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Chapter 12

The Internet: Moving Toward Web-Based Learning Environments

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How to Read This Chapter

• I have organized the chapter around several themes: student experiences using the Internet—a collection of activity structures describing different ways the Internet can be used in the classroom; telecommunications projects and student inquiry—case studies and examples of Internet-based projects that involve students in authentic inquiry and social action; Internet-based science activities – the nuts and bolts of designing web-based science activities. You can start your exploration at any one of these three points. If you are interested in finding out how you can use the Web creatively, you might want to start with the student’s experiences section. On the other hand if you are interested in involving students in collaborative inquiry projects, look at the section on telecommunications. If you are interested in designing online learning experiences you might want to start with the last section of the chapter.

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Invitations to Inquiry

• What is the nature of an online classroom?• What kinds of student’s experiences using the Internet will lead to the

active construction of science knowledge?• How can the Internet be used to foster student inquiry, creative

activity and problem solving?• How can collaboration and research investigations lead to socially

responsible actions at the local and the global levels?• What principles from research should affect the use of the Internet and

related technology resources in the science classroom?• What design elements foster the integration of the Internet resources in

classroom instruction?• How would you design or select Internet-based science activities for

the science classroom?

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Chapter 12 Map

Chapter 12The Internet

Creating a Web-Based

Class

Web-Based Tools

Telecommunications Projects & Inquiry

Web-Based Activities

Interpersonal Information Collections

Problem Solving

Inquiry 12.1:

Designing Activities

Case Study: Global Lab Inquiry

Activity 12.2:

Network Science

Inquiry Activity

12.3: Designing a Web-Based

Activity

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Inquiry Activity 12.1: Designing Web-Based Science Activities

• In this inquiry you will become familiar with 8 web-based tools, anyone of which you can use to design a web-based science activity.

• Read through the tools that are listed in Table 12.1 (you’ll find details on each one on pages 443-447.

• Identify an STS or science inquiry goal and design a web-based activity using one or more of the Web-based tools.

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WEB-BASED TOOLS

Interpersonal Exchange

Information Collections

Problem Solving

Key Pals Online Discussions

Telementoring

Pooled-Data

Analysis

Tele-field trips

Net Publishing

Social Action

Projects

Virtual Classroom

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Web-Based Tools

WEB-BASED TOOLS

Interpersonal Exchange

Information Collections

Problem Solving

Key Pals Online Discussions

Telementoring

Pooled-Data

Analysis

Tele-field trips

Net Publishing

Social Action

Projects

Virtual Classroom

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The following slides present informationabout these web-based tools

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Interpersonal Exchange Web Tools

• Interpersonal Exchange tools bring people together for sharing, asking questions, discussions and problem solving. Three structures or tools do this:

• Keypals & Global Classrooms

• Online Discussions and Chats

• Telementoring (Experts and Question-and-Answer Services

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The web enables students and teachers fromaround the world to establish global classroomsfor interpersonal exchanges. Shown here are schools that participated in global project. Students used email (keypals) to communicate.

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Keypals and Global Classrooms

• Students can send email to each other, to a bulletin board, or a list.

• What kinds of activities could this structure support?

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Telmentoring--Experts and Question-and-Answer Services

• Bringing experts into the classroom can be facilitated by using an “ask-an-expert” site, such as the Pitsco site shown here.

• Design an activity for a middle school life science or high biology class that makes use of this site. Augment your research by contacting the Scientific American Ask the Experts site.

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Information Collections and Resource Web Tools

• Two types of structures are presented here:– Pooled Data Analysis

(Network science)--students collaborating and generating information and knowledge

– Virtual Field Trips--students collaborating with experts, museums to make use of information on the web to construct knowledge

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Citizens in the Cleveland, Ohio areapooled data to learn about the qualityof the air by monitoring ground-levelozone at the sites shown on the map.

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Pooled Data Analysis Network Science

• This structure involves students not only in science inquiry, but it also helps students get involved in social action projects.

• Students pool data with cooperating classrooms, and use the data to draw conclusions, and take action on a relevant issue, such as the quality of the air, watershed quality, soil properties, and so forth.

• Identify four to six topics that you would want to involve your students in with other schools.

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Pooled Data AnalysisPooled Data Analysis

• Identify phenomena• Schedule observations• Share Data• Analyze results• Publish conclusions

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Pooling data at the global level

Pooling data at the local level

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Virtual Field Trips

• Instead of actually taking students on a field trip, say, to a stream, virtual field trips take you on a trip via the Internet…to a museum, or along with a scientist and her team of researchers.

• Design an virtual field trip to one of your favorite online museums. What activities will you develop to engage the students? You might check the activity in the Art of Teaching Science, p. 446, which is designed for groups of students to evaluate their favorite online museum. How could this activity help you design your own?

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Problem Solving Web Tools

• The web can be used to help students become problem solvers. Three structures are presented here. How are they different?– Net Publishing---have the

students be the publishers– Social Action Projects--have

students identify the social issues they want to work on

– The Virtual or Online Classroom---especially for teachers to develop an full-fledged or “hybrid” online course.

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Social Action ProjectsSocial Action Projects

• Endangered species• Air, water and soil

pollution• Population growth• Sustainable

development• Food and nutrition• Poverty and hunger

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Visit the IEARN website to explorethe wide range of social actionprojects designed by teachers aroundthe world. A few are listed here.

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The Hybrid Virtual Classroom

• The hybrid approach to a virtual classroom combines online and face-to-face activities.

• What elements of your course would you put online in a hybrid variety. You might want to refer to Table 12.2.

• Several online managements systems can support your work. I’ve included three in the text. How are they different?

– Blackboard– Nicenet– WebCt

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Nicenet is a free online managementservice which allows you to organize elements of your course online. The next few slides show some of its potential.

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To open an account got to Nicenet and click on “create a class.”

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Home page

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Home for an Honors Chemistry course. Note theOnline elements, conferencing, link sharing, etc.

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This screen shows the conferencing page, whereYou can conduct online discussions among your class.

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Link sharing or Internet resources page in which You can build a “hotlist” (see ahead) of the sitesYou want your students to use in your course.

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Inquiry Activity 12.2: Network Science---Exploring online projects

• In this inquiry you will investigate four network science projects:

– Global Thinking Project

– GLOBE

– Hands-On-Universe

– Journey North

• Use the jigsaw cooperative learning method and divide the work up in your class to research these projects.

• How do these projects contribute to the students public understanding of science?

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Two Russian students sitting on The bank of a stream in the state of Georgia monitoring the quality of the water and sharing it withothers in their network project.

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Key Principles: Network Science

• The Internet should be used to broaden the context of locally grounded inquiry.

• The classroom, not the online community, should be the primary learning environment.

• Teachers and students should have multiple entry points for using the technology and the curriculum.

• Students should be helped to find productive Internet resources.

• The data the project produces should be used to deepen student inquiries.

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American and Russian teachers atA conference to discuss how to Improve the implementation of Network science projects.

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Web-Based Science ActivitiesHotlist Scrapbook Hunt Sampler

Purpose A collectionof linksrelated toyour onlinecourse.

A collectionof Internetsitesorganizedaroundspecificcategoriessuch as,photographs,maps,stories,facts,quotations,sound clips,videos,virtualreality tours

To helpstudentsconstructknowledgebased onseveralinquiryquestionsand relatedsites.

Designedto impacttheattitudesofstudentson asciencetopic.

Structure The linksshould beorganizedintosubcategoriesbased on thecontent ofyour course.

Studentsmake use ofthecollection touse thescraps tocreate anewsletter, aWebpage ora digitalpresentation.

The huntisorganizedintoinquiryquestions,Webresources(pages,images,sounds,

Four orfiveWebsitesareidentified.For eachsite, twoor threeinquiryquestionsguide the

• Using Web Resources

• Use the resources of the web to create four types of online resources for your students:

– The Hotlist

– Scrapbook

– Hunt

– Sampler

• Develop a hotlist for an area of science and put it on the web as a webpage and have peers review it.

• Under what situations would you use a scrapbook, hunt or sampler?

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Sample Lesson 12.1: Mission to the Blue Planet

• This a lesson developed using the constructivist Web-based Lesson model (Table 12.6). You can go to an online version of the lesson as well as view the one in the Art of Teaching Science.

• What are some topics you are considering to develop online lessons?

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Investigating Impact Craters

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Mission to the Blue Planet: a hands on component

• Hands-on inquiry should be part of online activities. Here you see an aluminum cake pan filled with flour. Small objects (rocks, marbles) are dropped into the flour to simulate asteroids hitting the surface of a planet to study impact craters, one of the phenomena studied in the Mission to the Blue Planet.

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Webquests

• Webquests are inquiry-based activities in which most of the resources are located on the Internet. Webquests should focus on knowledge acquisition and integration thus supporting a constructivist approach to learning.. At the Webquest site, you will find training materials to help you construct Webquests. – B. Dodge developed the

concept of a Webquest. See the Webquest site at: http://webquest.sdsu.edu/webquest.html

– Use the template shown here to design Webquest activities.

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Inquiry Activity 12.3: Designing a Web-Based Activity

• In this activity you will design a constructivist web-based activity.

• Select goals from the NSES to form the focus of your activity.

• Use the model lesson (12.1) and the information on each phase (Table 12.6) to develop your activity.

• Drop your activity into your website. Ask peers to review it; then try it out with students.

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Web 101 is a collection of web-based activities that I’ve “collected” from theweb. Take look, and use as models oractual activities in your class.

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Problems and Extension• Prepare a Web-based lesson using one of the

following Web-based tools: key pals, online discussions, chat, tele-mentoring, pooled data analysis, tale-field trip or social action project. Include the goals for the lesson, and how students would be active learners in the lesson.

• Discuss the implications of using the Web to make your teaching environment a “global classroom.” What do you think will be the outcomes and benefits for your students, and colleagues?

• Locate a science museum on the Web, and design a tele-field trip using the museum as the basis for your project.

• Design a pooled data analysis project for a group of middle or high school students in any content area of science. Visit some of the examples of pooled data analysis projects identified in the chapter. After studying these projects, outline a new project by working with a group of peers. Share the project by putting it on the Web, and presenting it to a group of peers.

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Science Teachers Talk

• How do you use technology (including the Internet) in your science lessons? Why do you, and what do you see as the benefits for your students?

• Find out what the following teachers say about these questions. How does it compare with your thinking:

– Rachel Zgonc (a first year teacher)– Ben Boza (Botzwana)– Carol Myronuk (Canada)– Barry Plant (Australia)– Tom Brown– Michael O’Brien (a first year

teacher)

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A web-based activity in action