructional television has long been considered equivalent to FTF instruction in its impact on achievement and on attitudes of students
* Course characteristics that affect success. Some studies focus on course factors that correlate directly to dropout rates in distance learning courses.
* High interaction - through some studies find that the convenience distance learning offers means more to students than teachers interaction, the single greatest determinant of satisfaction across studies is the amount of interaction between instructor and students.
* Support during course - many studies show that students value and profit from instructor and other support during their course experiences, from registration through course activities and evaluation.
* Low technical problems - consistent evidence exists that technical problems can doom the best planned course.
Characteristics of successful distance learning. Some researchers have tried to identify certain student capabilities or other factors that could predict whether or not a student might drop out, be less satisfied with, or do less than others in an online activity.
Characteristics of effective distance learning instructors. Cyrs (1997) emphasizes that distance learning instructors need different skills than instructors for traditional courses.
* course planning and organization that capitalize on distance learning strengths and minimize constraints
* verbal and nonverbal presentation skills specific to distance learning situations
* collaborative work with others to produce effective courses
* ability to use questioning strategies
* ability to involve and coordinate student activities among several sites.
Research on cost effectiveness of distance learning.
* technology - hardware and software
* transmission - ongoing expenses of leasing transmission access (e.g., T1 lines, satellite)
* maintenance - repairing and updating equipment
* infrastructure - foundational network and telecommunications infrastructure located at originating and receiving sites
* production - technical and personnel support to develop/adapt teaching materials
* support - espenses needed to keep the system working successfully, for example, administrative costs, registration, advising/counseling, local support costs, facilities, and overhead costs
* personnel - instructors and support staff
Introducing the Internet
A brief history of the Internet in Education
* The Internet has made such a difference in our society that it is different to remember when we did not depend on it for communications, instruction, and even enterainment.
* Because these projects were funded by the DOD's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), the network was originally called ARPAnet.
* Networks connect computers to allow users to share resources and exchange information easily.
Current Pitfalls in Internet Use
* As it has become a society-wide tool, the Internet also has spawned its share of society-wide debates and problems.
Potential pitfall # 1: Accessing sites with inappropriate materials. Like a big-city bookstore, the internet has materials that parents and teachers may not want students to see, either because they are inappropriate for an age level or because they contain information or images considered objectionable.
Potential pitfall #2: Safety and privacy issues for students.
* Online predators - some people get on the internet to seek out and take advantage of vulnerable young people.
* Sales pitches aimed at children - this is a problem similar to that possed by television commercials.
* Privacy issues - as Ross and Bailey (1996) note, "student by the family rights and privacy act"
Potential pitfall #3: Fraud on the Internet. teachers may find that the fastest, easiest way to order computer products and/or teaching materials is to go to a company's website and order them online.
Potential pitfall #4: Computer viruses and hacking. Viruses are programs written for malicious purposes.
* Emailing attachments with viruses - an increasingly popular wat to send files and programs to friends or colleagues is to attach them to email messages.
* Downloaded files and programs with viruses - as with email attacnments, viruses can attach themselves to files and programs and be received along with the item being downloaded.
Potential pitfall # 5: Copyright and plagiarism issues. The internet is such a rich and easy-to-access source of documents, images, and other resources.
Using Uniform Resource Locators (URLs)
* Our use of the internet depends on common procedures or internet protocols that allow computers to communicate with each other, despite differences in programs or operating systems.
* One important protocol is how we list website addresses.
Optional parts of a URL.
* If an organization is a large one, it may have more than one server; or it may split up a large computer into sections.
* Optional parts called siffixes can come after a domain designator.
Three URL uses. Three things to learn about URLs are how to locate them, read them, and "fix" errors in them.
* Locating URLs - if you want to visit a site, but you dont know its URLs, one way to find it is to make an educated guess.
* Reading URLs - if someone gives you a URL, very often you can tell what and where it is by reading its parts.
* Fixing errors in URLs - someone may give you a URL with an error in it (or you may write it down incorrectly).
Navigating the Net
* You can move around from web page to web page on the internet by using three differnet options: clicking on links, using forward and back buttons, and using the go menu.
Method #1: Navigating with links. You can "travel" on the internet by using your mouse to click links (also known as hot links or hot spots), text or images that have been programmed into the web page to send your browser to another location on the internet, either within the site or to another site, when you click on them.
Method # 2: Navigating with buttons. Forward and backward buttons are available on your browser menu bars.
Method # 3: Navigating with the Go Menu. While the forward and back buttons let you go in a straight line, back and forth to pages you have been.
Using Bookmarks or Favorites
* You may visit so many sites on the internet that you can quickly lose track of where you found a valuable site on a certain topic.
Adding a Bookmark or Favorite. Making a Bookmark or Favorite is very simple. Just travel to the site and when it is on the screen.
Organizing a Bookmarks or Favorites file. Harris (1998a) says that "well-prepared bookmarks files are great resources for teachers and should be shared with others who have similar interests."
Starting Up Search Engines
* before the internet, it was difficult to locate specific resources or items of information.
Types of search engines. According to searchenginewatch, a site with information on all available search engines, there are many kinds of search engines.
Two search strategies. Search engines can be used in two ways:
* subject index searches - the search engine site provides a list of topics you can click on.
* keyword searches - type in a combination of words that could be found in the URLs of sites or documents you want.
Evaluating Internet Information
* At a time when everything in the world seems so high tech and highly controlled, the internet is, in some ways, a wild frontier.
* Three kinds of problems arise from this lack of control. One of these, the hazards of offensive or dangerous subject matter or illegal activities, has already been discussed. The other two problems are less perilous but still have serious implications for teachers and students.
* Content. The internet's vast information storehouse, unfortunately, contains some information that is incomplete, inaccurate, and/or out of date.
* Design. We have learned a great deal in recent years about what makes a website functional and wasy to use.
Basic Internet Troubleshooting
* Like most technologies, the internet presents its share of "head scratchers."
Problem type #1: Site connection failures. After you enter the URL, the site won't come up on the screen.
* URL syntax errors - a mentioned earlier, each dot and letter in a URL has to be correct, or the site will not load.
* Local or domain server down - if you have checked the URL syntax and are positive it is correct, it may be that the server that hosts the website is not working temporarily.
* Server traffic - a rarer cause of connection failures is that the server handling internet traffic for the network or the users in the geographic region is not working properly.
* Bad or dead links - if a URL repeatedly fails to connect and you are sure the syntax is correct, the site may have been taken off the internet.
* Firewalls - sometimes a site will not connect because a network's firewall blocks it.
Problem type #2: Feature on the site will not work. If an internet site indicates that it has a special feature such as an animation, movie, or sound but it will not work for you, there possible causes:
* Plug-in required - it may be that your computer does not have the special program or plug-in required in order to play the movie or sound.
* Compatibility errors - the internet works because there are agreements in place about how to make various machines and programs "talk" to each other.
* Java and other program errors - internet web pages usually are written in a combination of three programing languages: hypertext markup language (HTML), Java, and less often, Perl.
Communicating on the Internet
Increasingly, the internet has become a primary form of communication for teachers and students, replacing traditional channels such as sending letters and making telephone calls.
* Email. Electronic mail (email) is the most common way to exchange personal, written messages between individuals or small groups.
* The etiquette guidelines that govern behavior when communicating on the internet have become known as netiquette.
Listservs, Bulletin Boards, and Blogs
Three kinds of communication take the form of asynchronous messages rather than synchronous exchanges: listservs, bulletin boards, and blogs.
Chatrooms, Instant Messaging, and Videoconferencing
Three kinds of synchronous (real-time) communications are chatrooms, instant messaging (IM), and videoconferencing.
*Chatrooms - are internet locations that allow "live" communications between two or more users.
* Instant Messaging - one of the newest types of internet communications is instant messaging (IM), a service that allows users to use private chatrooms in which members alert each other when they wish to chat, then may send messages that are receieved immediately, like a telephone conversation but with text messages.
* Videoconferencing - this form of two-way interactive communication allows those involved to see and hear each other.
Cyber Collaborations: MUDs and MOOs, and Avatar Spaces
* Odasz (1999-2000) recommends two resources to support online collaboration, usually for older and more sophisticated learners: multiuser dungeons ( or dimensions or domains) or MUDs, and a MUDs object-oriented (MOOs), a MUD whose code is available and is, therefore, free.
Offering Courses and Programs with Distance Technologies
* As described earlier in this chapter (see section on Types of Distance Learning Activities), web-based courses and degree programs, although problematic (see earlier discussion of virtual schools), are becoming increasingly common in K-12 education.
Web Course Development and Support Tools
* Course management systems - since around 1997, course management systems have become the most commonn means of designing and delivering web-based courses
* Site capturing software - on a high-traffic day, the internet can be as slow as a highway traffic jam.
* Intranets - another way to speed up access to the internet is through an internal network called an intranet.
* Electronic whiteboards (or smartboards) - electronic whiteboards are display screens connected to a computer that multiple users can write or draw on.
Characteristics of Effective Distance Courses and Programs
* Effective online courses have been offered in every content area from math to music and from physics to physical education.
* Well designed and structured to support learning. Just as with any course, effective online courses must be well planned and systematically designed to take advantage of the unique capabilities and constraints of the learning enviornment.
Engaging, collaborative activities. Although some students prefer courses to be individual, tutorial-like ones where they work at their own pace through a sequence of tasks, the most enjoyable courses seem to be those in which students are highly engaged in discussion and collabration.
* Require participation
* Form learning teams
* Make activity interesting
* Don't settle for opinions
* Structure the activity
* Require a deliverable
* Know what you are aiming for
* Use peer grading
An interactive learning community. Teachers and students agree that online courses are more motivating if they simulate the community one finds in a good face-to-face course.
Effective assessment strategies for online courses and programs. While alternative assessments are popular in online lessons, many online learning course systems also offer traditional assessment options.
Assessing the quality of distance courses
* Two rubrics on the DVD that accompanies this text lay out the elements that teachers and students can use to assess the overall quality and usefulness of a distance learning course.
* The rubric for online instruction designed and hosted online by the California State University-chico, focuses on the characteristics and allows courses to be assessed prior to delivering or taking them.
Background on Distance Education
Distance Education: Placing the Internet in Context
* Technology has changed no aspect of society more quickly quickly and dramatically than its commications capabilities.
* Children today regard revolutionary technologies such as fax machines , cellular phones, and the internet as normal, everyday parts of the electronic landscape in which they live.
* If knowledge is power, as Francis Bacon said, then communication is freedom - freedom for people to reach information they need in order to acquire knowledge that can empower them.
* The internet burst on the scene in our society and in education a relatively short time ago, but quickly set fire to the interest and imagination of even the least technical teachers, students, and parents.
Defining Distance Learning
* This definition leaves open the door to more constructivist views of learning, including the possibility that, though learning is taking place, there may not be an instructor at all, and no formal or organized instruction may be offered.
Distance Learning Delivery Systems
* Although the Internet was the catalyst for an unprecedented interest in distance learning, it is by no means the only delivery system for distance learning.
* Distance learning has been done by correspondence study via postal mail (a.k.a. snail mail)since the 19th century.
* The first major change to correspondence courses came when presentations were placed on videotape and mailed along with print materials.
* Videoconferencing (live video and audio communications) via the Internet also is becoming increasingly popular in K-12 classrooms.
Types of Distance Learning Activities
* Once a rarity in education, distance activities have become a mainstream alternative to and supplement for face-to-face learning.
* Student research. Students use the internet to search for materials and information to support their research and production work.
* Online classroom materials. In this type of distance learning. teachers use online materials to help teach themselves and/or their students a topic or skill.
* Web-based lessons. In this type of learning, teachers use website resources to structure a curriculum lesson.
* Virtual courses and programs. Distance courses were popular in higher education long before they caught on at K-12 levels.
Current Issues in Distance Learning
* When communication became more global and accessible, many in education hoped it would mean better access to high-quality education for all students, regardless of location and economic status.
* Digital Divide issues. Recent studies show that while more students are using the internet and other distance resources, children from underserved popluation (e.g., low-income and some minority students) still have far less access at home and school than other students.
* Development and socialization issues. Spending too much time on computers has been cited as harmful to children's development of relationships and social skills.
* Positive and negative impact on education reform. Many educators predict that distance learning will reform teaching methods and increase access to quality education.
Virtual schooling issues. Although an increasingly popular strategy, K-12 virtual courses and programs present the following ongoing challenges:
* Curriculum alignment - to award credit, virtual school curriculum standards have to be aligned to state and local standards where the students reside.
* Teacher certification - to ensure they are qualified, online teachers must receive certification from a state agency.
* Accreditation - course credit can be granted either by the virtual school or the school district.
* Funding - lawsuits have arisen over whether or not virtual schools should be authorized to use public funds.
* Possible negative consequences - there is an ongoing dialog on the possible negative effects of virtual schooling on students' socialization.
Current Research in Distance Learning
* Although fueled by the popularity of the Internet, the current wellspring of support for distance learning seems unlikely be just a passing fad.
* Effectiveness of distance learning compared with face-to-face (FTF) learning. Some distance learning methods are among the most well studied in education. For example, course delivery via instructional television has long been considered equivalent to FTF instruction in its impact on achievement and on attitudes of students
* Course characteristics that affect success. Some studies focus on course factors that correlate directly to dropout rates in distance learning courses.
* High interaction - through some studies find that the convenience distance learning offers means more to students than teachers interaction, the single greatest determinant of satisfaction across studies is the amount of interaction between instructor and students.
* Support during course - many studies show that students value and profit from instructor and other support during their course experiences, from registration through course activities and evaluation.
* Low technical problems - consistent evidence exists that technical problems can doom the best planned course.
Characteristics of successful distance learning. Some researchers have tried to identify certain student capabilities or other factors that could predict whether or not a student might drop out, be less satisfied with, or do less than others in an online activity.
Characteristics of effective distance learning instructors. Cyrs (1997) emphasizes that distance learning instructors need different skills than instructors for traditional courses.
* course planning and organization that capitalize on distance learning strengths and minimize constraints
* verbal and nonverbal presentation skills specific to distance learning situations
* collaborative work with others to produce effective courses
* ability to use questioning strategies
* ability to involve and coordinate student activities among several sites.
Research on cost effectiveness of distance learning.
* technology - hardware and software
* transmission - ongoing expenses of leasing transmission access (e.g., T1 lines, satellite)
* maintenance - repairing and updating equipment
* infrastructure - foundational network and telecommunications infrastructure located at originating and receiving sites
* production - technical and personnel support to develop/adapt teaching materials
* support - espenses needed to keep the system working successfully, for example, administrative costs, registration, advising/counseling, local support costs, facilities, and overhead costs
* personnel - instructors and support staff
Introducing the Internet
A brief history of the Internet in Education
* The Internet has made such a difference in our society that it is different to remember when we did not depend on it for communications, instruction, and even enterainment.
* Because these projects were funded by the DOD's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), the network was originally called ARPAnet.
* Networks connect computers to allow users to share resources and exchange information easily.
Current Pitfalls in Internet Use
* As it has become a society-wide tool, the Internet also has spawned its share of society-wide debates and problems.
Potential pitfall # 1: Accessing sites with inappropriate materials. Like a big-city bookstore, the internet has materials that parents and teachers may not want students to see, either because they are inappropriate for an age level or because they contain information or images considered objectionable.
Potential pitfall #2: Safety and privacy issues for students.
* Online predators - some people get on the internet to seek out and take advantage of vulnerable young people.
* Sales pitches aimed at children - this is a problem similar to that possed by television commercials.
* Privacy issues - as Ross and Bailey (1996) note, "student by the family rights and privacy act"
Potential pitfall #3: Fraud on the Internet. teachers may find that the fastest, easiest way to order computer products and/or teaching materials is to go to a company's website and order them online.
Potential pitfall #4: Computer viruses and hacking. Viruses are programs written for malicious purposes.
* Emailing attachments with viruses - an increasingly popular wat to send files and programs to friends or colleagues is to attach them to email messages.
* Downloaded files and programs with viruses - as with email attacnments, viruses can attach themselves to files and programs and be received along with the item being downloaded.
Potential pitfall # 5: Copyright and plagiarism issues. The internet is such a rich and easy-to-access source of documents, images, and other resources.
Using Uniform Resource Locators (URLs)
* Our use of the internet depends on common procedures or internet protocols that allow computers to communicate with each other, despite differences in programs or operating systems.
* One important protocol is how we list website addresses.
Optional parts of a URL.
* If an organization is a large one, it may have more than one server; or it may split up a large computer into sections.
* Optional parts called siffixes can come after a domain designator.
Three URL uses. Three things to learn about URLs are how to locate them, read them, and "fix" errors in them.
* Locating URLs - if you want to visit a site, but you dont know its URLs, one way to find it is to make an educated guess.
* Reading URLs - if someone gives you a URL, very often you can tell what and where it is by reading its parts.
* Fixing errors in URLs - someone may give you a URL with an error in it (or you may write it down incorrectly).
Navigating the Net
* You can move around from web page to web page on the internet by using three differnet options: clicking on links, using forward and back buttons, and using the go menu.
Method #1: Navigating with links. You can "travel" on the internet by using your mouse to click links (also known as hot links or hot spots), text or images that have been programmed into the web page to send your browser to another location on the internet, either within the site or to another site, when you click on them.
Method # 2: Navigating with buttons. Forward and backward buttons are available on your browser menu bars.
Method # 3: Navigating with the Go Menu. While the forward and back buttons let you go in a straight line, back and forth to pages you have been.
Using Bookmarks or Favorites
* You may visit so many sites on the internet that you can quickly lose track of where you found a valuable site on a certain topic.
Adding a Bookmark or Favorite. Making a Bookmark or Favorite is very simple. Just travel to the site and when it is on the screen.
Organizing a Bookmarks or Favorites file. Harris (1998a) says that "well-prepared bookmarks files are great resources for teachers and should be shared with others who have similar interests."
Starting Up Search Engines
* before the internet, it was difficult to locate specific resources or items of information.
Types of search engines. According to searchenginewatch, a site with information on all available search engines, there are many kinds of search engines.
Two search strategies. Search engines can be used in two ways:
* subject index searches - the search engine site provides a list of topics you can click on.
* keyword searches - type in a combination of words that could be found in the URLs of sites or documents you want.
Evaluating Internet Information
* At a time when everything in the world seems so high tech and highly controlled, the internet is, in some ways, a wild frontier.
* Three kinds of problems arise from this lack of control. One of these, the hazards of offensive or dangerous subject matter or illegal activities, has already been discussed. The other two problems are less perilous but still have serious implications for teachers and students.
* Content. The internet's vast information storehouse, unfortunately, contains some information that is incomplete, inaccurate, and/or out of date.
* Design. We have learned a great deal in recent years about what makes a website functional and wasy to use.
Basic Internet Troubleshooting
* Like most technologies, the internet presents its share of "head scratchers."
Problem type #1: Site connection failures. After you enter the URL, the site won't come up on the screen.
* URL syntax errors - a mentioned earlier, each dot and letter in a URL has to be correct, or the site will not load.
* Local or domain server down - if you have checked the URL syntax and are positive it is correct, it may be that the server that hosts the website is not working temporarily.
* Server traffic - a rarer cause of connection failures is that the server handling internet traffic for the network or the users in the geographic region is not working properly.
* Bad or dead links - if a URL repeatedly fails to connect and you are sure the syntax is correct, the site may have been taken off the internet.
* Firewalls - sometimes a site will not connect because a network's firewall blocks it.
Problem type #2: Feature on the site will not work. If an internet site indicates that it has a special feature such as an animation, movie, or sound but it will not work for you, there possible causes:
* Plug-in required - it may be that your computer does not have the special program or plug-in required in order to play the movie or sound.
* Compatibility errors - the internet works because there are agreements in place about how to make various machines and programs "talk" to each other.
* Java and other program errors - internet web pages usually are written in a combination of three programing languages: hypertext markup language (HTML), Java, and less often, Perl.
Communicating on the Internet
Increasingly, the internet has become a primary form of communication for teachers and students, replacing traditional channels such as sending letters and making telephone calls.
* Email. Electronic mail (email) is the most common way to exchange personal, written messages between individuals or small groups.
* The etiquette guidelines that govern behavior when communicating on the internet have become known as netiquette.
Listservs, Bulletin Boards, and Blogs
Three kinds of communication take the form of asynchronous messages rather than synchronous exchanges: listservs, bulletin boards, and blogs.
Chatrooms, Instant Messaging, and Videoconferencing
Three kinds of synchronous (real-time) communications are chatrooms, instant messaging (IM), and videoconferencing.
*Chatrooms - are internet locations that allow "live" communications between two or more users.
* Instant Messaging - one of the newest types of internet communications is instant messaging (IM), a service that allows users to use private chatrooms in which members alert each other when they wish to chat, then may send messages that are receieved immediately, like a telephone conversation but with text messages.
* Videoconferencing - this form of two-way interactive communication allows those involved to see and hear each other.
Cyber Collaborations: MUDs and MOOs, and Avatar Spaces
* Odasz (1999-2000) recommends two resources to support online collaboration, usually for older and more sophisticated learners: multiuser dungeons ( or dimensions or domains) or MUDs, and a MUDs object-oriented (MOOs), a MUD whose code is available and is, therefore, free.
Offering Courses and Programs with Distance Technologies
* As described earlier in this chapter (see section on Types of Distance Learning Activities), web-based courses and degree programs, although problematic (see earlier discussion of virtual schools), are becoming increasingly common in K-12 education.
Web Course Development and Support Tools
* Course management systems - since around 1997, course management systems have become the most commonn means of designing and delivering web-based courses
* Site capturing software - on a high-traffic day, the internet can be as slow as a highway traffic jam.
* Intranets - another way to speed up access to the internet is through an internal network called an intranet.
* Electronic whiteboards (or smartboards) - electronic whiteboards are display screens connected to a computer that multiple users can write or draw on.
Characteristics of Effective Distance Courses and Programs
* Effective online courses have been offered in every content area from math to music and from physics to physical education.
* Well designed and structured to support learning. Just as with any course, effective online courses must be well planned and systematically designed to take advantage of the unique capabilities and constraints of the learning enviornment.
Engaging, collaborative activities. Although some students prefer courses to be individual, tutorial-like ones where they work at their own pace through a sequence of tasks, the most enjoyable courses seem to be those in which students are highly engaged in discussion and collabration.
* Require participation
* Form learning teams
* Make activity interesting
* Don't settle for opinions
* Structure the activity
* Require a deliverable
* Know what you are aiming for
* Use peer grading
An interactive learning community. Teachers and students agree that online courses are more motivating if they simulate the community one finds in a good face-to-face course.
Effective assessment strategies for online courses and programs. While alternative assessments are popular in online lessons, many online learning course systems also offer traditional assessment options.
Assessing the quality of distance courses
* Two rubrics on the DVD that accompanies this text lay out the elements that teachers and students can use to assess the overall quality and usefulness of a distance learning course.
* The rubric for online instruction designed and hosted online by the California State University-chico, focuses on the characteristics and allows courses to be assessed prior to delivering or taking them.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Chapter 6: Teaching with Multimedia and Hypermedia Tools
Multimedia learning is not something new. It is woven into the fabric of our childhood.... Tom Boyle (1997)
Introduction to Multimedia and Hypermedia
* We live in a mulitmedia world, surrounded by complex images, movement, and sound.
Mulitmedia and Hypermedia: How do they differ?
* Multimedia simply means "multiple media" or "a combination of media." The media can be still pictures, sound, motion video, animation, and/or text items combined in a product whose purpose is to communicate information in multiple ways.
* Hypermedia refers to "linked media" or "interactive media" that have their roots in a concept developed by Vannevar Bush in his landmark article "As We May Think."
Types of Hypermedia Systems
* Hyoermedia systems come in a variety of harware, software, and media configurations and, until recently, were usually classified according to their primary storage equipment: interactive videodiscs (IVDs), CD-ROMs (compact disc-read only memory), digital versatile discs (DVDs), and other technologies.
* Commerical hypermedia software packages
* Authoring tools: Presentation software
* Authoring tools: Video production and editing systems
* Authoring tools: Hypermedia authoring systems
* Authoring tools: Virtual reality (VR) systems
Current and Future Impact of Hypermedia on Education
* Increased motivation
* Flexible learning modes
* Development of creative and critical thinking skills
* Improved writing and process skills
Research on the Impact of Multimedia and Hypermedia Systems
* Roblyer (1999) found that hypermedia's benefits seem to center on its ability to offer students multiple channels through which process information.
* Swan and Meskill (1996) examined how effectively current hypermedia products support the teaching and aquisition of critical thinking skills in reading and language.
* They found that most products were technically sound and linked well with classroom topics, but few were designed to promote the response-based methods that promote critical thinking.
Research on the Design and Use of Multimedia and Hypermedia Systems
* Stemler findings are too extensive to give adequate treatment here, but educators who are committed to high-quality multimedia development should review the full text of her article.
* Instructional design
* Screen design
* Interaction and feedback
* Navigation
* Learner control
* Color
* Graphics
* Animation
* Audio
* Video
* An ongoing series of studies by Mayer focuses on design and usage characteristics for educational multimedia that can optimize impact on student achievement.
Recent Developments in Hypermedia Systems
Three trends in hypermedia system use in education are evident:
* The "vanishing videodisc" - It is one of the more unfortunate developments in educational technology that videodisc technology has all but disappeared from the technology landscape, taking with it the rich array of classroom resources that were developed for this easy-to-use format.
* Convergence of offline (disc) and online (Internet) development - Much of hypermedia either has embedded Internet links, of has been uploaded to the internet after development.
* Increasing ease of use - Hypermedia development use to be a fairly technical enterprise.
Commercial Hypermedia Software Packages
Background on Commercial Hypermedia Software Packages
* The increased storage capability and availability of CD and DVD media has made it easier to store complex programs with motion graphics, movies, audio, and links to the Internet.
Instructional Software
Hypermedia features have increased the capability and value of these programs. For example:
* Tutorials
* Drill and practice
* Simulations
* Instructional games
* Problem solving
Interactive Books and ebooks
* Two kinds of interactive books are currently available: interactive storybooks and interactive texts.
* The first type target primarily younger students, while the second are most often used by older students and adult learners.
*ebooks have become a valuable resource for students and teachers alike, since they offer more flexibility than print texts.
Reference Materials
* Many reference materials are available on CD and DVD at very reasonable costs.
* Some materials have internet links to still more material. Below are just a few of the categories and examples titles.
* Encyclopedias
* Almanacs
* Atlases
* Newspapers and newsletters
* Proceedings and other conference materials
* Some new commercial multimedia products combine instructional software functions with a set of reference materials to create a multifaceted product that can meet a variety of educational needs.
Collections of Development Resources
* Many collections of resources used to develop multimedia are now shipped on CD-ROM.
* These include collections of clip art, sound effects, photographs, video clips, fonts, and document templates.
Evaluating Commercial Hypermedia Products
* Because so many hypermedia products are on the market, teachers must become savvy consumers of these materials.
* Instructional planning and support
* Instructional design
* Content
* Interface design and navigation
* Feedback and interactivity
Integration Strategies for Commercial Hypermedia Products
* Because products om this category vary so widely, instructional uses for them are also varied and rich.
Introduction to Multimedia and Hypermedia Authoring
* One of the most amazing things about how multimedia and hypermedia systems have evolved is that people with fairly nontechnical skill level now can develop their own complex, professional-looking hypermedia products.
Four kinds of multimedia/hypermedia authoring tools for use by both teachers and students are described in this chapter. These are listed here and their uses and sample products are given later in various figures as the following types are discussed:
* Presentation software,
* Video production and editing systems,
* Hypermedia authoring software, and
* Virtual reality systems and other information tools.
The various skills and resources that students and teachers will need in order to use any of these four categories of authoring tools are described here.
Multimedia and Hypermedia Authoring Resources
* Over time, multimedia/hypermedia programs have become increasingly more powerful and user friendly, and features and capabilities are being added with every new version released.
* Authors now can draw on a wide variety of resources to put a full range of sound and motion in their multimedia/hypermedia products.
* Audio Resources. Hypermedia authoring programs offer users a number of ways to incorporate audio clips.
* Video Resources. Motion video clips can add a whole new dimension to a program and provide authors with many new communication possibilities.
* Photos. As in other settings, in hypermedia a picture is worth a thousand words.
* Graphic images. Graphic elements, drawings, and animations offer other tools for authors to communicate their ideas.
Hardware Requirements for Hypermedia Authoring
* Although hypermedia authoring can be accomplished with a fairly minimal computer system, more complex products require additional hardware and software capabilities.
* Computer with keyboard and monitor
* Digital cameras
* Scanners
* Video digitizers
* Camcorders and other video input
* Microphones
* Audio speakers
Hypermedia Authoring Procedures
* Whether teachers are developing their own skills or those of their students, the hypermedia authoring process involves two distinct phases.
* Initially, authors need to learn the mechanics of the programs and develop their understanding of the concept of hypermedia.
* Review others' products - an effective way of developing authoring skills for beginners is to look at what others have done.
* Done research first - most hypermedia development projects require research to locate materials and data, analyze the findings, and summarize them in a format for use in the hypermedia product.
* Storyboard - storyboarding helps students make better use of their time.
* Develop individual frames and segments - in the case of hypermedia products with authoring software, students should develop each frame, including text fields, before adding links or graphics.
* Add links and/or scripts - for software-authored products, links or "buttons" should be added last.
* Test and revise the product - after it is drafted, students should test their products, preferably with the help of others who have been involved in its development.
Authoring Skills to Develop over Time
* The beauty of hypermedia authoring is that students can create products with skills that range from basic to extraordinarily complex and sophisticated.
* Media literacy
* Using msuic and art
* Print design principle
* Video design principles
* Creativity and novel thinking
* Considering the audience
Evaluating Student-Developed Hypermedia
* When students create thier own myltimedia/hypermedia products Dipinto and Turner (1995) suggest that student self-assessment of hypermedia projects may be the most important component of the assessment process.
* Several authors have developed criteria and rubrics for assessing the quality of students hypermedia products.
Multimedia Authoring Tools Type 1: Presentation Software
Introduction to Presentation Software
* Presentation software tools help users create on-screen descriptions, demonstrations, and summaries of information.
* An example of a technology that migrated from business and industry to educatioon, these tools were first adopted by business executives and salepeople who used them to give reports at meetings and presentations to clients.
* Presentation tools began exclusively as electronic slide shows, or sequences of frames shown in a linear way.
* Presentation software also allows authors to include graphics of all kinds, audio and video clips, and internet links.
Integration Strategies for Presentation Software
* Because it is readily available and relatively easy to use, powerpoint software is often the multimedia tool of choice for classroom use.
* Support for lectures or presentations of content - by far the most popular use of these tools is for supporting classroom presentations.
* Practice screens - many teachers set up presentations of spelling or vocabulary words or objects to identify (e.g., lab equipment, famous names or places) to run automatically in the classroom, knowing that students' eyes are drawn to the moving slides.
* Assessment screens - when teachers need students to identify pictures of items (e.g., lab equipment, famous people), powerpoint screens can enable visual assessment strategies.
* Brief tutorials - teachers can create powerpoint reviews of simple concepts (e.g., grammar rules) or "how-to" procedures (e.g., a lab procedure) so that students can review these on their own to make up work of to prepare for tests.
* Book reports - instead of presenting book reports verbally or as written summaries, it is becoming increasingly common or students to report on their reading through powerpoint slideshows.
* Student-created presentations - as technology integration ideas 6.2 and 6.3 illustrate, the most powerful strategy for presentation multimedia is for students to create individual or small-group presentations to document and display the results of their research and/or to practice making persuasive presentations.
Multimedia Authoring Tools Type 2: Video Production and Editing Systems
Induction to Video Production and Editing Systems
* Video editing sotware is to motion images what word processing is to text. The next decade likely will see an explosionin video editing and production to rival the rapid increase in word processing of documents.
* Video can be brought into a computer from a source such as a comcorder and changed into digtial format [Audio Video Interleave (AVI) format or Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) format], or it may be transferred in digital form from a digital camera.
Integration Strategies for Video Production and Editing Systems
* Students and teachers are using computer-based video production and editing systems for a variety of purposes ranging from presenting the daily school news to teaching professional-grade video production skills.
* Demonstrations of procedures - for frequently repeated activities, for example, procedures for science experiments, teachers can film themselves or others completing the steps.
* Student-created presentations - Although students can produce a video as a way of documenting their research findings, as they do with powerpoint presentations, they often create videos that illustrate real-life examples of concepts they have learned (e.g., showing how algebra applies to everyday situations) or document conditions they want to bring to light (e.g., social issues in their community).
* Video lectures - teachers can take video of themselves or other experts explaining key concepts.
* Video portfolios - students portfolios have become more common for assessment purposes, and video systems have assumed a central role in portfolio development.
* Video decision-making/problem-solving simulations - this strategy was made popular with the adventures of jasper woodbury videodiscs.
* Documenting of school activities - many middle and secondary schools use video cameras and video editing software to produce a daily news show or morning annoucements.
* Visual literacy instruction - now that video is playing a greater role in our society, visual literacy is a requirement.
* Teaching of video production - technology education labs usually feature video production as one of the required learning stations.
Multimedia Authoring Tool Type 3: Hypermedia Software
Introduction to Hypermedia Software Tools
* In the late 1980s, early hypermedia authoring programs inclued HyperCard for Macintosh, LinkWay for MS-DOS machines, and TutorTech for Apple II computers.
Integration Strategies for Hypermedia Authoring Software
* Multimedia and Hypermedia development projects are taking the place of many traditional activities to accomplish the same purposes.
* Brief tutorials - both teachers and students can create multimedia instructional sequences that step the user through the components of a subject.
* Student-created presentations - scholten and Whitmer (1996), Bennett and Diener (1997), and Stuhlmann (1997) point out that hypermedia presentations not only let studnets present their fndings attractively and with impact.
* Interactive storybooks - Frederickson (1997) describes a use that builds on the book report purpose.
Multimedia Authoring Tools Type 4: Virtual Reality and Other Immersion
Introduction to Virtual Reality and Other Immersion Tools
* Once only dreamed of in science fiction, some types of virtual reality (VR) are now seen frequently in classrooms.
* Through various visual and tactile devices, VR can represent real or imaginary worlds in which the user interacts through multiple senses: a true multimedia environment.
*Full immersion systems - though not often used in education, this is what people usually envision when they think of VR.
* In full immersion systems, the user places a headset (e.g., goggles or a helmet) over the eyes.
* Web-based VR - this kind of VR is made possible by Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) and Extensible Mark-up Language (XML).
*3-D models - these are made possible with sophisticated software that creates three-dimensional replicas of objects or locations.
* QuickTime VR (QTVR)- made possible by QuickTimeVRAuthoring Studio from Apple Computer, this type of VR is easy to access using the standard QuickTime player available free from Apple Computer, but requires much less effort to create than immersion systems, VRML, or 3-D models.
Integration Strategies for Virtual Reality and Other Immersion Tools
* Though not as common as other forms of hypermedia, VR is gaining interest for some instructional needs.
* Imaging for virtual field trips - perhaps the most common VR application is QuickTime VR panoramas created and used for virtual field trips.
* 3-D models to illustrate how systems work - although still limited to more technical topics in mathematics and science.
* Immersion learning environments for practice and exploration - full immersion systems are usually limited to university settings, but they have seen fairly extensive use in special education as a way to allow students to practice skills in a realistic, but safe, setting.
Introduction to Multimedia and Hypermedia
* We live in a mulitmedia world, surrounded by complex images, movement, and sound.
Mulitmedia and Hypermedia: How do they differ?
* Multimedia simply means "multiple media" or "a combination of media." The media can be still pictures, sound, motion video, animation, and/or text items combined in a product whose purpose is to communicate information in multiple ways.
* Hypermedia refers to "linked media" or "interactive media" that have their roots in a concept developed by Vannevar Bush in his landmark article "As We May Think."
Types of Hypermedia Systems
* Hyoermedia systems come in a variety of harware, software, and media configurations and, until recently, were usually classified according to their primary storage equipment: interactive videodiscs (IVDs), CD-ROMs (compact disc-read only memory), digital versatile discs (DVDs), and other technologies.
* Commerical hypermedia software packages
* Authoring tools: Presentation software
* Authoring tools: Video production and editing systems
* Authoring tools: Hypermedia authoring systems
* Authoring tools: Virtual reality (VR) systems
Current and Future Impact of Hypermedia on Education
* Increased motivation
* Flexible learning modes
* Development of creative and critical thinking skills
* Improved writing and process skills
Research on the Impact of Multimedia and Hypermedia Systems
* Roblyer (1999) found that hypermedia's benefits seem to center on its ability to offer students multiple channels through which process information.
* Swan and Meskill (1996) examined how effectively current hypermedia products support the teaching and aquisition of critical thinking skills in reading and language.
* They found that most products were technically sound and linked well with classroom topics, but few were designed to promote the response-based methods that promote critical thinking.
Research on the Design and Use of Multimedia and Hypermedia Systems
* Stemler findings are too extensive to give adequate treatment here, but educators who are committed to high-quality multimedia development should review the full text of her article.
* Instructional design
* Screen design
* Interaction and feedback
* Navigation
* Learner control
* Color
* Graphics
* Animation
* Audio
* Video
* An ongoing series of studies by Mayer focuses on design and usage characteristics for educational multimedia that can optimize impact on student achievement.
Recent Developments in Hypermedia Systems
Three trends in hypermedia system use in education are evident:
* The "vanishing videodisc" - It is one of the more unfortunate developments in educational technology that videodisc technology has all but disappeared from the technology landscape, taking with it the rich array of classroom resources that were developed for this easy-to-use format.
* Convergence of offline (disc) and online (Internet) development - Much of hypermedia either has embedded Internet links, of has been uploaded to the internet after development.
* Increasing ease of use - Hypermedia development use to be a fairly technical enterprise.
Commercial Hypermedia Software Packages
Background on Commercial Hypermedia Software Packages
* The increased storage capability and availability of CD and DVD media has made it easier to store complex programs with motion graphics, movies, audio, and links to the Internet.
Instructional Software
Hypermedia features have increased the capability and value of these programs. For example:
* Tutorials
* Drill and practice
* Simulations
* Instructional games
* Problem solving
Interactive Books and ebooks
* Two kinds of interactive books are currently available: interactive storybooks and interactive texts.
* The first type target primarily younger students, while the second are most often used by older students and adult learners.
*ebooks have become a valuable resource for students and teachers alike, since they offer more flexibility than print texts.
Reference Materials
* Many reference materials are available on CD and DVD at very reasonable costs.
* Some materials have internet links to still more material. Below are just a few of the categories and examples titles.
* Encyclopedias
* Almanacs
* Atlases
* Newspapers and newsletters
* Proceedings and other conference materials
* Some new commercial multimedia products combine instructional software functions with a set of reference materials to create a multifaceted product that can meet a variety of educational needs.
Collections of Development Resources
* Many collections of resources used to develop multimedia are now shipped on CD-ROM.
* These include collections of clip art, sound effects, photographs, video clips, fonts, and document templates.
Evaluating Commercial Hypermedia Products
* Because so many hypermedia products are on the market, teachers must become savvy consumers of these materials.
* Instructional planning and support
* Instructional design
* Content
* Interface design and navigation
* Feedback and interactivity
Integration Strategies for Commercial Hypermedia Products
* Because products om this category vary so widely, instructional uses for them are also varied and rich.
Introduction to Multimedia and Hypermedia Authoring
* One of the most amazing things about how multimedia and hypermedia systems have evolved is that people with fairly nontechnical skill level now can develop their own complex, professional-looking hypermedia products.
Four kinds of multimedia/hypermedia authoring tools for use by both teachers and students are described in this chapter. These are listed here and their uses and sample products are given later in various figures as the following types are discussed:
* Presentation software,
* Video production and editing systems,
* Hypermedia authoring software, and
* Virtual reality systems and other information tools.
The various skills and resources that students and teachers will need in order to use any of these four categories of authoring tools are described here.
Multimedia and Hypermedia Authoring Resources
* Over time, multimedia/hypermedia programs have become increasingly more powerful and user friendly, and features and capabilities are being added with every new version released.
* Authors now can draw on a wide variety of resources to put a full range of sound and motion in their multimedia/hypermedia products.
* Audio Resources. Hypermedia authoring programs offer users a number of ways to incorporate audio clips.
* Video Resources. Motion video clips can add a whole new dimension to a program and provide authors with many new communication possibilities.
* Photos. As in other settings, in hypermedia a picture is worth a thousand words.
* Graphic images. Graphic elements, drawings, and animations offer other tools for authors to communicate their ideas.
Hardware Requirements for Hypermedia Authoring
* Although hypermedia authoring can be accomplished with a fairly minimal computer system, more complex products require additional hardware and software capabilities.
* Computer with keyboard and monitor
* Digital cameras
* Scanners
* Video digitizers
* Camcorders and other video input
* Microphones
* Audio speakers
Hypermedia Authoring Procedures
* Whether teachers are developing their own skills or those of their students, the hypermedia authoring process involves two distinct phases.
* Initially, authors need to learn the mechanics of the programs and develop their understanding of the concept of hypermedia.
* Review others' products - an effective way of developing authoring skills for beginners is to look at what others have done.
* Done research first - most hypermedia development projects require research to locate materials and data, analyze the findings, and summarize them in a format for use in the hypermedia product.
* Storyboard - storyboarding helps students make better use of their time.
* Develop individual frames and segments - in the case of hypermedia products with authoring software, students should develop each frame, including text fields, before adding links or graphics.
* Add links and/or scripts - for software-authored products, links or "buttons" should be added last.
* Test and revise the product - after it is drafted, students should test their products, preferably with the help of others who have been involved in its development.
Authoring Skills to Develop over Time
* The beauty of hypermedia authoring is that students can create products with skills that range from basic to extraordinarily complex and sophisticated.
* Media literacy
* Using msuic and art
* Print design principle
* Video design principles
* Creativity and novel thinking
* Considering the audience
Evaluating Student-Developed Hypermedia
* When students create thier own myltimedia/hypermedia products Dipinto and Turner (1995) suggest that student self-assessment of hypermedia projects may be the most important component of the assessment process.
* Several authors have developed criteria and rubrics for assessing the quality of students hypermedia products.
Multimedia Authoring Tools Type 1: Presentation Software
Introduction to Presentation Software
* Presentation software tools help users create on-screen descriptions, demonstrations, and summaries of information.
* An example of a technology that migrated from business and industry to educatioon, these tools were first adopted by business executives and salepeople who used them to give reports at meetings and presentations to clients.
* Presentation tools began exclusively as electronic slide shows, or sequences of frames shown in a linear way.
* Presentation software also allows authors to include graphics of all kinds, audio and video clips, and internet links.
Integration Strategies for Presentation Software
* Because it is readily available and relatively easy to use, powerpoint software is often the multimedia tool of choice for classroom use.
* Support for lectures or presentations of content - by far the most popular use of these tools is for supporting classroom presentations.
* Practice screens - many teachers set up presentations of spelling or vocabulary words or objects to identify (e.g., lab equipment, famous names or places) to run automatically in the classroom, knowing that students' eyes are drawn to the moving slides.
* Assessment screens - when teachers need students to identify pictures of items (e.g., lab equipment, famous people), powerpoint screens can enable visual assessment strategies.
* Brief tutorials - teachers can create powerpoint reviews of simple concepts (e.g., grammar rules) or "how-to" procedures (e.g., a lab procedure) so that students can review these on their own to make up work of to prepare for tests.
* Book reports - instead of presenting book reports verbally or as written summaries, it is becoming increasingly common or students to report on their reading through powerpoint slideshows.
* Student-created presentations - as technology integration ideas 6.2 and 6.3 illustrate, the most powerful strategy for presentation multimedia is for students to create individual or small-group presentations to document and display the results of their research and/or to practice making persuasive presentations.
Multimedia Authoring Tools Type 2: Video Production and Editing Systems
Induction to Video Production and Editing Systems
* Video editing sotware is to motion images what word processing is to text. The next decade likely will see an explosionin video editing and production to rival the rapid increase in word processing of documents.
* Video can be brought into a computer from a source such as a comcorder and changed into digtial format [Audio Video Interleave (AVI) format or Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) format], or it may be transferred in digital form from a digital camera.
Integration Strategies for Video Production and Editing Systems
* Students and teachers are using computer-based video production and editing systems for a variety of purposes ranging from presenting the daily school news to teaching professional-grade video production skills.
* Demonstrations of procedures - for frequently repeated activities, for example, procedures for science experiments, teachers can film themselves or others completing the steps.
* Student-created presentations - Although students can produce a video as a way of documenting their research findings, as they do with powerpoint presentations, they often create videos that illustrate real-life examples of concepts they have learned (e.g., showing how algebra applies to everyday situations) or document conditions they want to bring to light (e.g., social issues in their community).
* Video lectures - teachers can take video of themselves or other experts explaining key concepts.
* Video portfolios - students portfolios have become more common for assessment purposes, and video systems have assumed a central role in portfolio development.
* Video decision-making/problem-solving simulations - this strategy was made popular with the adventures of jasper woodbury videodiscs.
* Documenting of school activities - many middle and secondary schools use video cameras and video editing software to produce a daily news show or morning annoucements.
* Visual literacy instruction - now that video is playing a greater role in our society, visual literacy is a requirement.
* Teaching of video production - technology education labs usually feature video production as one of the required learning stations.
Multimedia Authoring Tool Type 3: Hypermedia Software
Introduction to Hypermedia Software Tools
* In the late 1980s, early hypermedia authoring programs inclued HyperCard for Macintosh, LinkWay for MS-DOS machines, and TutorTech for Apple II computers.
Integration Strategies for Hypermedia Authoring Software
* Multimedia and Hypermedia development projects are taking the place of many traditional activities to accomplish the same purposes.
* Brief tutorials - both teachers and students can create multimedia instructional sequences that step the user through the components of a subject.
* Student-created presentations - scholten and Whitmer (1996), Bennett and Diener (1997), and Stuhlmann (1997) point out that hypermedia presentations not only let studnets present their fndings attractively and with impact.
* Interactive storybooks - Frederickson (1997) describes a use that builds on the book report purpose.
Multimedia Authoring Tools Type 4: Virtual Reality and Other Immersion
Introduction to Virtual Reality and Other Immersion Tools
* Once only dreamed of in science fiction, some types of virtual reality (VR) are now seen frequently in classrooms.
* Through various visual and tactile devices, VR can represent real or imaginary worlds in which the user interacts through multiple senses: a true multimedia environment.
*Full immersion systems - though not often used in education, this is what people usually envision when they think of VR.
* In full immersion systems, the user places a headset (e.g., goggles or a helmet) over the eyes.
* Web-based VR - this kind of VR is made possible by Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) and Extensible Mark-up Language (XML).
*3-D models - these are made possible with sophisticated software that creates three-dimensional replicas of objects or locations.
* QuickTime VR (QTVR)- made possible by QuickTimeVRAuthoring Studio from Apple Computer, this type of VR is easy to access using the standard QuickTime player available free from Apple Computer, but requires much less effort to create than immersion systems, VRML, or 3-D models.
Integration Strategies for Virtual Reality and Other Immersion Tools
* Though not as common as other forms of hypermedia, VR is gaining interest for some instructional needs.
* Imaging for virtual field trips - perhaps the most common VR application is QuickTime VR panoramas created and used for virtual field trips.
* 3-D models to illustrate how systems work - although still limited to more technical topics in mathematics and science.
* Immersion learning environments for practice and exploration - full immersion systems are usually limited to university settings, but they have seen fairly extensive use in special education as a way to allow students to practice skills in a realistic, but safe, setting.
Chapter 5: Teaching with Software Tools: Beyond the Basic Programs
Introduction to Other Software Support Tools
Why Use Software Support Tools?
* The basic three that is the most widely used software support tools are: word processing, spreadsheet, and database programs. However, many other software tools are available to support teachers' and students' work. These tools vary greatly in their purposes, the kinds of benefits they offer, and their utility for teachers.
* Each software tool described in this chapter has unique and powerful features, but each requires additional classroom resources and time to learn and to implement. Teachers should choose them for the qualities and benefits they bring to the classroom, rather than simply because they are available.
Types of Software Support tools
* Materials generators - help teachers and students produce instructional materials.
* Data collection and analysis tools - help teachers collect and organize information that indicates student progress.
* Graphics tools - allow manipulation of images to illusrate documents and web pages.
* Planning and organizing tools - help teachers and students conceptualize, organize, and communicate thier ideas.
* Research and reference tools - let students look up information in electronic versions of encyclopedias, altases, and dictionaries.
* Content-area tools - support teaching and learning activities in various content areas.
Recent Developments in Software Support Tools
* Most of the following recent developments have made these tools even more useful in the classroom.
PDA tools - (Personal Digital Assistant, handheld computer) This portable format increases accessibility and flexibility of use for both teachers and students.
Web-connectivity features - This makes it easier to connect documents to web page resources that embellish or add to the document's content.
Software suites - One of the most popular of the software tool suites is desktop publishing software, which is being packaged with graphic software tools that work well with it and allow faster, more full-featured design of print or web pages.
Using Materials Generators
* Materials generators include desktop publishing software, test generators and rubic generators, worksheet and puzzle generators, IEP generators, graphic document makers, and PDF and forms makers.
Desktop Publishing Software
Definitions: Desktop publishing versus desktop publishing software.
* It is perhaps ironic that one of the most useful and widely of the technology tools is one that communicates information in a traditional medium: the printed page.
* This control over the form and appearance of the printed page is the defining quality of desktop publishing, a term coined in 1984 by Paul Brainerd, founder of the Aldus Corporation, to mean using a combination of software, microcomputers, and printers to allow individuals to be their own publishers.
* The more advanced layout features offered by desktop publishing software (e.g., elaborate layering of text and graphics elements) are needed only if the teacher is teaching students how to design and lay out large, complex documents such as newspapers and books.
Making the most of desktop publishing software: Skills and resources.
* Like other technology tools, desktop publishing is most effective if the user knows something about the activity before applying the tool.
* However, even with this in mind, teachers and students need not be professional designers to create useful desktop publishing products, and their skills will improve with practice.
Example classroom applications.
* Desktop publishing software can be used for many of the same classroom activities and products as word processing software.
* Desktop publishing is the tool of choice, however, to produce elaborate, graphic-oriented documents (e.g. flyers and posters, brochures, newletters and magazines, and books and booklets), and teachers can structure some highly motivating classroom projects around these products.
Practice in grammar, spelling, and communication
Methods of reporting research findings
Opportunities for creative work
Test Generators and Rubic Generators
* Software tools help teachers with what many consider one of the most onerous and time-consuming instructional tasks: producing tests and other assessments.
* Test generators - to create and enter questions, and then have the program prepare the test.
* Test creation and revision procedures - software produces tests in a standard layout
* Random generation of questions - test items are selected randomly from an item pool to create different versions.
* Selection of questions based on criteria - Programs usually allow teachers to specify criteria for generating a test.
* Answer keys - most programs automatically provide an answer key at the time the test is generated.
* Test item banks - many test generators allow use of existing question pools, or test item banks, and some offer these banks for purchase in various content areas.
Online rubic generators.
* The popularity of rubrics has grown to such an extent that several internet sites offer free rubric generators.
Worksheet and puzzle generators
* Worksheet generators help teachers produce exercises for practice rather than tests.
Puzzle generators automatically format and create crosswords, word search puzzles, and similar game-like activities.
Common uses of worksheet and puzzle generators include:
* Practice for lower level skills such as math facts.
* Cloze exercises (fill-in-the-blank comprehension checks), and
* Exercises to review words and definitions.
Individualized Education Program (IEP)
* Education is placing increasing emphasis on school and teacher accountability.
* Some IEP generation programs also accept data updates on each student's progress, thus helping teachers with required record keeping as well as IEP preparation.
Graphic Document Makers
* Graphic Document Makers are software tools that simplify the activity of making highly graphic materials such as awards certificates and greeting cards.
PDF and Forms Makers
Portable Document Format (PDF) file software was created by the Adobe company to permit viewing and sending of documents as images.
Formatting even the simplest form can be time consuming on a word processor.
Using Data Collection and Analysis Tools
* Data collection and analysis tools inculde electronic gradebooks, statistical packages, student information systems, online and computere-based testing systems, and student response systems.
Electronic Gradebooks
* An electronic gradebook (electronic grade-keeping) program allows a teacher to enter student names, test/assignment names, data from tests, and weighting information for specific test scores.
* Some gradebooks even offer limited-purpose word processing capabilities to enter notes about tests.
Statistical Packages
* Statistical Software Packages can also help with qualitative data collection and analysis of student performance of tests.
Statistical software packages perform the calculations involved in any of these kinds of procedures.
Student Information Systems
* Student Information systems (SIS) are networked software systems that help educators keep track of student, class and school data (e.g. attendance, test scores) to maintain records and support decision making.
* Computer-Managed Instruction (CMI) systems, such as the Teaching Information Processing System (TIPS) and the Program for Learning in Accordance with Needs (PLAN), ran on large, mainframe computers and were designed to support teachers in these efforts.
Computer-Based Testing Systems
* With testing systems, tests can also be shorter, since the software assesses each person's ability level with fever questions.
Student Response Systems
* Are a combination of handheld hardware and software that permit each student in the classroom to answer a question stimultaneously and permit the teacher to see and display a summary of results immediately.
Using Graphic Tools
* Graphic Tools include draw/paint programs; image editing tools; charting/graphing tools; and clip art, photo, animation, sound, video, and font collections.
Lesson Planning Software
* Most teachers do not rely heavily on written lesson plans to guide their teaching activities.
Schedulaing and Time Management Tools
* Several kinds of tools have been designed to help teachers organize their time and plan their activities.
* Schedule makers help formulate plans for daily, weekly, or monthly sequences of appointments and events.
Using Research and Reference Tools
Research and reference tools include electronic versions of the following tools: encylopedias, atlases and mapping tools, and dictionaries and thesauruses.
Using Tools to Support Specific Content Areas
Content-area tools include CAD systems; music tools such as music editors, sequences, and MIDI tools; reading tools; microcomputer-based labs, graphing calculators, and calculator-based labs; and Geographic Information Systems and the Global Positioning System.
Why Use Software Support Tools?
* The basic three that is the most widely used software support tools are: word processing, spreadsheet, and database programs. However, many other software tools are available to support teachers' and students' work. These tools vary greatly in their purposes, the kinds of benefits they offer, and their utility for teachers.
* Each software tool described in this chapter has unique and powerful features, but each requires additional classroom resources and time to learn and to implement. Teachers should choose them for the qualities and benefits they bring to the classroom, rather than simply because they are available.
Types of Software Support tools
* Materials generators - help teachers and students produce instructional materials.
* Data collection and analysis tools - help teachers collect and organize information that indicates student progress.
* Graphics tools - allow manipulation of images to illusrate documents and web pages.
* Planning and organizing tools - help teachers and students conceptualize, organize, and communicate thier ideas.
* Research and reference tools - let students look up information in electronic versions of encyclopedias, altases, and dictionaries.
* Content-area tools - support teaching and learning activities in various content areas.
Recent Developments in Software Support Tools
* Most of the following recent developments have made these tools even more useful in the classroom.
PDA tools - (Personal Digital Assistant, handheld computer) This portable format increases accessibility and flexibility of use for both teachers and students.
Web-connectivity features - This makes it easier to connect documents to web page resources that embellish or add to the document's content.
Software suites - One of the most popular of the software tool suites is desktop publishing software, which is being packaged with graphic software tools that work well with it and allow faster, more full-featured design of print or web pages.
Using Materials Generators
* Materials generators include desktop publishing software, test generators and rubic generators, worksheet and puzzle generators, IEP generators, graphic document makers, and PDF and forms makers.
Desktop Publishing Software
Definitions: Desktop publishing versus desktop publishing software.
* It is perhaps ironic that one of the most useful and widely of the technology tools is one that communicates information in a traditional medium: the printed page.
* This control over the form and appearance of the printed page is the defining quality of desktop publishing, a term coined in 1984 by Paul Brainerd, founder of the Aldus Corporation, to mean using a combination of software, microcomputers, and printers to allow individuals to be their own publishers.
* The more advanced layout features offered by desktop publishing software (e.g., elaborate layering of text and graphics elements) are needed only if the teacher is teaching students how to design and lay out large, complex documents such as newspapers and books.
Making the most of desktop publishing software: Skills and resources.
* Like other technology tools, desktop publishing is most effective if the user knows something about the activity before applying the tool.
* However, even with this in mind, teachers and students need not be professional designers to create useful desktop publishing products, and their skills will improve with practice.
Example classroom applications.
* Desktop publishing software can be used for many of the same classroom activities and products as word processing software.
* Desktop publishing is the tool of choice, however, to produce elaborate, graphic-oriented documents (e.g. flyers and posters, brochures, newletters and magazines, and books and booklets), and teachers can structure some highly motivating classroom projects around these products.
Practice in grammar, spelling, and communication
Methods of reporting research findings
Opportunities for creative work
Test Generators and Rubic Generators
* Software tools help teachers with what many consider one of the most onerous and time-consuming instructional tasks: producing tests and other assessments.
* Test generators - to create and enter questions, and then have the program prepare the test.
* Test creation and revision procedures - software produces tests in a standard layout
* Random generation of questions - test items are selected randomly from an item pool to create different versions.
* Selection of questions based on criteria - Programs usually allow teachers to specify criteria for generating a test.
* Answer keys - most programs automatically provide an answer key at the time the test is generated.
* Test item banks - many test generators allow use of existing question pools, or test item banks, and some offer these banks for purchase in various content areas.
Online rubic generators.
* The popularity of rubrics has grown to such an extent that several internet sites offer free rubric generators.
Worksheet and puzzle generators
* Worksheet generators help teachers produce exercises for practice rather than tests.
Puzzle generators automatically format and create crosswords, word search puzzles, and similar game-like activities.
Common uses of worksheet and puzzle generators include:
* Practice for lower level skills such as math facts.
* Cloze exercises (fill-in-the-blank comprehension checks), and
* Exercises to review words and definitions.
Individualized Education Program (IEP)
* Education is placing increasing emphasis on school and teacher accountability.
* Some IEP generation programs also accept data updates on each student's progress, thus helping teachers with required record keeping as well as IEP preparation.
Graphic Document Makers
* Graphic Document Makers are software tools that simplify the activity of making highly graphic materials such as awards certificates and greeting cards.
PDF and Forms Makers
Portable Document Format (PDF) file software was created by the Adobe company to permit viewing and sending of documents as images.
Formatting even the simplest form can be time consuming on a word processor.
Using Data Collection and Analysis Tools
* Data collection and analysis tools inculde electronic gradebooks, statistical packages, student information systems, online and computere-based testing systems, and student response systems.
Electronic Gradebooks
* An electronic gradebook (electronic grade-keeping) program allows a teacher to enter student names, test/assignment names, data from tests, and weighting information for specific test scores.
* Some gradebooks even offer limited-purpose word processing capabilities to enter notes about tests.
Statistical Packages
* Statistical Software Packages can also help with qualitative data collection and analysis of student performance of tests.
Statistical software packages perform the calculations involved in any of these kinds of procedures.
Student Information Systems
* Student Information systems (SIS) are networked software systems that help educators keep track of student, class and school data (e.g. attendance, test scores) to maintain records and support decision making.
* Computer-Managed Instruction (CMI) systems, such as the Teaching Information Processing System (TIPS) and the Program for Learning in Accordance with Needs (PLAN), ran on large, mainframe computers and were designed to support teachers in these efforts.
Computer-Based Testing Systems
* With testing systems, tests can also be shorter, since the software assesses each person's ability level with fever questions.
Student Response Systems
* Are a combination of handheld hardware and software that permit each student in the classroom to answer a question stimultaneously and permit the teacher to see and display a summary of results immediately.
Using Graphic Tools
* Graphic Tools include draw/paint programs; image editing tools; charting/graphing tools; and clip art, photo, animation, sound, video, and font collections.
Lesson Planning Software
* Most teachers do not rely heavily on written lesson plans to guide their teaching activities.
Schedulaing and Time Management Tools
* Several kinds of tools have been designed to help teachers organize their time and plan their activities.
* Schedule makers help formulate plans for daily, weekly, or monthly sequences of appointments and events.
Using Research and Reference Tools
Research and reference tools include electronic versions of the following tools: encylopedias, atlases and mapping tools, and dictionaries and thesauruses.
Using Tools to Support Specific Content Areas
Content-area tools include CAD systems; music tools such as music editors, sequences, and MIDI tools; reading tools; microcomputer-based labs, graphing calculators, and calculator-based labs; and Geographic Information Systems and the Global Positioning System.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
(Coming of Age: an introduction to a new world wide web) Web2.0pdf
Featuring case studies and how-to articles by leading practitioners in
the world of education. By: Terry Freedman (Ed)
the world of education. By: Terry Freedman (Ed)
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